Gerald Posner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerald Posner (2013)

Gerald Posner (born May 20, 1954 in San Francisco ) is a journalist and author of various books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993). The bestselling author was involved in several scandals due to plagiarism and falsified quotations or inventions. In 2010 he therefore lost his post with the online magazine " Daily Beast ".

Life

Posner was born in San Francisco as the only child of union official Jerry Posner and his wife Gloria. He graduated from St. Ignatius College (1972), the University of California, Berkeley (1975) and Hastings Law School (1978). He became a lawyer with Cravath, Swaine & Moore until he opened his own law firm with a partner in 1980. When his first book about the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele appeared, he gave up his legal practice. He is married to the journalist and author Trisha Posner.

Posner supported Al Gore in the 2000 election. After the 9/11 attack, however, he admitted in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that he had changed his mind about George W. Bush . In October 2006 he criticized Bush again, whom he called a bad, stubborn president.

Posner is a member of the board of the National Authors 'Union, a member of the Authors' Guild, the International PEN Club , the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and the Academic Association Phi Beta Kappa .

Posner wrote investigative articles for renowned newspapers and magazines ( The New York Times , The New Yorker , Vanity Fair , Miami Herald , London Telegraph , Newsweek , Time ) and appears frequently on television programs. Until 2010 he worked for the online magazine Daily Beast .

Publications

Case closed

In his 1993 book Case Closed (" Case Closed ") Posner advocates the thesis that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin in the murder of John F. Kennedy and that his killer Jack Ruby also acted as a lone perpetrator. The book was widely distributed and received largely positive reviews in the press. Historian Stephen Ambrose calls it a "role model for historical research", David Wise, a journalist who specializes in intelligence subjects, sees it as "the long-awaited, much-needed antidote to conspiracy theorists ". The English literary scholar Peter Knight speaks of “a powerful accusatory attack on the reports of a conspiracy”, the German historian Christof Mauch speaks of the “most empirically exact study of the JFK murder case”.

The book also met with vehement opposition. Critics noted a "massive number of factual errors". Posner corrected several of these errors and mistakes in a second edition of his book published in 1994. Posner was also charged with fabricating testimony. When the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) of the American Congress , which also dealt with the Kennedy assassination, questioned him about his findings in the late 1990s, Posner's alleged interview partners denied that he had ever spoken to him and denied the positions assigned to them to have represented. Despite promises, Posner did not hand over the notes for these interviews to the ARRB. It was also criticized for soliciting the failure analysis association (FAA), which provided scientific material for a 1992 mock trial conducted by the American Bar Association , for only the prosecution material, not the defense. Posner, however, stated that he had seen the defense material and found it to be inadequate.

Vincent Bugliosi , whose own book Reclaiming History largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, takes on a mediating position: on the one hand, he praises Posner's book as a “valuable contribution”, but also notes “omissions and distortions”. Nevertheless, he had "an impressive work".

Why America Slept

In the book Why America Slept , published in 2003, Posner deals with the conspiracy of the Arab al-Qaeda terrorists who are responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The book reached number two on the New York Times bestseller list .

Secrets of the Kingdom

In his 2005 book “Secrets of the Kingdom. Posner reports on the close business and personal relationships between the Saudi royal family and the US government, including discussions about radiological weapons and financial and political maneuvers regarding the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 play a role. The Saudis denied this (and forbade him and his wife - according to Posner - to enter Saudi Arabia); the Washington Post also expressed doubts.

Miami Babylon

The 2009 book Miami Babylon explores the history of Miami Beach and focuses on corruption , the luxury world, and the drug trade . Some of the people Posner interviewed for the book accused him of falsifying their statements.

Plagiarism, invention and falsification of quotations

Posner was the lead investigative reporter for the online magazine Daily Beast . In 2010 he had to stop working because of a plagiarism scandal.

Allegations of plagiarism were also raised with regard to his book Miami Babylon (October 2009). The Miami New Times newspaper accused him of falsifying quotations and provided evidence of such falsification. Posner cited sources for all of these examples, from which it could be established, however, that the quotations in Posner's version had either been seriously changed by him (e.g. he had added words that did not appear in the quotation) by the named person had not been spoken at all or were taken out of context.

Posner says he hired attorney Mark Lane to represent him in a trial against the Miami New Times that was one of the first to publicize reasonable doubts about the lone perpetrator in the Kennedy murder case. The newspaper's coverage of these incidents damaged his business relationships with his publishers and caused him psychological damage. Shortly thereafter, the Miami New Times published evidence of further plagiarism from a variety of sources in both Secrets of the Kingdom and Why America Slept . According to Posner, the media coverage of his journalistic misconduct was in fact the result of “concerted action” to discredit the revelations in his book Miami Babylon .

