Russ Baker
Encyclopedia
Russ Baker is a US
investigative journalist and founder of the nonprofit website WhoWhatWhy.com. His recurring themes are politics, secrecy, and abuses of power. His recent writings have focused on elites in finance, resource extraction, military and intelligence operations, and their quiet influence over national and global political and economic affairs.
In 2009 Bloomsbury published his book Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. Family of Secrets was released in paperback in November 2009, under the title Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years. The book has been reviewed by many print and electronic journals.
Baker has written for many US publications including the New Yorker
, Vanity Fair
, the New York Times, The Nation
, the Los Angeles Times
, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, Esquire
, Slate
and Salon
, and served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review
. Internationally, his work has appeared in dozens of top publications including: The Globe & Mail
(Canada); The Sunday Times
, The Guardian
, and The Observer
(UK); Der Spiegel
and Frankfurter Allgemeine
(Germany), La Repubblica
(Italy), South China Morning Post
(Hong Kong), and the Sydney Morning Herald
. Examples of his work can be found at www.russbaker.com under Archive of Articles.
He has won numerous journalism awards, including a 2005 Deadline Club award for his reporting on George W. Bush
's military record. He has served as a member of the adjunct faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
He received an MS in Journalism from Columbia University
, and a BA in Political Science from UCLA.
He also writes essays, profiles, humor, culture and travel pieces.
, he began work as an independent journalist. In 1988, he was one of a handful of foreign correspondents to cover Hutu-Tutsi massacres
in Burundi
, a precursor to the genocide
that unfolded in neighboring Rwanda
several years later. He also reported from Kenya
. In 1989, Baker arrived in East Germany just prior to the collapse of the communist government there, and was present to report on the fall of the Berlin Wall
. In December of that year, he was one of the first journalists to enter Romania
just as fighting broke out between revolutionaries and the government of the longtime dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu
. His reports from Germany
and Romania
were carried by news organizations around the world.
That same year, Baker became a New York correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor
, covering a wide range of topics, from politics to feature stories. While working for the alternative weekly Village Voice in New York
, he produced numerous investigative cover stories on such topics as corruption in the police union, the use of humanitarian international relief as cover for covert operations, and the displacement and destruction of small businesses in New York through massive commercial rent increases.
In the early 1990s, Baker served as a member of the adjunct faculty at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
.
In 1992, he reported for The Nation
about the destruction of one of the earth's last significant rainforests, in Irian Jaya, Indonesia
.
In 1995 Baker was hired by Fox Television
to serve as an investigative producer for a new primetime news magazine show in development. Though the show was ultimately not launched, Baker's report on the efforts of the controversial Church of Scientology
to recruit Michael Jackson
through Elvis Presley's daughter
aired on the program A Current Affair. In 1997, Baker traveled to Germany
on assignment for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s
George magazine
, and produced an article about a raging battle between Scientology
and the German government.
In 1998 at the height of the Clinton impeachment proceedings
related to the Monica Lewinsky Affair
, Baker produced a story for Vanity Fair
about Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana
, a leading Republican moral crusader. The article documented the married Burton's own extensive record of sexual harassment of, and affairs with, women being paid with campaign contributions and federal dollars, as well as his practice of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign powers. Prior to its publication, Burton called a preemptive press conference to condemn Baker's work and accuse him of working for the White House
, while at the same time admitting that he had done some things of which he was not proud.
As the impeachment climate continued to heat up and Vanity Fair
had not yet published the article, Baker obtained permission to take it to the online magazine Salon
, which published it the week that the Senate
voted not to convict Clinton
. Baker also worked as an outside producer for 60 Minutes
in preparation for a television piece on Burton
which never aired because Burton
declined to be interviewed by correspondent Mike Wallace
. Baker's reporting on Burton
received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists
.
In 1999 Baker traveled to France
and became the first journalist to spend time with Ira Einhorn
, the so-called Unicorn Killer, who had been 18 years on the lam for the murder of his girlfriend in Philadelphia, and was fighting an extradition process. This story appeared in the December 1999 edition of Esquire
and later in an anthology of Esquire articles.
