Robert Parry (journalist)

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Robert Parry (born June 24, 1949 in Hartford , Connecticut ; † January 27, 2018 ) was an American investigative journalist who lived in the United States in the mid-1980s through his work on the Iran-Contra affair for the Associated Press and Newsweek became known. During the Contra War in Nicaragua , he uncovered the CIA handbook Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare and was involved in exposing drug smuggling, which the CIA tolerated. In 1984 he received the George Polk Award in the "National Reporting" category. After Parry left his last job with a news magazine in 1990, he became a freelance editor of the online magazine Consortiumnews.com in 1995 .

Career

Parry has worked for the Associated Press since 1974 and in the Washington office since 1977 . After the US presidential election in 1980 he was assigned to the investigative reporting department, where he dealt with the subject of Central America .

In 1984 Parry received the George Polk Award for his work at the Associated Press on the Iran-Contra Affair, during which he uncovered the CIA's Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare assassination manual for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels . In 1985 he wrote his first article about the involvement of naval officer Oliver North in the affair and, together with his AP colleague Brian Barger, exposed the scandal surrounding the CIA-covered drug smuggling into the USA, which, according to Parry, led to Senator John Kerry's interest in the Investigation of the Iran-Contra affair contributed. Associate Press had initially refused to publish the drug smuggling issue but gave way after their Spanish agency accidentally published a translation. Barger and Parry continued their research on Oliver North, even after most of the media was no longer interested, and published the story in 1986. North then faced a congressional hearing . After North denied the allegations, Barger left AP and Parry said he was unable to publish anything there until 1996 when Eugene Hasenfus (Corporate Air Services HPF821) was shot down in Nicaragua. Parry joined Newsweek from AP in 1987 after discovering that "his manager had conferred with North regularly ." One of his first publications on Newsweek was about the United States National Security Council 's officials being asked by the US government to cover up parts of the Iran-Contra affair. Under great political and media pressure, Newsweek asked Parry to withdraw the story. Parry refused and left Newsweek in 1990.

In August 1990, Parry was commissioned by the PBS television magazine Frontline to work on a theory about indirect election manipulation in the 1980 US presidential election . Parry created several documentary contributions that were broadcast in 1991 and 1992. He also pursued the issue after a Congressional investigation concluded that the theory was untrue, and published his Frontline research as a book in 1993. In 1994, he said he came across anonymous sources that confirmed the theory. Journalist Steven Emerson called Parry's adherence to the subject an "obsession" and "personal tragedy." Parry himself stated that his reputation had suffered as a result, but "the Iran-Contra reporting was initially rejected as a conspiracy theory".

When journalist Gary Webb published his Dark Alliance series of articles in 1996 and accused the Reagan government of covering cocaine smuggling into the US to help the Contras finance their activities, Parry supported Webb against violent media criticism.

Prizes and awards

  • 1984 George Polk Award for Associated Press work on the Iran-Contra Affair
  • 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning finalist for Associated Press work on the Iran-Contra affair
  • 2015, Parry IF Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard's Nieman Foundation, "for his career honored with thoroughly researched reports, unabashed inquiries and coverage that challenged the mainstream media".
  • 2017 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism

Consortium news

In November 1995 Parry founded the online magazine Consortiumnews.com "for investigative journalism". He described it in 2004 as "home to important, well-reported stories that weren't welcome in the OJ Simpson- obsessed, conventional-knowledge-driven national news media of the time." Due to financial difficulties at Consortiumnews , he also worked for the business information service Bloomberg from 2000 to 2004 .

Contributions later also concerned the civil war in Syria and the crisis in Ukraine in 2014 . Following the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 , Parry published contradicting theories that were picked up by Russian and Iranian propaganda . He also attacked coverage of an Australian newspaper refuting Russian propaganda.

Regarding the Ukraine crisis, Parry took the view that Putin, who had shown in Sochi that he saw Russia as part of the western world, had no intention of interfering in the political situation in Ukraine or even annexing Crimea . His reactions to "the policies of the US and the EU" were only defensive.

Books

  • Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, The Press & Project Truth (1992)
  • Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery (1993)
  • The October Surprise X-Files: The Hidden Origins of the Reagan-Bush Era (1996)
  • Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq (2004)
  • Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush (2007)
  • America's Stolen Narrative: From Washington and Madison to Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes to Obama (2012)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Robert Parry: A talk by Robert Parry given in Santa Monica on March 28, 1993 . In: realhistoryarchives.com. Last accessed on September 21, 2014.
  2. ^ Long Island University : George Polk Awards: Previous Award Winners . Last accessed on September 23, 2013.
  3. ^ A b c Norman Solomon : Cohen and Solomon: Robert Parry . In: AlterNet , April 25, 2000, last accessed on September 21, 2014. The publication date is given as April 25, 2000, but the information that Consortium News started "a few months ago" indicates that it was first published in early 1996.
  4. ^ Brian Barger & Robert Parry: Reports Link Nicaraguan Rebels to Cocaine Trafficking. In: Associated Press . December 20, 1985.
  5. ^ Robert Parry: How John Kerry exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal . In: Salon.com . October 25, 2004.
  6. ^ A b c Dan Kennedy: Parry's Thrust ( Memento of September 3, 1999 in the Internet Archive ). In: Salon.com . June 11, 1996.
  7. ^ The Election Hero Hostage . In: Frontline. April 16, 1991, last accessed September 22, 2014.
  8. ^ Investigating the October Surprise ( Memento August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Frontline. April 7, 1992.
  9. ^ Robert Parry, Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery. Sheridan Square Publishing, 1993, ISBN 978-1879823082 .
  10. ^ Gary Webb: Dark Alliance. Seven Stories Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1-888363-93-7 , p. 480
  11. ↑ "... his career distinguished by meticulously researched investigations, intrepid questioning, and reporting that has challenged mainstream media."
  12. ^ Robert Parry, A Brief History of Consortium News , ConsortiumNews.com, December 21, 2004.
  13. ↑ Journalist: USA have evidence of Boeing downing by the Ukrainian military . RIA Novosti , July 22, 2014, accessed September 10, 2014.
    White House 'leak': Ukraine did it . Press TV , July 21, 2014, accessed September 10, 2014.
  14. ↑ US Analysts conclude MH17 downed by aircraft . New Straits Times , August 7, 2014, accessed September 11, 2014.
  15. ↑ Robert Parry Falsely accuses 60 Minutes Australia of Using Fake MH17 Evidence , May 19, 2015
  16. ↑ https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/13/the-putin-did-it-conspiracy-theory/
personal data
SURNAME Parry, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American investigative journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Hartford , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2018