Works

  • Mengele: The Complete Story (1986)
  • Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies - The New Mafia. 1988.
  • Bio-assassins. (1989)
  • Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves. 1991, ISBN 0-394-58299-3 .
  • Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK . Random House , New York 1993, ISBN 0-679-41825-3 .
  • Citizen Perot: His Life and Times. 1996.
  • Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1998, ISBN 0-375-50082-0
  • Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11. 2003, ISBN 0-375-50879-1 .
  • Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power (Music of the Great Lakes). Random House, 2003, ISBN 0-375-50062-6
  • Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-US Connection. 2005, ISBN 1-4000-6291-8
  • Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power - A Dispatch From the Beach. 2009, ISBN 978-1-4165-7656-3
  • God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7657-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerald Posner RESIGNS From Daily Beast Over Plagiarism Scandal by Danny Shea, The Huffington Post , February 11, 2010.
  2. ↑ 3 Lessons from Gerald Posner's Plagiarism Scandal by John Hudson, The Atlantic Wire , February 12, 2010
  3. ↑ Plagiarism Excuses. Taking — he, borrowing — a page out of the Gerald Posner playbook. by David Graham, Newsweek , February 11, 2010
  4. ↑ Amid book scandal, authors Gerald Posner and Frank Owen confront each other at Miami Beach Botanical Garden by Steve Rothaus, Miami Herald , April 2010
  5. ^ I Was Wrong About Bush , The Wall Street Journal , Sept. 25, 2001.
  6. ↑ An Open Letter to the President
  7. ^ Vincent Bugliosi , Reclaiming History. The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , WWNorton, New York 2007, pp. Xxxvi
  8. ↑ Quoted in Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK , Random House, New York 1993, cover
  9. ^ Peter Knight, The Kennedy Assassination , Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2007, p. 35.
  10. ↑ Christof Mauch, The 101 Most Important Questions. American history , Beck, Munich 2008, p. 130.
  11. ↑ David R. Wrone , Review of Gerald Posner, Case Closed. In: Journal of Southern History 6 (1995), pp. 186-188 (here the quote).
  12. ^ John Newman, Case Closed doesn't close the Oswald file , in: The Baltimore Sun, September 22, 1993
  13. ^ Harold Weisberg, Case Open: The Omissions, Distortions and Falsifications of Case Closed , Carroll and Graf, New York 1994
  14. ^ W. Tracy Parnell, The “Errors” of Case Closed: The Real Story , 2001
  15. ^ The effectiveness of Public Law 102-526, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992: hearing before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives November 17, 1993.
  16. ^ Transcript of Proceeding, Assassination Records Review Board. Medical Testimony of James Humes February 13, 1996.
  17. ^ Transcript of Proceeding, Assassination Records Review Board. Medical Testimony of J. Thorton Boswell. February 26, 1996.
  18. ^ Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board September, 1998.
  19. ^ R. Andrew Kiel: J. Edgar Hoover. The father of the Cold War. How his obsession with communism led to the Warren Commission coverup and escalation of the Vietnam War. University Press of America, Lanham 2000, p. 318.
  20. ^ W. Tracy Parnell: Fetzer, Posner and the McCarthy Affidavit. 2001.
  21. ^ Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History , Introduction, pp. Xxxviii
  22. ↑ With Friends Like These , by Thomas Lippman, Washington Post , May 29, 2005
  23. ↑ Miami Babylon backlash, backstabbing and bitchery by Lesley Abravanel, "Miami Herald," October 14, 2009.
  24. ^ Sergio R. Bustos: Gerald Posner resigns from Daily Beast amid plagiarism allegations . Miamiherald.com. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  25. ^ Jack Shafer: Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine . Slate.com. February 5, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  26. ↑ More Posner Plagiarism , by Jack Shafer, Slate magazine , February 8, 2010.
  27. ^ Daily Beast lifts from Salon - again by Joan Walsh. April 1, 2010.
  28. ↑ Gerald Posner Plagiarized Several Passages in Miami Babylon, Author Says , by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times , March 16, 2010.
  29. ↑ a b Gerald Posner plagiarized New Times, PBS, and many others , by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times , March 30, 2010.
  30. ↑ More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others , by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times , March 30, 2010.
  31. ^ Attorney Mark Lane Retained by Author Gerald Posner to Represent Him in Media Case , May 13, 2010.
  32. ↑ Gerald Posner Hires Rush to Judgment Author Mark Lane in Plagiarism Case , by Tim Elfrink, Miami New Times , May 13, 2010.
  33. ↑ Plagiarism Plagued Posner Hires Grassy Knoll Guru to Take On New Times , by Jessica Sick, “NBC Miami”, May 13, 2010.
  34. ↑ Gerald Posner Plagiarized in Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom, Research Shows , by Tim Elfrink, May 18, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Posner, Gerald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco