| Peter Edward Zuckerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 27, 1979 |
| Residence | Portland |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Reed College |
| Occupation | Journalist, Author |
| Employer | The Oregonian |
Peter Zuckerman is an American prize-winning journalist and author who has focused his career in court reporting, investigative journalism and adventure stories.
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Zuckerman attended Chadwick School in Los Angeles County, California, and graduated from Reed College in Portland with a degree in biology in 2003.[1] While a student at Reed, Zuckerman served on the editorial board of the Reed College Quest, a student-run newspaper. In March 2002 he wrote an opinion piece in The Oregonian ("The drug Olympics")[2] condemning competitive use of drugs like GHB at the school. He was the target of numerous threats within the Reed College community,[3] and was criticized and praised in letters to the Oregonian.[4][5]
Zuckerman interned for the Portland weekly Just Out while at Reed, delivering the paper and fact-checking telephone numbers.[6] He also interned for the Portland bureau of the Associated Press.[7] and The Springfield News. He went on to work as a journalist in Eastern Idaho.
In 2006, Zuckerman was the lead writer of a controversial multi-part story, Scouts' Honor, in the Idaho Falls Post Register about the coverup of a multi-state child molestation case involving at least two dozen minors and the Boy Scouts of America in Idaho.[8] He was accused of having a bias against the Boy Scouts of America and the LDS Church because of their stance on homosexuallity.[9][10]
For work on the series, Zuckerman received the 2006 Livingston Award and the 2007 C.B. Blethen Award, and the Post-Register won the Scripps Foundation's 2005 National Journalism Awards for distinguished service to the First Amendment.[11][12]
After the story was published, Zuckerman became the target of personal attacks on the basis of his homosexual orientation.[10][13]
Zuckerman was profiled in a September 25, 2007, documentary, "In A Small Town," broadcast in the PBS series, Exposé: America's Investigative Reports.[14] The documentary was a nominated for an Emmy Award.[15] A profile about Zuckerman in Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism report about courage in journalism won the 2007 Mirror Award for best coverage of breaking news.[16]
After moving back to Oregon, Zuckerman continued to target the Boy Scouts of America and the LDS church in his reporting in 2007 while working for The Oregonian.[17] 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 LDS church and nationwide roughly a third are part of the LDS 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 LDS 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.[17]
Zuckerman later changed his reporting to focus on stories that had more of an environmental bent. For example, he wrote about the Forest Service loosening its environmental standards so a gas corporation can clear cut through old growth in the Mount Hood National Forest to make way for an LNG pipeline.[18]
In January 2009, Zuckerman took a leave from The Oregonian to work on a "dream book project" after his partner, Sam Adams, was elected mayor of Portland [19] While researching the book, Zuckerman nearly died while traveling through remote regions of Nepal and ingesting a "half plant, half animal"[20] caterpillar fungus.
His forthcoming book, "Buried in the Sky", co-written with Amanda Padoan, tells the true story of the 2008 K2 disaster from the perspective of Sherpas and Pakistani high-altitude porters. The book is being published in the United States and Canada by W.W. Norton & Company,[21] in Italy by Mondadori,[22] and in Sweden by Forma.[23]
Zuckerman has received numerous journalism awards, including the Livingston Award[11] and the C.B. Blethen Award[12]
Zuckerman has visited and taught at Poynter Institute,[24] University of Georgia[25] and the University of Southern California.[26] He is currently an adjunct fellow at the Attic Institute writing workshop[27] and a resident at the Falcon Art Community.[28]
Peter Zuckerman is the cousin of author Amanda Padoan and son of Bruce Zuckerman, director of Archaeological Research at the University of Southern California.[29]
Peter Zuckerman's partner is Sam Adams, the mayor of Portland.[30][31][32] The Oregonian and Zuckerman took steps to ensure he had no influence over the coverage of his partner.[33]