Gerald Posner
Encyclopedia
Gerald Posner is an investigative journalist
and author
of several books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald
and the Assassination of JFK
(1993) which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination
, and Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray
and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A journalism scandal, involving his articles and books, arose in 2010.
Posner was educated at St. Ignatius College Preparatory
(1972), the University of California, Berkeley
(1975), and Hastings Law School (1978). He worked for prominent law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore
until 1980 when he went into private practice with a partner. John Martin of ABC News says "Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism." Garry Wills
calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter," while John Balzar, reviewing one of his books in the Los Angeles Times
, dubs him "a classic-style investigative journalist." Richard Bernstein, reviewing one of his books in the New York Times, lauded his "exhaustive research techniques".
When Posner was hired at Cravath at age 23, he was one of the youngest attorneys ever hired by them. A Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1975), he was an Honors Graduate of Hastings Law School (1978), where he served as the Associate Executive Editor for the Law Review. He left the law in 1986, when his first book, about Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele
's life on the run, was published by McGraw Hill.
He is married to author and journalist Trisha Posner.
acted alone in the assassination
of John F. Kennedy
and Oswald's assailant, Jack Ruby
, acted independently as well. Case Closed was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for History
. It was also the subject of a double issue of U.S. News and World Report, and featured on programs such as ABC
's 20/20, CBS
Special Reports, and PBS
's Frontline. The book has been optioned for a television miniseries.
Posner testified before Congress about the findings in Case Closed. However, the veracity of elements of his testimony has been questioned. In particular, certain individuals that Posner claimed to have interviewed (James Tague
, a witness lightly wounded in the assassination, and J. Thorton Boswell, one of the autopsy pathologists) said that they had never spoken to Posner, and both autopsy pathologists denied positions that Posner attributed to them. Posner claimed that he had tapes of himself interviewing Tague and Boswell. Posner also cited his phone bill as evidence of the conversations. However, he made the bill available on only a restricted basis, and discrepancies in the bill have resulted in questions about its validity. Posner never replied to repeated requests from the governmental Assassination Records Review Board for his interview materials, despite initial promises during his Congressional testimony that he would make these available.
Case Closed drew widespread criticism from assassination researchers who contended that it contained factual inaccuracies. For example, historian David Wrone
wrote that "massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book". Vincent Bugliosi
, whose own book Reclaiming History
largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, accused Posner of "omissions and distortions" but also described Case Closed as "an impressive work".
al-Qaeda
terrorists who were responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks
. In the book Posner claims that Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
had ties to al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This assertion was strongly denied by Prince Ahmed's family, who pointed out that he in fact loved America, spent time at his home there, and invested heavily in the American horse racing industry. Prince Ahmed, two other Saudi princes named by Posner, and the chief of the Pakistani Air Force, all died within days of each other, either from a blood clot after a simple operation, a car wreck involving only one vehicle, dehydration in the desert, or a sabotaged helicopter explosion. Three of the men were in their forties, and one in his twenties. In Why America Slept, Posner became the first journalist to reveal the details of an American interrogation against one of the highest ranking Al Qaeda suspects caught to date. Why America Slept reached #2 on the New York Times best-seller list.
for the 2000 presidential election, and wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial
shortly after the 9/11 attacks
reversing his opinion of George W. Bush
. Later he changed his opinion again; in October, 2006, in "An Open Letter to the President," published on The Huffington Post, he reverted to his original position that Bush was a bad president stifled by his stubbornness. He has also written about investigative issues for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, Newsweek, Time, the Miami Herald, and the Daily Telegraph. He is a regular contributor to NBC's Today Show, as well as other national shows on the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, and CBS. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
. A member of the National Advisory Board of the National Writers Union
, Posner is also a member of the Authors Guild, International PEN
, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Phi Beta Kappa. He works on all his projects with his wife Trisha Posner, who is also an author and artist.
also found that Posner “seems to add, subtract, or misattribute quotes” and displayed a series of such “apparently altered or misattributed quotes”. For all the examples shown, Posner cited a source article, where an examination of the source showed that the quote given in Posner’s writing was either substantially altered (e.g. words added), never said by the subject, misattributed, or used out of context.
Gerald Posner subsequently hired attorney Mark Lane
, threatening litigation against the Miami New Times
on grounds of tortious interference
(i.e. that its investigation and reporting of this case damaged Posner’s business relationship with his publishers) and emotional distress. In a press release, Posner stated "Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal. That's why Mark Lane was the obvious choice as my own attorney." Soon thereafter, the Miami New Times
published evidence of additional plagiarism from multiple sources in both Secrets of the Kingdom and Why America Slept. According to Poynter Institute
senior scholar Roy Peter Clark, "This constitutes plagiarism by any definition I can think of....The capturing of someone else's material that is this extensive cannot, in my opinion, have been done accidentally." Evidence was also presented indicating that Posner had repeatedly “scrubbed” elements of the journalism scandal from his Wikipedia page. According to Posner, the media reports detailing his journalistic transgressions were actually the result of a "coordinated effort" to "discredit my book Miami Babylon" because of the book's "unvarnished and investigative history".
