David Cay Johnston

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David Cay Johnston was an investigative journalist for The New York Times now focusing on the subject of taxation. He accepted a buyout offer from the Times in April 2008 and is now an independent reporter. He most recently published Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, about hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and corporate socialism. It follows Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else, a New York Times bestseller.^[1] Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms." He also won the Book of the Year award from Investigative Reporters & Editors.

Johnston has also investigated uncaught murderers, the unfairly imprisoned, Los Angeles Police Department abuses, Barron Hilton, misuse of charitable funds at United Way, news manipulation at WJIM-TV, and Donald Trump's net worth.

In 1968, Johnston began his career at the San Jose Mercury News. In 1973, Johnston left the Mercury News to study at the University of Chicago under a five-month fellowship. He then took a position as an investigative reporter at the Detroit Free Press in its Lansing bureau from 1973 to 76, and later worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 1976 to 1988. He then worked as a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1988. Johnston joined The New York Times in February 1995.

In addition to his journalistic career, Johnston studied economics at the University of Chicago graduate school and at six other colleges, earning six years of college credits but no degree.^[2]

Johnston is married to Jennifer Leonard, ^[3] who is president and executive director of the Rochester Area Community Foundation. They live in Brighton, New York a suburb of Rochester. He has eight children and five grandchildren.

[edit] Writings

• Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else, 2003 (ISBN 1-59184-019-8)
• Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, 2007 (ISBN 978-1591841913)

[edit] External links

• Perfectly Legal author bio
• List of New York Times articles by David Cay Johnston

[edit] References