In 2001 Baker, a Manhattan
resident, rushed to the scene where two planes had just hit the World Trade Center and was nearby when the towers came crashing down. He was watching Building Seven
as it pancaked, and described it over the phone to an editor at the Los Angeles Times
, for whom he was reporting. Baker provided the paper with extensive early coverage and interviews of eyewitnesses and survivors. In the ensuing days, he produced articles for foreign publications on the search for loved ones, the fear of retribution in Brooklyn's Muslim population, and a retrospective on the first attempt to bring down the towers, eight years earlier
.
In 2002 he received a U.S. government grant to travel to Belgrade
, Serbia
and train journalists there in investigative reporting. Baker remained beyond his contract period, staying in Serbia
into 2004. He provided additional training to journalists in Bosnia, and reported throughout the region for news organizations around the world. He covered the assassination of the Serbian reform prime minister Zoran Djindjic, and explored allegations that the triggermen answered to more powerful interests. He also wrote about corruption in Serbia's conversion to a market system. He traveled through Bosnia and Montenegro
to pursue answers to NATO's failure to capture the longtime fugitive Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic
, indicted for war crimes and genocide. This included an article about places where Karadzic
was believed to be hiding, which was published in newspapers throughout the world.
during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
and wrote articles expressing scepticism about the evidence that supposedly justified that action. He scrutinised in particular the work of New York Times reporter Judith Miller
who provided fodder for the Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein
possessed weapons of mass destruction
.
When he returned to the United States
in 2004, Baker began independent research on why George W. Bush
appeared likely to win a second term despite growing evidence that he had launched an invasion under false pretenses. He also studied the controversy over the military record of Bush's opponent John Kerry
. This led Baker to examine Bush's own military record
and to unearth new evidence that Bush himself had skipped out on two years of service during the Vietnam War
. He received a 2005 Deadline Club award for this reporting.
Shortly before the 2004 election
, Baker obtained an exclusive interview with the veteran journalist and author Mickey Herskowitz who had begun a writing collaboration with presidential candidate George W. Bush
in 1999. Bush's handlers eventually removed Herskowitz from the book project over material in the manuscript they did not like. But before then, in an unguarded moment, Bush had told him that if elected president, he hoped to invade Iraq
and remove Saddam Hussein
. His stated reason was that he had come to believe that an essential component of a popular, successful presidency was the launching and winning of a war.
According to Herskowitz, Bush
also admitted that he had not finished his military service
, claiming to have been "excused". Baker presented the story to several top publications that expressed keen interest. However, all backed down citing possible repercussions for aggressive Bush coverage. This was after the debacle in which CBS and its anchor Dan Rather had aired documents about Bush's military service that were immediately attacked as false. Baker finally gave his story to the website Guerrilla News Network
, which published it shortly before the election
.
One week after the election
, the famed White House correspondent Helen Thomas
cited Baker's article in her syndicated column, and began a concerted effort to get Bush
to explain his true motives for invading Iraq
. This pursuit by Thomas
became the subject of a satirical film by the television personality Stephen Colbert
who aired it at the White House Correspondents dinner
attended by President Bush
.
Following the election
, Baker traveled to Ohio
to assess allegations that George W. Bush
's campaign had stolen the election in that state. Baker examined several specific examples of purported improprieties and irregularities in certain Ohio counties, as well as claims that exit polls proved fraud, and concluded that they had been misrepresented. His article on this, published at the website TomPaine.com
, was vociferously attacked by proponents of the stolen election scenario, but was praised by others as evidence of Baker's evenhandedness.
Based on a growing file of perplexing information he had collected in 2004, Baker began work on an investigative history of George W. Bush
and his family, and the forces that had propelled them to power. The book was released by Bloomsbury Press in January 2009 and followed in November in paperback.
, and about still-unresolved national traumas, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy
to the removal of Richard Nixon
over Watergate
.
Baker asserts that the Bush family
had a longtime, secret association with the Central Intelligence Agency
, far predating the year in which George H.W. Bush served as CIA director. He lays out the origin of the CIA
itself in elite financial circles that included the Bush family
, their friends and their business associates. He proposes that the political triumph of the Bushes
was essentially an outgrowth of interests that continue to constrain political debate and limit the possibility of reform up to the present moment.
Baker devotes about half of his book to the secret past of George H.W. Bush, and provides four chapters of new information related to the elder Bush and the Kennedy assassination
. This research grew out of his effort to understand Bush's claim not to remember where he was on Nov. 22, 1963
. Baker includes new accounts of the struggle between Nixon
and intelligence and military cliques prior to the events that brought about the President's downfall. He suggests that the actions ascribed to Nixon
in Watergate
were in fact perpetrated by operatives assigned to compromise the President
and eventually remove him from office.
