Christopher Ruddy

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Christopher Ruddy is a conservative American journalist. He is currently the CEO of NewsMax Media.

Contents

[edit] Background

Ruddy grew up on Long Island, New York, where his father was a police officer in Nassau County.[1] He graduated from Chaminade High School in Mineola in 1983[2] and graduated summa cum laude in history from St. John's University in New York City[3] in 1987.[4] He then earned a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics[3] and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem[citation needed]. He worked briefly as a high school teacher.[citation needed]

Early in his career, Ruddy was editor of an alternative media publication known as the New York Guardian.[5] While with the Guardian, Ruddy gained notice for debunking a story in the PBS documentary Liberators that an all-black army unit had liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.[6] He called the documentary an example of "how the media can manipulate facts and narratives to create a revised history both believable and untrue."[7] PBS subsequently withdrew its support for the documentary, following an independent investigation by the American Jewish Committee. Ruddy then moved into more mainstream journalism with the New York Post, which he joined as an investigative reporter late in the summer of 1993. After initially writing about abuse of Social Security disability benefits, he focused on the Vincent Foster case, the subject of an ongoing investigation after Foster had died earlier that year.[8] Since 1996, Ruddy has been Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.[citation needed]

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Financial Publishers Association [9] and leader of the Log Cabin Republicans.

[edit] Vincent Foster case

Main article: Death of Vince Foster

Ruddy is one of (and perhaps the most prominent among) several individuals who have discussed theories in respect of the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, work which was described by Former FBI Director William S. Sessions as "serious and compelling."[10]

New York Post editor Eric Breindel recommended Ruddy for a job at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.[11] In November 1994, Ruddy was hired to investigate the story full-time by the Tribune-Review.[12] In between Ruddy's departure from the Post and joining the Tribune-Review, he put out a report through the Western Journalism Center criticizing the Fiske investigation as inadequate. With the help of Scaife, the Center took out full-page ads in major newspapers to promote the report (Scaife gave $330,000 to the Center in 1994-95 before ending his support).[13][14]

Ruddy's claimed that Park Police had staged the scene of Foster's death as described in their reports.[15] One of the officers named by Ruddy sued him along with the Western Journalism Center, seeking $2 million in damages for libel.[16] The suit was dismissed because Ruddy had said nothing libelous "of and concerning the officer".[17]

Ruddy later built on his work on the Foster case for his book The Strange Death of Vincent Foster. In reviewing the book, Richard Brookhiser of the National Review called it "the St. Mark version of the gospel of the Foster cover-up: a plain narrative of the perceived failings of the official investigation, with minimal speculation."[18] Shortly after the book came out, Fiske's successor as independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, released his report from the third investigation into Foster's death. Starr also concluded that Foster had committed suicide.

[edit] Ron Brown investigation

Ruddy followed up his book with an investigation of the circumstances surrounding Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's death. Brown had been killed in a plane crash in Croatia in 1996. Citing the opinion of a medical examiner who was involved in the investigation, but did not actually examine Brown's body, Ruddy raised the possibility that Brown had received a head wound from a gunshot.[19] This notion was rejected by the medical examiner who did examine the corpse, who concluded that Brown died of blunt force injuries from the crash. An Air Force statement said there was no exit wound and explained that apparent "bullet fragments" were caused by defective x-ray film.[20]

[edit] NewsMax

Main article: NewsMax Media

In 1998, impressed with the way news of the Lewinsky scandal circulated on the Internet, Ruddy decided to start an Internet news company. With financial support from Scaife and other investors, Ruddy founded NewsMax Media.[21] The NewsMax.com website launched on September 16, 1998, with Ruddy serving as columnist and editor-in-chief. In addition to the website, the company publishes a monthly NewsMax Magazine. After starting NewsMax, Ruddy was featured in a January 1999 Newsweek cover story as one of twenty "Stars of the New News."[22]

