Peter Zuckerman

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Peter Zuckerman

Occupation Reporter
Employers The Oregonian

Peter Zuckerman is an American prize-winning reporter who has focused his career in court reporting and investigative journalism. He currently works for The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon.

Zuckerman, who is openly gay,[1] was the lead writer of an award-winning and controversial, multi-part story, Scouts' Honor, in the Idaho Falls Post Register about a multi-state child molestation case involving at least two dozen minors and the Boy Scouts of America in Idaho.[2] For work on the series, Zuckerman received the 2006 Livingston Award and the Post-Register won the Scripps Foundation's 2005 National Journalism Awards for distinguished service to the First Amendment. After the story was published Zuckerman became the target of personal attacks on the basis of his sexual orientation.[3] He also was criticized and accused of having a bias against the Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon Church.[4][5]

In a September 25, 2007 PBS documentary In A Small Town released for the show Exposé: America's Investigative Reports [6] Zuckerman was profiled as well as in Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism report about courage in journalism.

After moving to Oregon, Zuckerman continued to report on the Boy Scouts of America and the intertwined connections to the Mormon church in his investigative reporting in 2007 while working for the Oregonian.[7] As part of his work Zuckerman obtained internal Boy Scout documents showing that as of December 31, 2004, two-thirds of the traditional troops in the organization's western region were chartered by the Mormon church and nationwide roughly a third are part of the Mormon church. In this article, Men Sue Scouts, Mormon Church, six men allege a former troop leader and church teacher abused them and seek $25 million in compensation as the Mormon church failed to thoroughly investigate, report the abuse to law enforcement, provide mental health services to victims or remove the abuser from contact with children once it learned about the abuse.[8]

Zuckerman has received several journalism awards, including the Livingston Award[9] and the C.B. Blethen Memorial Award[10].

Zuckerman, 27, is visiting faculty at the Poynter Institute.[11] and has taught other places as well, such as the University of Georgia (http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/071106_McGill_Fellows.shtml) and the University of Southern California (http://college.usc.edu/unruh/past_events/ and college.usc.edu/unruh/private/UnruhNews.pdf).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Navigating Between Silence and Speech : Points South
  2. ^ “Scout's Honor”, The Post Register, 2005, <http://www.postregister.com/scouts_honor>. Retrieved on 2007-10-03 
  3. ^ Ayers, Dennis (2007-09-14), “PBS airs documentary on gay Idaho Falls reporter”, AfterElton.com, <http://www.afterelton.com/dennis/blog/PBS-airs-doc-on-gay-reporter>. Retrieved on 2007-10-03 
  4. ^ “Scouts Honor was a Disservice”, The Post Register, May 24, 2005 
  5. ^ “Accused Bias”, The Post Register, May 9, 2005 
  6. ^ In a Small Town (part 1), PBS, <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/expose/episode215/index.html>. Retrieved on 2007-10-03 
  7. ^ Men sue Scouts, Mormon church - OregonLive.com
  8. ^ Zuckerman, Peter (October 04, 2007). Men Sue Scouts, Mormon Church: $25 million - The six allege a former troop leader and church teacher abused them. The Oregonian. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  9. ^ The Livingston Awards: Past Winners. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
  10. ^ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003386137_blethens10m.html)
  11. ^ Peter E Zuckerman. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.