Baker also provides a new account of the secret relationship between the United States
and the Saudi royal family
, and how this relationship benefited the Bush family
and their circle. He also explores George W. Bush
's little-known past, from his disappearance from mandatory military service
to a girlfriend's abortion, to the mysterious, unprofitable international ventures in which he participated prior to becoming a politician-ventures with connections to foreign dictators and offshore accounts
.
Family of Secrets has been reviewed by many print and electronic journals. Largely positive reviews on the Internet have been tempered by mixed responses and scepticism from the traditional media. The popular blog Firedoglake said that "[w]hether Baker ends up convincing you or not, reading this book should make you question much of what you know about the last half century of US history". On Amazon
Reader Reviews, the chief archivist of the Nixon tapes writes that "enough of these connections are sufficiently well-documented as to merit serious consideration..."
Tim Rutten
of the Los Angeles Times
dismissed Baker's work on the JFK assassination as "paranoid", while a cautious Time
magazine called him "prodigiously industrious". In a Washington Post review, a freelancer combined dubiousness with praise, calling Baker "a capable investigator" but accusing him of overreaching and having "latched onto the Grand Theory of Bushativity". The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote: 'Baker, a solid investigative journalist, works hard to back up his claims... He's a man on a mission, desperate to stop the 'methods of stealth and manipulation that... reflect a deeper ill: the US public's increasingly tenuous hold upon the levers of its own democracy'.
The heaviest coverage has come from talk radio, where Baker has been interviewed by figures like Ron Reagan
, son of the ex-president, on the Air America network.
The paperback, with the subtitle The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, contains a new foreword by Texas journalist James Moore, a Bush expert and author of Bush's Brain, the bestselling study of Bush strategist Karl Rove
. It features endorsements from Gore Vidal
who called it "one of the most important books of the past ten years", Dan Rather
, historian and national security expert Roger Morris
, and Bill Moyers
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
investigative journalist and founder of the nonprofit website WhoWhatWhy.com. His recurring themes are politics, secrecy, and abuses of power. His recent writings have focused on elites in finance, resource extraction, military and intelligence operations, and their quiet influence over national and global political and economic affairs.
In 2009 Bloomsbury published his book Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. Family of Secrets was released in paperback in November 2009, under the title Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years. The book has been reviewed by many print and electronic journals.
Baker has written for many US publications including the New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, the New York Times, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, 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....
, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
and Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, and served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review
Columbia Journalism Review
The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
. Internationally, his work has appeared in dozens of top publications including: The Globe & Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
(Canada); The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
(UK); Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
and Frankfurter Allgemeine
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
(Germany), La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
(Italy), South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
(Hong Kong), and the Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
. Examples of his work can be found at www.russbaker.com under Archive of Articles.
He has won numerous journalism awards, including a 2005 Deadline Club award for his reporting on 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....
's military record. He has served as a member of the adjunct faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
He received an MS in Journalism from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and a BA in Political Science from UCLA.
He also writes essays, profiles, humor, culture and travel pieces.
Investigative journalism career
In 1988 Baker obtained a Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. After an internship with NewsdayNewsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, he began work as an independent journalist. In 1988, he was one of a handful of foreign correspondents to cover Hutu-Tutsi massacres
Burundi genocide
Since Burundi's independence in 1962, there have been two events called genocides in the country. The 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated army, and the 1993 mass killings of Tutsis by the Hutu populace are both described as genocide in the final report of the International...
in Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, a precursor to the genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
that unfolded in neighboring Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
several years later. He also reported from Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. In 1989, Baker arrived in East Germany just prior to the collapse of the communist government there, and was present to report on the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
. In December of that year, he was one of the first journalists to enter Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
just as fighting broke out between revolutionaries and the government of the longtime dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
. His reports from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
were carried by news organizations around the world.
That same year, Baker became a New York correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, covering a wide range of topics, from politics to feature stories. While working for the alternative weekly Village Voice in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, he produced numerous investigative cover stories on such topics as corruption in the police union, the use of humanitarian international relief as cover for covert operations, and the displacement and destruction of small businesses in New York through massive commercial rent increases.