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of several books, including Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
and the Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
(1993) which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
, and Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....
and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
A journalism scandal, involving his articles and books, arose in 2010.
Biography
Posner was born in San Francisco, the only child of Jerry and Gloria Posner, native San Franciscans. His father was a labor union official.Posner was educated at St. Ignatius College Preparatory
St. Ignatius College Preparatory
St. Ignatius College Preparatory is a preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1855. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, St. Ignatius is one of the oldest secondary schools in the U.S. state...
(1972), the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(1975), and Hastings Law School (1978). He worked for prominent law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is a prominent American law firm based in New York City, with an additional office in London. The second oldest firm in the country, Cravath was founded in 1819 and consistently ranks first among the world's most prestigious law firms according to a survey of partners,...
until 1980 when he went into private practice with a partner. John Martin of ABC News says "Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism." Garry Wills
Garry Wills
Garry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...
calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter," while John Balzar, reviewing one of his books in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, dubs him "a classic-style investigative journalist." Richard Bernstein, reviewing one of his books in the New York Times, lauded his "exhaustive research techniques".
When Posner was hired at Cravath at age 23, he was one of the youngest attorneys ever hired by them. A Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1975), he was an Honors Graduate of Hastings Law School (1978), where he served as the Associate Executive Editor for the Law Review. He left the law in 1986, when his first book, about Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
's life on the run, was published by McGraw Hill.
He is married to author and journalist Trisha Posner.
Case Closed
In his book Case Closed, Posner contended that Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
acted alone in the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Oswald's assailant, Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
, acted independently as well. Case Closed was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for History
Pulitzer Prize for History
The Pulitzer Prize for History has been awarded since 1917 for a distinguished book upon the history of the United States. Many history books have also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography...
. It was also the subject of a double issue of U.S. News and World Report, and featured on programs such as ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's 20/20, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Special Reports, and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
's Frontline. The book has been optioned for a television miniseries.
Posner testified before Congress about the findings in Case Closed. However, the veracity of elements of his testimony has been questioned. In particular, certain individuals that Posner claimed to have interviewed (James Tague
James Tague
James "Jim" Thomas Tague was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. He received a minor wound on his right cheek during the assassination. He is the only person, in addition to Kennedy and Texas Governor John B...
, a witness lightly wounded in the assassination, and J. Thorton Boswell, one of the autopsy pathologists) said that they had never spoken to Posner, and both autopsy pathologists denied positions that Posner attributed to them. Posner claimed that he had tapes of himself interviewing Tague and Boswell. Posner also cited his phone bill as evidence of the conversations. However, he made the bill available on only a restricted basis, and discrepancies in the bill have resulted in questions about its validity. Posner never replied to repeated requests from the governmental Assassination Records Review Board for his interview materials, despite initial promises during his Congressional testimony that he would make these available.
Case Closed drew widespread criticism from assassination researchers who contended that it contained factual inaccuracies. For example, historian David Wrone
David Wrone
David R. Wrone is a retired Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point who taught reform history, the Great Books of Western Civilization, Indian history, and the JFK assassination.-Biography:...
wrote that "massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book". Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi
Vincent Bugliosi is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. His most recent books are Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Prosecution of George W...
, whose own book Reclaiming History
Reclaiming History
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy is a book by attorney Vincent Bugliosi that analyzes the events leading up to and including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, focusing on the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. The book is drawn from many sources,...
largely agrees with Posner's conclusions, accused Posner of "omissions and distortions" but also described Case Closed as "an impressive work".
Secrets of the Kingdom
In his 2005 book Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection, Posner provides an account of the "close" business and personal relationship between the House of Saud and the U.S. government, including discussions of "dirty bomb" technology and the financial and political maneuvering surrounding 9/11. Posner also asserts that the Saudis have built an elaborate doomsday scenario around their oil fields. The Saudis have denied this, and some skepticism has been expressed about the plausibility of Posner's account of such a scheme. According to Posner, he and his wife, Trisha, have been banned from entering Saudi Arabia as a result of this book.Why America Slept
Another 2003 book by Posner, Why America Slept, discusses the conspiracy of the ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
terrorists who were responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. In the book Posner claims that Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
Prince Ahmed bin Salman was a member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia and a media executive who also was a major figure in international Thoroughbred horse racing....
had ties to al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This assertion was strongly denied by Prince Ahmed's family, who pointed out that he in fact loved America, spent time at his home there, and invested heavily in the American horse racing industry. Prince Ahmed, two other Saudi princes named by Posner, and the chief of the Pakistani Air Force, all died within days of each other, either from a blood clot after a simple operation, a car wreck involving only one vehicle, dehydration in the desert, or a sabotaged helicopter explosion. Three of the men were in their forties, and one in his twenties. In Why America Slept, Posner became the first journalist to reveal the details of an American interrogation against one of the highest ranking Al Qaeda suspects caught to date. Why America Slept reached #2 on the New York Times best-seller list.
