Richard Behar

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Richard Behar
Behar congratulated by President George H.W. Bush upon receiving Worth Bingham Prize
Behar congratulated by President George H.W. Bush upon receiving Worth Bingham Prize
BornNew York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationInvestigative journalist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew York University
Notable awardsGerald Loeb Award, Conscience-in-Media Award, Worth Bingham Prize, George Polk Award, Overseas Press Club Award
Website
www.richardbehar.com

Richard Behar is an American investigative journalist. Since 2012, he has been the Contributing Editor of Investigations for Forbes magazine. From 1982 to 2004, he wrote on the staffs of Forbes, Time and Fortune. Behar's work has also been featured on BBC, CNN, PBS, FoxNews.com and Fast Company magazine. He coordinates Project Klebnikov, a media alliance to probe the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov. He is writing a book about Bernard Madoff.[1][2] Behar is co-founder and co-editor of The Mideast Reporter, described by historian Gil Troy as "the Mideast Politico.".[3] He is also the editor of Mideast Dig.[4]

Education and career

Behar was born to a Jewish family[5] in Manhattan and raised on Long Island.[6] He is a 1982 graduate of New York University. Before joining Time in 1989, he was a reporter and associate editor for Forbes magazine for six years. He has also worked at the New York Times as a researcher and writer. Behar reported extensively about organized crime and the business backgrounds of politicians for Time, for whom Behar wrote a 1993 cover story on the World Trade Center bombing.[citation needed]

In 1991, he wrote "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", a Time cover story on Scientology.[7] The acclaimed article won several awards.[8] The Church of Scientology brought several lawsuits over the article, all of which were eventually dismissed.[8] While investigating the story, he experienced some of Scientology's Fair Game tactics. He later learned that a copy of his personal credit report, containing detailed personal information, had been improperly obtained.[7]

A 2003 report by Behar in Fortune explored Donald Rumsfeld's role in helping North Korea build its potential Nuclear weapon capacity, in an article entitled "Rummy’s North Korea Connection: What Did Donald Rumsfeld Know About ABB’s Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors There? And Why Won’t He Talk About It?" Behar is the only known journalist to have read the classified Phoenix Memo, the infamous pre-9/11 FBI document which warned the FBI about Osama bin Laden supporters enrolling in flight-training schools across the country.[9] Reporting from Pakistan for Fortune magazine and CNN after 9-11, Behar’s “The Karachi Connection” broke ground by exposing a logistics leader of the 9-11 attacks—including his secret travels near the Afghanistan border just days before the terror attacks. A second article, "Kidnapped Nation" revealed how radical forces are undermining Pakistan's economy.

In October 2004, Behar left Time, Inc. to pursue book writing and various independent projects, including the launch of Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance investigating the July, 2004, murder of Paul Klebnikov, who was then the editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia. Behar also served on the advisory committee of New York University's business journalism Master's program (BER), and has long been reporting and writing a book about Bernard Madoff, to be published by Simon & Schuster.[1] The book was initially purchased by Random House.[2] In 2015, Behar co-wrote an article for The New York Observer that accused the Associated Press of improperly reporting civilian deaths in the 2015 Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.[citation needed]

Recognition

Behar has won more than 20 major journalism awards and honors for his reporting. Behar was included among the 100 best business journalists (the "100 luminaries") of the 20th century by the TJFR business journalism trade group. [citation needed] In 1999, columnist Jack Anderson called Behar "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs."[10]

Awards

Behar has won journalism awards, including:

  • Four awards in recognition of his 1991 story for Time about Scientology:
  1. Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism (1992)[8]
  2. Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (1992) "for singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost"[8][11]
  3. Worth Bingham Prize (1992)[8]
  4. Cult Awareness Network's Leo J. Ryan Award[12][13]
  • George Polk Award (twice): One for his 1995 story about the strong-arm tactics used by the Allstate Insurance Co. against its own employees; a second Polk for a 2008 story about China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa [14]
  • Business Journalist of the Year Award from the City of London Corporation for articles about counterfeiting in China and organized crime in Russia's aluminum industry [15]
  • Daniel Pearl Award for post-9/11 journalism [16]
  • 2002 Morton Frnak Award, Overseas Press Club for post-9/11 journalism in Pakistan[17][18]
  • 2008 Ed Cunningham Award, Overseas Press Club for China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa [19]
  • Jack Anderson Award (twice) for "Top Investigative Reporter of the Year" – 1997 and 1999
  • National Headliner Award, as a member of the CNN Investigation Team, for "outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath."
  • SAPA award (Society of Publishers in Asia) for best feature writing for an in-depth account of the royal family of Brunei
  • "Best of the Best" award in 2009 from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), for an article on China's business activities in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Fortune was awarded the National Magazine Award for public interest for two articles written by Behar on organized crime's influence in the garbage-hauling industry (1997) [20]
  • 2008 George Polk Award for articles in Fast Company
  • In 2013, finalist for a Loeb award for a Forbes magazine article about Hess Oil's Russian mob problem.

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Contributor: Richard Behar". Forbes.com.
  2. ^ a b Neyfakh, Leon (December 19, 2008). "Richard Abate on Building a Better Madoff Book". New York Observer. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
  3. ^ Gil Troy (November 3, 2015). "Most American Jews are standing with Israel dramatically, creatively, generously". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  4. ^ "The Mideast Dig website". The Mideast Dig. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  5. ^ Forbes: "There He Goes Again: Egypt's Morsi Stuns U.S. Senators In Meeting With 'Jews-Control-Media' Slur" by Richard Behar January 25, 2013 |"Next in the big-media batter’s box was the piece in Forbes, written by a fairly powerless Jew (me) who — it turns out — controls nothing at the magazine except this blog, just like hundreds of other journalists with blogs at Forbes and elsewhere."
  6. ^ Lindsay, Greg (July 9, 2008). "SO WHAT DO YOU DO, RICHARD BEHAR, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, FAST COMPANY?". Mediabistro. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  7. ^ a b Richard Behar, "Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes: Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam – and aiming for the mainstream", book rev. of "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, Time Magazine, May 6, 1991: 50, rpt. in cs.cmu.edu, accessed May 11, 2007. [Part of "Special Report (cover story)".]
  8. ^ a b c d e "Judge dismisses Church of Scientology's $416 million lawsuit against TIME Magazine". Time Magazine press release via Business Wire. July 16, 1996. Retrieved June 1, 2006.
  9. ^ Behar, Richard (May 22, 2002). "FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked". Fortune. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  10. ^ Richardbehar.com
  11. ^ Awards history at American Society of Journalists and Authors.
  12. ^ Behar, Richard (1992). "Richard Behar, acceptance speech, 1992 Leo J. Ryan award". (OLD) Cult Awareness Network conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  13. ^ Henderson, Bob (December 28, 1992). "Hubbard from Pinellas to Russia". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1.
  14. ^ http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/prev/prev90.html
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 29, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ http://www.danielpearl.com/news_and_press/press_releases/saja_awards.html
  17. ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/morton-frank-award-2002
  18. ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/2003-opc-award-winners
  19. ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/2008-opc-award-winners
  20. ^ http://www.magazine.org/Editorial/National_Magazine_Awards/Searchable_Database/

External links

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