In the early 1990s, Baker served as a member of the adjunct faculty at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
.
In 1992, he reported for The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
about the destruction of one of the earth's last significant rainforests, in Irian Jaya, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
In 1995 Baker was hired by Fox Television
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
to serve as an investigative producer for a new primetime news magazine show in development. Though the show was ultimately not launched, Baker's report on the efforts of the controversial Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
to recruit Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
through Elvis Presley's daughter
Lisa Marie Presley
Lisa Marie Presley is an American singer and songwriter, also known as the "Princess of Rock and Roll". She is the only child of Elvis Presley, and daughter of Priscilla Presley.-Early life:...
aired on the program A Current Affair. In 1997, Baker traveled to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on assignment for John F. Kennedy Jr.'s
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. , often referred to as John F. Kennedy, Jr., JFK Jr., John Jr. or John-John, was an American socialite, magazine publisher, lawyer, and pilot. The elder son of U.S. President John F...
George magazine
George (magazine)
George was a glossy monthly magazine centered on the theme of politics-as-lifestyle co-founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Michael J. Berman with publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in New York City in September 1995...
, and produced an article about a raging battle between Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
and the German government.
In 1998 at the height of the Clinton impeachment proceedings
Impeachment of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton, President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice on December 19, 1998, but acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of...
related to the Monica Lewinsky Affair
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
, Baker produced a story for Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
about Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana
Dan Burton
Danny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....
, a leading Republican moral crusader. The article documented the married Burton's own extensive record of sexual harassment of, and affairs with, women being paid with campaign contributions and federal dollars, as well as his practice of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign powers. Prior to its publication, Burton called a preemptive press conference to condemn Baker's work and accuse him of working for the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, while at the same time admitting that he had done some things of which he was not proud.
As the impeachment climate continued to heat up and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
had not yet published the article, Baker obtained permission to take it to the online magazine Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, which published it the week that the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
voted not to convict Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. Baker also worked as an outside producer for 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
in preparation for a television piece on Burton
Dan Burton
Danny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....
which never aired because Burton
Dan Burton
Danny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....
declined to be interviewed by correspondent Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
. Baker's reporting on Burton
Dan Burton
Danny "Dan" Lee Burton is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the , serving since 1983. He is a member of the Republican Party....
received an award from the Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
.
In 1999 Baker traveled to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and became the first journalist to spend time with Ira Einhorn
Ira Einhorn
Ira Samuel Einhorn, known as "the Unicorn Killer" , is a convicted murderer who savagely beat his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux, to death and then stored her body in a locker in his apartment for more than a year before it was discovered by the police...
, the so-called Unicorn Killer, who had been 18 years on the lam for the murder of his girlfriend in Philadelphia, and was fighting an extradition process. This story appeared in the December 1999 edition of Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
and later in an anthology of Esquire articles.
In 2001 Baker, a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
resident, rushed to the scene where two planes had just hit the World Trade Center and was nearby when the towers came crashing down. He was watching Building Seven
7 World Trade Center
7 World Trade Center is a building in New York City located across from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It is the second building to bear that name and address in that location. The original structure was completed in 1987 and was destroyed in the September 11 attacks...
as it pancaked, and described it over the phone to an editor at 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....
, for whom he was reporting. Baker provided the paper with extensive early coverage and interviews of eyewitnesses and survivors. In the ensuing days, he produced articles for foreign publications on the search for loved ones, the fear of retribution in Brooklyn's Muslim population, and a retrospective on the first attempt to bring down the towers, eight years earlier
1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...
.
In 2002 he received a U.S. government grant to travel to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and train journalists there in investigative reporting. Baker remained beyond his contract period, staying in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
into 2004. He provided additional training to journalists in Bosnia, and reported throughout the region for news organizations around the world. He covered the assassination of the Serbian reform prime minister Zoran Djindjic, and explored allegations that the triggermen answered to more powerful interests. He also wrote about corruption in Serbia's conversion to a market system. He traveled through Bosnia and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
to pursue answers to NATO's failure to capture the longtime fugitive Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
, indicted for war crimes and genocide. This included an article about places where Karadzic
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
was believed to be hiding, which was published in newspapers throughout the world.
The investigations that led to Family of Secrets
Baker was in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
and wrote articles expressing scepticism about the evidence that supposedly justified that action. He scrutinised in particular the work of New York Times reporter Judith Miller
Judith Miller (journalist)
Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
who provided fodder for the Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
possessed weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
.
When he returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2004, Baker began independent research on why 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....
appeared likely to win a second term despite growing evidence that he had launched an invasion under false pretenses. He also studied the controversy over the military record of Bush's opponent John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
. This led Baker to examine Bush's own military record
George W. Bush military service controversy
George W. Bush's National Guard service was an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign and in the 2004 presidential campaign. A controversy centered on questions of how George W...
and to unearth new evidence that Bush himself had skipped out on two years of service during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. He received a 2005 Deadline Club award for this reporting.
Shortly before the 2004 election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, Baker obtained an exclusive interview with the veteran journalist and author Mickey Herskowitz who had begun a writing collaboration with presidential candidate 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....
in 1999. Bush's handlers eventually removed Herskowitz from the book project over material in the manuscript they did not like. But before then, in an unguarded moment, Bush had told him that if elected president, he hoped to invade Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and remove Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. His stated reason was that he had come to believe that an essential component of a popular, successful presidency was the launching and winning of a war.
According to Herskowitz, 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....
also admitted that he had not finished his military service
George W. Bush military service controversy
George W. Bush's National Guard service was an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign and in the 2004 presidential campaign. A controversy centered on questions of how George W...
, claiming to have been "excused". Baker presented the story to several top publications that expressed keen interest. However, all backed down citing possible repercussions for aggressive Bush coverage. This was after the debacle in which CBS and its anchor Dan Rather had aired documents about Bush's military service that were immediately attacked as false. Baker finally gave his story to the website Guerrilla News Network
Guerrilla News Network
Guerrilla News Network, Inc. was a privately owned news web site and television production company that declared as its mission to "expose people to important global issues through cross-platform guerrilla programming." This was accomplished through the production of original articles, reporting...
, which published it shortly before the election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
.
One week after the election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, the famed White House correspondent Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas is an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager...
cited Baker's article in her syndicated column, and began a concerted effort to get 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....
to explain his true motives for invading Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. This pursuit by Thomas
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas is an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager...
became the subject of a satirical film by the television personality Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
who aired it at the White House Correspondents dinner
Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
On April 29, 2006, American comedian Stephen Colbert appeared as the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, which was held in Washington, D.C., at the Hilton Washington hotel...
attended by President 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....
.
Following the election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, Baker traveled to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
to assess allegations that 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....
's campaign had stolen the election in that state. Baker examined several specific examples of purported improprieties and irregularities in certain Ohio counties, as well as claims that exit polls proved fraud, and concluded that they had been misrepresented. His article on this, published at the website TomPaine.com
TomPaine.com
TomPaine.com is a website with news and opinion on United States politics from a liberal perspective, named after the political writer Thomas Paine. It features a mixture of original articles and links to articles on other websites....
, was vociferously attacked by proponents of the stolen election scenario, but was praised by others as evidence of Baker's evenhandedness.
Based on a growing file of perplexing information he had collected in 2004, Baker began work on an investigative history 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....
and his family, and the forces that had propelled them to power. The book was released by Bloomsbury Press in January 2009 and followed in November in paperback.
Family of Secrets
Family of Secrets is based on more than 500 interviews and thousands of documents, and features more than 1000 footnotes. It presents significant revelations about the BushesBush family
The Bush family is a prominent American family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S. Senators, one Supreme Court Justice, two Governors, one Vice President and two Presidents...
, and about still-unresolved national traumas, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy
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...
to the removal of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
over Watergate
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
.
Baker asserts that the Bush family
Bush family
The Bush family is a prominent American family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S. Senators, one Supreme Court Justice, two Governors, one Vice President and two Presidents...
had a longtime, secret association with the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, far predating the year in which George H.W. Bush served as CIA director. He lays out the origin of the CIA
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
itself in elite financial circles that included the Bush family
Bush family
The Bush family is a prominent American family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S. Senators, one Supreme Court Justice, two Governors, one Vice President and two Presidents...
, their friends and their business associates. He proposes that the political triumph of the Bushes
Bush family
The Bush family is a prominent American family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S. Senators, one Supreme Court Justice, two Governors, one Vice President and two Presidents...
was essentially an outgrowth of interests that continue to constrain political debate and limit the possibility of reform up to the present moment.