Miami Babylon
This 2009 book explores the history of Miami Beach, with a particular focus on corruption, extravagance, and the drug trade. Some of the individuals interviewed by Posner for Miami Babylon have complained of severe misquoting and inaccuracies. Miami Babylon has been optioned for a television series.Editorial writings
Posner was the Chief Investigative Reporter for The Daily Beast, until his dismissal due to plagiarism. He was a strong supporter of Al GoreAl Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
for the 2000 presidential election, and wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
shortly after the 9/11 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
reversing his opinion of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Later he changed his opinion again; in October, 2006, in "An Open Letter to the President," published on The Huffington Post, he reverted to his original position that Bush was a bad president stifled by his stubbornness. He has also written about investigative issues for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, Newsweek, Time, the Miami Herald, and the Daily Telegraph. He is a regular contributor to NBC's Today Show, as well as other national shows on the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, and CBS. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
. A member of the National Advisory Board of the National Writers Union
National Writers Union
National Writers Union , founded on November 19, 1981, is the trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book and short fiction authors, business and technical writers, web content providers, and poets...
, Posner is also a member of the Authors Guild, International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Phi Beta Kappa. He works on all his projects with his wife Trisha Posner, who is also an author and artist.
Plagiarism and alleged quote falsification
Posner was the chief investigative reporter at the Daily Beast. Following the revelation that a number of Posner's stories for the Beast contained portions plagiarized from articles in other publications, Posner resigned from the Beast. According to Posner, the plagiarism was inadvertent and the result of the "compressed deadlines" of the Beast and confusing his assembled research with his own writing in the "master files" he assembled on each story. Allegations of plagiarism also surfaced concerning his latest book, Miami Babylon (October 2009). Posner said the Miami Babylon plagiarism occurred because of a new system of “trailing endnotes”, because an individual he interviewed read one of the plagiarized sources and reiterated it during the interview, and because he mistook other people’s writing for his own after scanning source documents into a computer database. The Miami New TimesMiami New Times
The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
also found that Posner “seems to add, subtract, or misattribute quotes” and displayed a series of such “apparently altered or misattributed quotes”. For all the examples shown, Posner cited a source article, where an examination of the source showed that the quote given in Posner’s writing was either substantially altered (e.g. words added), never said by the subject, misattributed, or used out of context.
Gerald Posner subsequently hired attorney Mark Lane
Mark Lane
Mark Lane may refer to:*Mark Lane , JFK assassination researcher who wrote Rush to Judgment*Mark Lane , English cricketer now coach of the England women's cricket team*Mark Lane , New Zealand cricketer...
, threatening litigation against the Miami New Times
Miami New Times
The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
on grounds of tortious interference
Tortious interference
Tortious interference, also known as intentional interference with contractual relations, in the common law of tort, occurs when a person intentionally damages the plaintiff's contractual or other business relationships...
(i.e. that its investigation and reporting of this case damaged Posner’s business relationship with his publishers) and emotional distress. In a press release, Posner stated "Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal. That's why Mark Lane was the obvious choice as my own attorney." Soon thereafter, the Miami New Times
Miami New Times
The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
published evidence of additional plagiarism from multiple sources in both Secrets of the Kingdom and Why America Slept. According to Poynter Institute
Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a non-profit school for journalism located in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school's mission statement says that "The Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of...
senior scholar Roy Peter Clark, "This constitutes plagiarism by any definition I can think of....The capturing of someone else's material that is this extensive cannot, in my opinion, have been done accidentally." Evidence was also presented indicating that Posner had repeatedly “scrubbed” elements of the journalism scandal from his Wikipedia page. According to Posner, the media reports detailing his journalistic transgressions were actually the result of a "coordinated effort" to "discredit my book Miami Babylon" because of the book's "unvarnished and investigative history".
External links
- Official home page
- Posner's blog
- Slate.com: "Gerald Posner, Weathervane"
- Houston Chronicle: "Writer says allies knew about 9/11 beforehand"
- The Right Perspective interview about Posner's book, Why America Slept... (audio archive)
- Interview of Gerald Posner for the podcast The Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseThe Skeptics' Guide to the UniverseThe Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is a weekly, 80 minute podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, and a panel of "skeptical rogues". It is the official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, and is produced in conjunction with the James Randi Educational Foundation...
.
See also
- Journalism scandalsJournalism scandalsJournalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.-Journalistic...