Matthew Kauffman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew Kauffman (b. October 5, 1961 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American investigative journalist.

From a very young age, Kauffman was fascinated with journalism, earning him a job at his local newspaper. In 1979, Matthew attended Vassar College, where he continued to work as a journalist gaining a spot on the College Newspaper. While at Vassar, Kauffman cracked several huge stories, earning him fame and enemies. Rapes had been reported on campus, and with another reporter Kauffman took photos of paid security guards lounging about in a basement, rather than patrolling their zones. Kauffman was even sent to court after being accused of harassing a student club during a voting meeting. In fact, Kauffman was illegally turned away at the door simply based on his reputation as a dirt-digging journalist. The meeting broke down when Kauffman demanded to be admitted, and legal actions were filed. Matthew avoided any problems due to the help of a friend’s father who was a respected lawyer.

After graduating Vassar with a major in Political Science, Kauffman married Wendy Nelson-Kauffman and moved to New Haven, Connecticut. There, they had son David.

Kauffman worked as a legal writer for the Hartford Courant until moving to West Hartford, Connecticut and taking a job at the business desk. In 2003, Kauffman received accolades for his series on Drug company scandals. Kauffman eventually picked up a weekly column knows as the “Inside Pitch” and also began writing monthly reviews on As seen on TV products. After winning Reporter of the Year at the Courant, along with being a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award (twice), Kauffman was promoted to the investigative desk where he uncovered questionable ticket deals at the UConn athletic department. Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma and others were secretly trading tickets for cars.

Kauffman has made an appearance on the The O'Reilly Factor, where he talked about the legal, but sleazy, practices of charity executives and the percentage of donations that they keep.

In May 2006, Kauffman, along with colleague Lisa Chedekel, broke the story of mentally unstable soldiers in the U.S. Military being sent to and kept in Iraq. The four part series, entitled "Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight", gained national renown and earned Kauffman multiple national interviews, including ABC News. The story eventually won him the 2006 Worth Bingham Prize and George Polk Award, and the 2007 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence and the Heywood Broun Award.