Compared with his reporting during Bill Clinton's presidency, Ruddy eventually took a more subdued view to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He said she had moderated and no longer generated the same animosity among conservatives. Ruddy told The New York Times he and Scaife had changed their views: "Both of us have had a rethinking. Clinton wasn't such a bad president. In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today."[23] This got some attention in conservative circles, with John Podhoretz questioning the rationale for their change of heart and complaining that Ruddy's earlier allegations had undermined "principled critiques" of the Clintons.[24] David Horowitz defended Ruddy in response, suggesting the comment referred to Clinton's domestic policies and arguing that Ruddy had not considered those objectionable even during the Clinton administration itself.[25]

In the fall of 2007 Ruddy published a positive interview with former President Clinton on Newsmax.com, followed by a positive cover story in the magazine. The New York Times noted with reference to the event that politics had made "strange bedfellows".[26] Newsweek reported that Ruddy praised Clinton for his Foundation's global work, and explained that the interview, as well as a private lunch he and Scaife had had with Clinton (which Ruddy says was orchestrated by Ed Koch), were due to the shared view of himself and Scaife that Clinton was doing important work representing the U.S. globally while America was the target of criticism. He also said that he and Scaife had never suggested Clinton was involved in Foster's death, nor had they spread allegations about Bill Clinton's sex scandals, although their work may have encouraged others.[27] It has been suggested that the rapproachment is motivated by Scaife's desire to improve his public image in regard to his divorce, or even that he may be motivated by a desire to oppose his ex-wife's support for Barack Obama. [28]

[edit] Publications

[edit] References

  1. ^ Moldea, Dan E. (1998-03-25). A Washington tragedy: how the death of Vincent Foster ignited a political firestorm. Washington: Regnery Publishing, p. 410. ISBN 978-0895263827. 
  2. ^ Chaminade High School, Alumni lookup page: Christoper Ruddy, class of 1983. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  3. ^ a b Christopher Ruddy's biography on NewsMax.com. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  4. ^ St. John's University, Honor Roll of Donors, Benefactors' Council: Christopher W. Ruddy '87 CBA. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  5. ^ Navrozov, Lev. "Are U.S. Economic Statistics Accurate?" NewsMax.com, July 8, 2005.
  6. ^ Stewart, James B. (1996). Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 391. ISBN 0-684-80230-9. 
  7. ^ Moldea, op. cit., pp. 144-145.
  8. ^ Poe, Richard (2004). Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists. Nashville, TN: WND Books, p. 96. ISBN 0-7852-6013-7. 
  9. ^ Financial Publishers Association
  10. ^ WorldNet daily
  11. ^ Stewart, op. cit., p. 429.
  12. ^ Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose. "Suicide is hard to sell". The Daily Telegraph, February 2, 1995.
  13. ^ Moldea, op. cit., pp. 267, 275.
  14. ^ Chinoy, Ira and Robert G. Kaiser. Decades of Contributions to Conservatism. Washington Post, May 2, 1999, p. A25.
  15. ^ Moldea, op. cit., p. 268.
  16. ^ Moldea, op. cit., p. 276.
  17. ^ Moldea, op. cit., p. 350-351.
  18. ^ Brookhiser, Richard. "Body Politics". New York Times Book Review, September 28, 1997, pp. 13-14.
  19. ^ Kurtz, Howard. "Demise of a buddy system". Washington Post, December 8, 1997, p. B1.
  20. ^ Plante, Chris. "Air Force doctors 'rule out the possibility of a gunshot wound' to Brown's head". CNN, December 5, 1997.
  21. ^ Poe, op. cit., p. 171.
  22. ^ Poe, op. cit., p. 172.
  23. ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. "Anti-Clinton campaign loses some steam". New York Times, February 19, 2007.
  24. ^ Podhoretz, John. "Now They Tell Us: Clinton-Bashers' Weirdest Twist". New York Post, February 20, 2007.
  25. ^ Horowitz, David. "A Misplaced Attack and An Apology to Frontpage Readers". FrontPage Magazine, February 26, 2007.
  26. ^ Clinton gives interview to former foe
  27. ^ "So Happy Together Bill archenemy Richard Mellon Scaife now has 'admiration' for him. Huh?", Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, November 19, 2007
  28. ^ "Hillary's Rev. Wright His name is Richard Mellon Scaife", Salon.com Chatterbox, Timothy Noah, March 25, 2008

[edit] External links