Robert Scheer
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Robert Scheer | |
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Born | New York City, US | April 4, 1936
Other names | Bob Scheer |
Education | Christopher Columbus High School |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1960s–present |
Employers |
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Spouses |
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Children | Christopher (b. 1968) |
Robert Scheer (born April 4, 1936) is an American
Early life
Scheer was born and raised in
The Ramparts years
In 1962[10] in Berkeley, California, Scheer along with David Horowitz, Maurice Zeitlin, Phil Roos, and Sol Stern founded Root and Branch: A Radical Quarterly, one of the earliest campus New Left journals.[11][12]
While working at
Congressional run
In the late 1960s, Scheer made a bid for elective office as an anti-Vietnam War candidate. He challenged U.S. Representative Jeffery Cohelan in the 1966 Democratic primary. Cohelan was a liberal, but like most Democratic officeholders at that time, he supported the Vietnam War. Mathematician Serge Lang served as Scheer's campaign treasurer.[14] Scheer lost, but won over 45% of the vote (and carried Berkeley), a strong enough showing against an incumbent to represent an indicator of the strength of New Left Sixties radicalism. (Cohelan would lose re-nomination four years later to anti-war Berkeley City Councilman Ron Dellums.)
In 1968, he signed the "
In July 1970, Scheer accompanied as a journalist a Black Panther Party delegation, led by Eldridge Cleaver, who also wrote for Ramparts, to North Korea, China, and Vietnam.[16] The delegation also included people from the San Francisco Red Guard, the women's liberation movement, the Peace and Freedom Party, Newsreel, and the Movement for a Democratic Military.
In the November 1970 California elections, Scheer ran for the U.S. Senate as the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party against Republican senator George Murphy and Democratic Congressman John V. Tunney. Scheer received 56,731 votes and lost the election to Tunney.[17]
Los Angeles Times and Public Radio
After several years freelancing for magazines, including New Times and Playboy, Scheer joined the Los Angeles Times in 1976 as a reporter. There he met Narda Zacchino, a reporter whom he later married in the paper's news room. As a national correspondent for 17 years at the LA Times, he wrote articles and series on diverse topics such as the Soviet Union during glasnost, the Jews of Los Angeles, arms control, urban crises, national politics and the military, and covered several presidential elections. The LA Times entered Scheer's work for the Pulitzer Prize 11 times, and he was a finalist for the Pulitzer national reporting award for a series on the television industry.
After Scheer left the LA Times in 1993, the paper granted him a weekly op-ed column which ran every Tuesday for the next 12 years until it was canceled in 2005. The column now appears in Truthdig and is distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate. Scheer is also a contributing editor for The Nation magazine. He was heard weekly on the nationally syndicated political analysis radio program Left, Right & Center, produced at and syndicated by public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, and is a host of Scheer Intelligence, a half-hour KCRW podcast with politically engaged individuals.
Scheer has taught courses at
Scheer interviewed every president from
Political views
Iraq War
In an August 6, 2002 article, he wrote that "a consensus of experts" informed the Senate that the Iraqi weapons arsenal was "almost totally destroyed during eight years of inspections." On June 3, 2003, Scheer concluded that White House justifications for the war were a "big lie." On November 4, 2003, he penned an article in favor of withdrawal from Iraq.[19]
World War II
In an April 7, 2010 article, he wrote that
Russia and Ukraine
Scheer has accused tech companies of censoring articles that question the "
Support of Kentucky Republican for U.S. Senate
In 2010, Scheer expressed support for Republican Rand Paul, son of former Libertarian presidential candidate and Republican congressman Ron Paul, in his United States Senate campaign in Kentucky.[22]
End of Los Angeles Times relationship
Scheer has often expressed highly controversial ideas. In a February 15, 2005 LA Times article entitled "What We Don't Know About 9/11 Hurts Us", he stated: "Would George W. Bush have been reelected president if the public understood how much responsibility his administration bears for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed?"
What happened is that I had been the subject of vicious attacks by Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. ... I was a punching bag for those guys. I'm still standing, and the people who run the paper collapsed.
In a posting on The Huffington Post, Scheer wrote:
The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately 60 percent of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher.
