Glen Ford (journalist)

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named Glenn Ford, see Glenn Ford (disambiguation).
Glen Ford
Born
Glen Rutherford

(1949-11-05)November 5, 1949
Manhattan, New York, US
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer, radio and TV host and producer
Known forAmerica’s Black Forum, Black Agenda Report
Parent
  • Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford (father)
Websitewww.blackagendareport.com

Glen Ford (born Glen Rutherford;[1] November 5, 1949 – July 28, 2021), was an American journalist, who, along with Bruce Dixon and Margaret Kimberley, co-founded Black Agenda Report. He was a socialist, a Vietnam War-era military veteran and a member of the Black Panther Party.[2] He served in the news media over many years in his professional life. He was the Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent for the Mutual Black Network, an American radio network.[1] He co-launched, produced, and hosted the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television, America’s Black Forum, in 1977.[3]

Personal life

Ford was born November 5, 1949, in

Irish American mother, Shirley, who was a civil rights activist from New Jersey.[4] His father, a Black Radio Hall of Fame inductee, Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, himself born in Richland, Georgia, who was the first Black man in the Deep South to host a non-gospel television program: Rocking with The Deuce.[3][5]
After his parents divorced, he spent parts of his childhood in both New Jersey and Georgia.

Ford died on July 28, 2021, at the age of 71, from cancer in Manhattan.[4]

Career

Ford began his radio career reading news wire copy at age 11. His first full-time position on-air was at a James Brown-owned radio station, WRDW in Augusta, Georgia. It was there that Brown shortened his name to 'Ford.'[6]

After serving four years in the Army, he worked as a radio journalist in Georgia and Maryland, before taking a job in 1974 in Washington, D.C., with the Mutual Black Network.

Ford was highly critical of the candidacy and presidency of Barack Obama. During Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, in a discussion with sociologist Michael Eric Dyson, Ford said that "Obama is not the lesser of evils, but the more effective evil. And we base that on his record and also on his rhetoric at the convention."

Later in that debate he described Obama's foreign policy as imperialistic, pointing out that "this is one of the great historical legacies of the Obama administration. He has ignored international law, laws that have evolved over hundreds of years, ignored the sovereignty of nations."[7]

Works

  • The Big Lie: Analysis of U.S. Press Coverage of the Grenada Invasion. Prague: International Organization of Journalists, 1985.
  • The Black Agenda. OR Books, 2021.
    ISBN 978-1682192900

References

  1. ^ a b Kimberley, Margaret. "Glen Ford's Journalism Fought for Black Liberation and Against Imperialism". Truthout. Retrieved 2021-08-10.
  2. ^ Kimberley, Margaret (31 July 2021). "Glen Ford's Journalism Fought for Black Liberation and Against Imperialism". Truthout. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  3. ^ a b Braine, Theresa. "Pioneering Black journalist Glen Ford, founder of Black Agenda Report and outspoken Obama critic, dies age 71". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  4. ^
    New York Times
    . Retrieved 2021-08-20.
  5. ^ The Georgia Radio Museum Hall of Fame 2018 Legacy Inductees
  6. ^ Wright, Bruce C.T. (July 28, 2021). "Glen Ford, Veteran Journalist And Founder Of Black Agenda Report, Dies At 71". News One. Interactive One. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  7. ^ ""Effective Evil" or Progressives' Best Hope? Glen Ford vs. Michael Eric Dyson on Obama Presidency". Democracy Now. September 7, 2012. Retrieved 2021-08-20.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glen_Ford_(journalist)&oldid=1169179938"