Richard Behar

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Richard Behar is an award-winning investigative journalist who has written on the staffs of leading magazines including Forbes, Time and Fortune over a twenty-two year period from 1982-2004. His work has also appeared on CNN and PBS. As of July, 2005, Behar coordinates Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance launched to investigate the murder of journalist Paul Klebnikov and related lines of inquiry. Since 2004, his freelance investigative reports have also appeared in BBC News, Forbes, FoxNews.com and Fast Company magazine.

Contents

[edit] Education and career

Behar was raised on Long Island and is a 1982 graduate of New York University (NYU). Before joining Time in 1989, he was a reporter and associate editor for Forbes magazine for six years. He has also worked at the New York Times as a researcher and writer. Behar reported extensively about organized crime and the business backgrounds of politicians for Time, for whom Behar wrote a widely acclaimed 1993 cover story on the World Trade Center bombing.

In 1991, he wrote "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", a Time cover story on Scientology.[1] The acclaimed article won several awards.[2] The Church of Scientology brought several lawsuits over the article, all of which were eventually dismissed.[2] While investigating the story, he experienced some of Scientology's Fair game tactics:

I later learned, a copy of my personal credit report -- with detailed information about my bank accounts, home mortgage, credit-card payments, home address and Social Security number -- had been illegally retrieved from a national credit bureau called Trans Union. The sham company that received it, "Educational Funding Services" of Los Angeles, gave as its address a mail drop a few blocks from Scientology's headquarters. The owner of the mail drop is a private eye named Fred Wolfson, who admits that an Ingram associate retained him to retrieve credit reports on several individuals. Wolfson says he was told that Scientology's attorneys "had judgments against these people and were trying to collect on them." He says now, "These are vicious people. These are vipers." Ingram, through a lawyer, denies any involvement in the scam. ... After that, however, an attorney subpoenaed me, while another falsely suggested that I might own shares in a company I was reporting about that had been taken over by Scientologists (he also threatened to contact the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). A close friend in Los Angeles received a disturbing telephone call from a Scientology staff member seeking data about me -- an indication that the cult may have illegally obtained my personal phone records. Two detectives contacted me, posing as a friend and a relative of a so-called cult victim, to elicit negative statements from me about Scientology. Some of my conversations with them were taped, transcribed and presented by the church in affidavits to TIME's lawyers as "proof" of my bias against Scientology.[1]

A 2003 report by Behar in Fortune explored Donald Rumsfeld's role in helping North Korea build its potential Nuclear weapon capacity, in an article entitled "Rummy’s North Korea Connection: What Did Donald Rumsfeld Know About ABB’s Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors There? And Why Won’t He Talk About It?" Behar is the only known journalist to have read the infamous "Phoenix Memo," the pre 9-11 FBI document that warned that Osama bin Laden supporters were enrolled in flight-training schools across the country.

In October, 2004, Behar left Time, Inc. to pursue book writing and various independent projects, including the launch of Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance investigating the July, 2004, murder of Paul Klebnikov, who was then the editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia. Behar also serves on the advisory committee of New York University's business journalism Master's program (BER).

[edit] Recognition

Behar was included among the 100 best business journalists (the "100 luminaries") of the 20th century by the TJFR business journalism trade group.

In 1999, legendary investigative columnist Jack Anderson called Behar "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs."[1]

[edit] Awards

Behar has won 20 awards for his reporting, including:

  • Four awards in recognition of his 1991 story for Time about Scientology:
  1. Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism (1992)[2]
  2. Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (1992)[2][3]
  3. Worth Bingham Prize (1992)[2]
  4. Leo J. Ryan Award[4][5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Richard Behar, "Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes: Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream", book rev. of "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, Time Magazine, May 6, 1991: 50, rpt. in cs.cmu.edu, accessed May 11, 2007. [Part of "Special Report (cover story)".]
  2. ^ a b c d e "Judge dismisses Church of Scientology's $416 million lawsuit against TIME Magazine", Time Magazine press release via Business Wire, July 16, 1996. Retrieved on 2006-06-01. 
  3. ^ Awards history at American Society of Journalists and Authors.
  4. ^ Behar, Richard. "Richard Behar, acceptance speech, 1992 Leo J. Ryan award", (OLD) Cult Awareness Network conference, Los Angeles, 1992. Retrieved on 2007-10-25. 
  5. ^ Henderson, Bob. "Hubbard from Pinellas to Russia", St. Petersburg Times, 1992-12-28, p. 1. 
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