Scheer's firing incited a protest held outside the LA Times downtown office on November 15,[25][28] and hundreds of readers wrote letters of complaint while some, including Barbra Streisand, publicly announced the cancellation of their LA Times subscriptions.[24] Within a few days of his column being retired by the Times, the San Francisco Chronicle offered itself as the new home paper of Scheer's syndicated column, which ran there for years.[25]
Truthdig
On November 29, 2005, Scheer co-launched, as editor in chief, the online news magazine, Truthdig. Scheer's column there was syndicated nationally by
Truthdig is a four-time recipient of the
In March 2020, a dispute between Scheer and Truthdig's CEO and publisher, Zuade Kaufman, led to a work stoppage by employees who were subsequently fired. In November 2022, after almost two years on "hiatus", the website relaunched without Scheer's involvement.[32]
Awards
Scheer received the 2010 Distinguished Work in New Media Award[33] from the Society of Professional Journalists, and in 2011 Ithaca College named Scheer the winner of the Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.[34]
Scheer was the 1998 honoree of the
Personal life
Scheer's first wife was Serena Turan Scheer. Serena, now the widow of poet Lou Embree,
Robert Scheer is now married to Narda Catharine Zacchino. She worked at the Los Angeles Times for 31 years, where she became the associate editor and a vice president.[39] She was later deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.[40][41] Zacchino is the co-author of three books, and is a senior fellow at USC's Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.[42]
Books
Scheer's book, They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies Are Destroying Democracy, was released on February 21, 2015. It was published by Nation Books, who also released Scheer's previous book The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street on September 7, 2010.
- Robert Scheer is a journalist in the gadfly tradition of Lincoln Steffens, I. F. Stone and Seymour Hersh. His latest book, The Great American Stickup, blames the 'captains of finance' for causing the 2008 'meltdown' of the global economy in the first place and then profiting from the tax dollars that were thrown at the problem — 'a giant hustle that served the richest of the rich,' as he puts it, 'and left the rest of us holding the bag.'[44]
Scheer has written eight other books, including a collection entitled Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death: Essays on the Pornography of Power; With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and Nuclear War; and America After Nixon: The Age of Multinationals. In 2004, Scheer published The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq, which became a Los Angeles Times Bestseller. It was co-authored by his oldest son,
Scheer's anthology Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and Clinton – and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush (Akashic Books, 2006), is a collection of his many interviews, profiles, and columns about Presidents Richard Nixon through George W. Bush.[45] The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America was published in 2008.
Works
- Maurice Zeitlin, Robert Scheer, Cuba, Tragedy in our Hemisphere, Grove Press, 1963
- With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War, Random House Incorporated, 1983, ISBN 9780394722030
- Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer, Lakshmi Chaudhry, The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us about Iraq, Akashic Books, Seven Stories Press, 2003, ISBN 9781583226445
- Playing President: My Close Ecounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton--and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush. Truthdig. 1 May 2006. ISBN 978-1-933354-01-9.
- Scheer, Robert (2008). The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street. Nation Books. 2010. ISBN 978-1-56858-621-2.
- They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies Are Destroying Democracy. Basic Books. 24 February 2015. ISBN 978-1-56858-453-9.
Filmography
As writer
Scheer and his son were creative script consultants on the
As producer
In 2005, the Mill Valley Film Festival premiered a documentary he co-produced on the activist and philanthropist Stanley Sheinbaum.
As actor
In 1998, Scheer played a journalist in the 1998 feature film,
Discography
- A Night At Santa Rita, Narrated by Rosko; James Spaulding (flute); Ron Carter (bass); Nat Hentoff (commentary); Bob Thiele (producer); Victor Kalin (cover painting). (Flying Dutchman FDS 111)[citation needed]
References
Notes
- ^ Co-founder of the site and Editor-in-Chief
Citations
- ^ a b "Home". www.webbyawards.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-26.
- ^ "About Robert Scheer, Editor in Chief". Truthdig. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- ^ Steve Carney (August 8, 2003). "Huffington gives up talk spot". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ 2011 Sigma Delta Chi winners
- ISSN 2157-2151. Retrieved 2011-11-18.
Born and raised in the Bronx, and a graduate of City College, Scheer is the former editor of Ramparts, a radical magazine of the 1960s.
- ^ Robert Scheer (May 3, 2006). "My Mother, the Illegal Alien". The Nation. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ^ "Robert Scheer Biography". Notable Names Database. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-59558-439-7.
- ^ "Robert Scheer". USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ Some sources say that Root and Branch was started in 1960 or 1959. Some sources say that it began as "an offshoot of SLATE" (a leftist student political party at UC Berkeley).
- City Journal. 20 (1). Retrieved 2011-11-18.
In 1962, Scheer and I reunited as Berkeley graduate students and, together with David Horowitz, started one of the first campus New Left journals, Root and Branch.
- ^ Jones, Andrew (2005-08-24). "Maurice Zeitlin Denies Reality". Bruin Alumni Association. Archived from the original on 2011-11-22. Retrieved 2011-11-18.
Horowitz, Zeitlin, and LA Times columnist Robert Scheer founded in 1960 the first journal of the New Left, titled Root and Branch.
- ISBN 978-1595585462.
- ^ "Robert Scheer Was the Ned Lamont of the 1960's". 24 August 2006.
