Famous Journalists

Newspaper Magnate Horace Greeley  was an American newspaper editor, reformer and politician.  His New York Tribune was the most influential newspaper of the period  Greeley used it to promote the Whig and Republican parties.

Newspaper Magnate William Randolph Hearst  In 1887 he took over management of a newspaper which his father had accepted as payment of a gambling debt - The San Francisco Examiner  He acquired the best equipment and the most talented writers of the time. Within a few years, his paper dominated the San Francisco market.  In 1895, Hearst bought the failing New York Morning Journal, hiring writers like Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne and entering into a head-to-head circulation war with his former mentor, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, from whom he 'stole' Richard F. Outcault, the inventor of color comics.

Newspaper Magnate Joseph Pulitzer  was an American publisher best known for establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and (along with William Randolph Hearst) for originating yellow journalism  purchased the New York World, a newspaper that had been losing $40,000 a year  Pulitzer shifted its focus to human-interest stories, scandal, and sensationalism.

Nellie Bly Investigative Reporter  1900’s  An early investigative journalist  She pioneered undercover reporting.

Ida Tarbel Investigative Journalist  was an author and journalist  her famous description of the immoral business practices of the Standard Oil Company established her as a pioneer of investigative journalism

Bob Woodward Investigative Reporter  helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation  Historical journalistic partnership with Carl Bernstein  Worked as a reporter for The Washington Post.

Richard Outcault Cartoonist  During late 1800’s  Outcault was the creator of the series The Yellow Kid.  He is considered the inventor of the modern comic strip.

Walt Disney Animator (Cartoonist)  was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator.  He and his staff created a number of the world's most popular animated properties, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse.

E.B. White Created THE Style Guide  was an American essayist, author, and noted prose stylist  He is most famous today for a writers' style guide, The Elements of Style  He also wrote Charlotte’s Web

Howard Cosell Broadcast Journalist  1960’s  was a well-known and influential sports journalist on American television  His abrasive personality and tendency to speak his mind made him, according to one poll, both the most- liked and most-hated television reporter in the country.

Barbara Walters Broadcast Journalist  Barbara Walters was host of '20/20' and 'The View.'  Walters stepped down to focus on her 'Barbara Walters Specials.'

Peter Jennings Broadcast Journalist  was a Canadian-American lead news anchor for the ABC network from the 1980s to the 2000s.  He had anchored ABC World News Tonight since 1978 and was the sole anchor from 1983 through April 2005.

Katie Couric Broadcast Correspondent  In 1990, she joined Today as national correspondent, becoming a co-host in February 1991  In 1992, she began working as a collaborator at Dateline NBC, where her reports appear regularly.

Walter Cronkite Broadcast Journalist  is an American journalist, best known for his work as a television news anchorman.  During his tenure at CBS Evening News he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America," due to his experienced background and professional demeanor.

David Brinkley Broadcast Journalist  was an American television newscaster for NBC and, later, ABC  From 1956 through 1970 he co- anchored NBC's nightly news program The Huntley–Brinkley Report with Chet Huntley.

Dan Rather Broadcast Journalist  Rather is an American journalist, who served as anchor of the CBS Evening News from March 9, 1981, until March 9, 2005.

Tom Brokaw Broadcast Journalist  is a television journalist and the former NBC News anchorman and managing editor of the program NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.

War Correspondent Martha Gellhorn  was an American novelist and journalist considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.

Charles Kuralt Columnist  He produced the regular "On the Road" human-interest segment for the CBS Evening News

Jack Anderson Columnist  was an American newspaper columnist and is considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism  won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret American policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

Maureen Dowd Columnist  is a columnist for The New York Times and an author.  She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her series of columns on the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Scandals in Journalism Unethical Reporting Remember the ethics of journalism: Seek the truth.

Janet Cooke (scandal)  Janet Cooke was a reporter for the Washington Post during the early 1980s.  In 1980 her story, "Jimmy's World", about an 8 year old heroin addict, sparked a frenzied 17-day scouring of Washington, D.C. in search of child addicts: none was found.  The article won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize for journalism.  Shortly afterward, Cooke confessed that "Jimmy" was a fabrication, claiming that he was a composite of several child addicts, and returned the prize.  She also admitted to having padded her resume and resigned from the Post.

NBC Dateline (1992) scandal  In a November 1992 segment on its Dateline news program called "Waiting to Explode", NBC showed a General Motors truck exploding after a low-speed side collision with another car.  The explosion, though, was actually generated by hidden remote-controlled incendiary devices. GM sued and eventually won a settlement.

Stephen Glass (1998) scandal  Stephen Glass was a reporter and associate editor for The New Republic magazine during the late 1990s.  On May 8, 1998, Forbes Magazine presented The New Republic with evidence that Glass completely fabricated the story "Hack Heaven", an article about a 15-year-old computer hacker who breaks into a large company's computer system and is then offered a job by the company.  Glass was fired, and an internal investigation determined that 27 of 41 articles he had written for the magazine contained fabricated material.

Mike Barnicle (scandal)  Mike Barnicle was a long-time journalist for the Boston Globe who was removed from his position.  Barnicle was accused of violating several rules of reporting, but was removed from the Globe when it was discovered he fabricated quotes from parents of a sick child.