Baker devotes about half of his book to the secret past of George H.W. Bush, and provides four chapters of new information related to the elder Bush and the 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...
. This research grew out of his effort to understand Bush's claim not to remember where he was on Nov. 22, 1963
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...
. Baker includes new accounts of the struggle between Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and intelligence and military cliques prior to the events that brought about the President's downfall. He suggests that the actions ascribed to Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in Watergate
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
were in fact perpetrated by operatives assigned to compromise the President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and eventually remove him from office.
Baker also provides a new account of the secret relationship between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Saudi royal family
House of Saud
The House of Saud , also called the Al Saud, is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia and one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in the world. The family holds thousands of members...
, and how this relationship benefited the Bush family
Bush family
The Bush family is a prominent American family. Along with many members who have been successful bankers and businessmen, across three generations the family includes two U.S. Senators, one Supreme Court Justice, two Governors, one Vice President and two Presidents...
and their circle. He also explores 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....
's little-known past, from his disappearance from mandatory military service
George W. Bush military service controversy
George W. Bush's National Guard service was an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign and in the 2004 presidential campaign. A controversy centered on questions of how George W...
to a girlfriend's abortion, to the mysterious, unprofitable international ventures in which he participated prior to becoming a politician-ventures with connections to foreign dictators and offshore accounts
Offshore bank
An offshore bank is a bank located outside the country of residence of the depositor, typically in a low tax jurisdiction that provides financial and legal advantages. These advantages typically include:...
.
Family of Secrets has been reviewed by many print and electronic journals. Largely positive reviews on the Internet have been tempered by mixed responses and scepticism from the traditional media. The popular blog Firedoglake said that "[w]hether Baker ends up convincing you or not, reading this book should make you question much of what you know about the last half century of US history". On Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
Reader Reviews, the chief archivist of the Nixon tapes writes that "enough of these connections are sufficiently well-documented as to merit serious consideration..."
Tim Rutten
Tim Rutten
Tim Rutten is an American journalist who worked for the Los Angeles Times between 1971 and 2011.He started at the paper as a copy editor in the View section. Before becoming a columnist for the Calendar section in 2002, he held a number of positions, including city bureau chief and editorial writer...
of 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....
dismissed Baker's work on the JFK assassination as "paranoid", while a cautious Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine called him "prodigiously industrious". In a Washington Post review, a freelancer combined dubiousness with praise, calling Baker "a capable investigator" but accusing him of overreaching and having "latched onto the Grand Theory of Bushativity". The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote: 'Baker, a solid investigative journalist, works hard to back up his claims... He's a man on a mission, desperate to stop the 'methods of stealth and manipulation that... reflect a deeper ill: the US public's increasingly tenuous hold upon the levers of its own democracy'.
The heaviest coverage has come from talk radio, where Baker has been interviewed by figures like Ron Reagan
Ron Reagan
Ronald Prescott "Ron" Reagan sometimes known as Ronald Reagan, Jr., is a former talk radio host and chief political analyst for KIRO radio in Seattle until his show was canceled on August 8, 2007...
, son of the ex-president, on the Air America network.
The paperback, with the subtitle The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, contains a new foreword by Texas journalist James Moore, a Bush expert and author of Bush's Brain, the bestselling study of Bush strategist Karl Rove
Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential
Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential is a book by James Moore and Wayne Slater that chronicles the political career of Karl Rove and the role he has played in the elections of George W. Bush, both when running for Governor of Texas and for President. It was published in...
. It features endorsements from Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
who called it "one of the most important books of the past ten years", Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
, historian and national security expert Roger Morris
Roger Morris (American writer)
Roger Morris, born 1937, is an American public servant, historian, and political writer.-Biography:Roger Morris earned his doctorate in government from Harvard University. He entered government service in 1966 as an aide to former United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson. He first joined the...
, and Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
.
Media
- Russ Baker on Greater Boston with Emily Rooney, on the PBS station WGBH, Boston, November 11, 2009
- Russ Baker on the Ron Reagan radio show on Air America network: Part 1
- Russ Baker on the Ron Reagan radio show on Air America network: Part 2
- Russ Baker on the Ron Reagan radio show on Air America network: Part 3
- Russ Baker on the Ron Reagan radio show on Air America network: Part 4
- 11 Russ Baker on C-SPAN Book TV, March 24, 2009, reading at Book People in Austin, TX