- ^ "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 New York Post
- ^ "Welcoming Message to Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Cleaver, and Robert Scheer upon their Arrival in North Korea". History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive. Wilson Center. 1970. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
- ^ "United States Senate Candidates". Peace and Freedom Party. 2 July 2008. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ Scheer, Robert (November 1976). "The Playboy Interview: Jimmy Carter". Playboy. 23 (11): 63–86. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- ^ "Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, "LA Times Dumps Liberal Columnist: Scheer out as Bush attacks Iraq War Critics," 17 November 2005". Fair.org. 2003-11-04. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
- ^ Scheer, Robert (June 6, 2010). "Earning His Nobel Prize". HuffPost. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- ^ "No such thing as dissent in the age of big tech | Scheer Intelligence". 5 May 2022.
- ^ Robert, Scheer (19 May 2010). "Who's Afraid of Rand Paul?". Truth Dig. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- ^ Scheer, Robert (February 15, 2005). "What We Don't Know About 9/11 Hurts Us". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ a b "Streisand cancels LA Times subscription over columnist's firing". USA Today. Associated Press. Dec 8, 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ a b c "In Fact ..." The Nation. Nov 17, 2005. p. 8. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ FCC Internet Services Staff. "Newspaper/ Broadcast Cross-Ownership – FCC News". Fcc.gov. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
- ^ "The FCC's newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule: an analysis – Economic Policy Institute". Epi.org. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
- ^ Garza, Mariel (Dec 8, 2005). "Journalists At Loss For Words When Own Ranks Are Slashed". Los Angeles Daily News. p. N3. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ a b http://www.lamag.com/features/2014/2/25/can-you-dig-it-yes-you-can/print%7Cdate=November 2020}}[dead link]
- ^ "Truthdig Wins Webby for Best Political Site". Truthdig. April 30, 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "Winners of 52nd Annual SoCal Journalism Awards Announced". Archived from the original on 2012-08-08. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
- ^ Karlis, Nicole (March 28, 2020). "Truthdig staff laid off amid work stoppage". Salon. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
- ^ "SPJ/LA Announces 2010 Distinguished Journalist Honorees". SPJ / LA Blog. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ "Journalist Robert Scheer and Investigative Outlet 'City Limits' Share Izzy Award Honoring Independent Media". Ithaca College. 9 Mar 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Robert Scheer on the Importance of Not Selling Out (Video), Truthdig, Stephen French, March 25, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-89815-535-8. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
Serena Turan Scheer: Editorial staff of Root and Branch
- ISBN 978-0-684-84005-5. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
Scheer's wife, Anne Weills Anne he was married to Serena.
- Ramesh Ponnuru (August–September 1997). "Right Turn". First Things (Review). No. 75. pp. 61–66 – via Leadership University.
- Ramparts Magazineeditor Bob Scheer and his then-wife, Anne Weills, both active in the antiwar movement; they were now separated but they still lived in the commune
- Vanessa Grigoriadis (September 9, 2011). "Jane Fonda, Constantly Evolving". The New York Times (Review).
- ISBN 978-1-56858-434-8. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
I dedicated this book to Narda Zacchino not at all because she is my wife but rather because as my editor she has held me to the same high journalistic standards she adhered to during her three decades at the Los Angeles Times, where she rose to become the associate editor and a vice president.
- Richard Eisenberg (2010-09-20). "'Great American Stickup' spreads blame in Wall Street crisis". USA Today (Review).
- ISBN 978-0-446-50527-7. Retrieved 2011-11-23., ...
Everyone who has known Narda in her professional capacity as the associate editor of the Los Angeles Times, where we both worked for a combined sixty years, or later as the deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle
- ^ Randolph, Elizabeth (2001-08-20). "Zacchino Takes Her Heart to San Francisco". Women's eNews. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
At her new post as senior editor of the Chronicle, Zacchino is number three on the editorial masthead, ...
- ^ "Narda Zacchino". USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. Archived from the original on 2010-05-07. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
- ^ http://projects.latimes.com/bestsellers/titles/great-american-stickup/ L.A. Times Bestsellers > Titles: The Great American Stickup
- ^ Kirsch, Jonathan (2010-10-18). "Los Angeles Times Book review: 'The Great American Stickup' by Robert Scheer". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
- ^ Hamm, Theodore (September 2006). "Left on the Inside: Robert Scheer in conversation with Theodore Hamm". The Brooklyn Rail.
- ^ Robert Scheer, Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
External links
- Truthdig, a progressive online magazine aka www.robertscheer.com
- Robert Scheer Features at Creators Syndicate
- Left, Right & Center Archived 2008-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
- Robert Scheer at AlterNet
- Citizen Stan documentary
- Robert Scheer: "Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?" – video report by Democracy Now!
- Democracy Now!: Amy Goodman interviews Robert Scheer about "The Great American Stickup"
- The Real News: Paul Jay asks Robert Scheer "Why Are House Republicans Reading the Constitution? – January 6, 2011 (video 10:25)
- Radio interview with Claudia Cragg KGNU on 'The Great American Stickup'
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Robert Scheer on the Muck Rack journalist listing site