Ben Bagdikian

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Infobox person Ben-hur Haig Bagdikian<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (January 30, 1920 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist, news media critic and commentator,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and university professor. An Armenian genocide survivor, he moved to the United States as an infant and began a journalism career after serving in World War II. He worked as a local reporter, investigative journalist and foreign correspondent for The Providence Journal. During his time there, Bagdikian won a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize. In 1971, he received parts of the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg and successfully persuaded The Washington Post to publish them despite objections and threats from the Richard Nixon administration. He later taught at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and served as its dean from 1985 to 1988.

Bagdikian was a critic of the news media.Template:Sfn His 1983 book The Media Monopoly, warning about the growing concentration of corporate ownership of news organizations, went through several editions and influenced, among others, Noam Chomsky. He has been hailed for his ethical standards and has been described by Robert W. McChesney as one of the finest journalists of the 20th century.

Personal life

Background

Ben-Hur Haig Bagdikian,<ref name="WaPo"/><ref name="Pietsch"/> born in Marash, Ottoman Empire, on January 30, 1920, was the fifth and youngest child of Armenian parents Aram Toros "Theodore" BagdikianTemplate:Sfn (1882−1957) and Dudeh "Daisy" Uvezian (1886−1923).<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> He had four sisters.Template:Sfn His mother's family was well-off, while his father came from a peasant family. He did graduate work at the American University of Beirut.Template:Sfn The family was mostly based in Tarsus, where his father taught physics and chemistry at St. Paul's College in Tarsus, run by Boston Congregationalists.<ref name="Pietsch"/><ref name="harvardsquarelibrary"/>Template:Sfn His family knew English well.Template:Sfn His father also spoke Armenian, Turkish, Arabic, and learned the Biblical languages.Template:Sfn

His family left Marash on February 9, 1920, just ten days after Ben was born. They left during the Armenian genocide,<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> as Turkish forces reached the city, while the French retreated.Template:Sfn While escaping persecution, Bagdikian was dropped in the snow in the mountains while the family was climbing. Only an infant, he was thought to be dead. He was picked up when he began to cry.<ref name="WaPo"/><ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> They arrived, first, in Boston and subsequently settled in Stoneham, Massachusetts. His father was a pastor at several Armenian churches in the Boston area (in Watertown, Cambridge) and Worcester. He had taken courses at the Harvard Divinity School and had been ordained.Template:Sfn When Bagdikian was three years old his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis almost immediately after arrival in Boston and died three years later, after spending some time hospitalized in sanatoriums.<ref name="Pietsch"/>Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bagdikian was known throughout his life as Ben, though his baptismal name was Ben-Hur, after the Christian-themed historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> Bagdikian grew up during the Great Depression, which, according to Robert D. McFadden, enforced a "passion for social justice that shaped his reporting."<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> He described himself as an "Armenian overlaid by, of all things, the culture of New England Yankee."<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/>

Religion

Due to his father's role, Bagdikian regularly attended sermons and "disliked the avenging God of the Old Testament and was outraged when Abraham was prepared to obey the order to sacrifice his son as a gesture of faith."<ref name="harvardsquarelibrary"/> Later in adulthood, Bagdikian became a member of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Rhode Island.<ref name="harvardsquarelibrary"/>

Education and military service

Bagdikian initially aspired to become a doctor because of his mother's illness and his father's collection of books on pulmonary diseases that he read.Template:Sfn He graduated from Stoneham High School in 1937.Template:Sfn He thereafter attended Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a pre-medical student.<ref name="harvardsquarelibrary"/> He was editor of The Clark News, the college newspaper. He renamed it to The Clark Scarlet, based on the school's colors. The university president, Wallace Walter Atwood, suspected it was too closely associated with communism.<ref name="clarku">Template:Cite news()</ref>Template:Sfn Having taken many chemistry courses he sought to apply for a job as a chemist upon graduating from Clark in 1941.Template:Sfn<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> He had the opportunity to work as a lab assistant at Monsanto in Springfield, Massachusetts.Template:Sfn

He served as a navigator (first lieutenant) in the United States Army Air Forces from May 1942 to January 1946.<ref name="agbu">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nyt McFadden"/> He had volunteered to join the Air Forces immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.Template:Sfn

Marriages

Bagdikian married Elizabeth (Betty) Ogasapian in 1942, with whom he had two sons: Aram Christopher "Chris" Bagdikian (1944−2015) and Frederick, Jr. "Eric" Bagdikian (born 1951). They divorced in 1972.<ref name="Pietsch"/><ref name="nyt McFadden"/> His second marriage, to Betty Medsger, a Washington Post reporter, ended in divorce as well.<ref name="WaPo"/> His third wife was Marlene Griffith (born Marie Helene Ungar in Vienna), whom he married in 1983.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Pietsch"/><ref name="nyt McFadden"/>

Death

Bagdikian died at his home in Berkeley, California, on March 11, 2016, aged 96.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A memorial service was held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley on June 2, 2016.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career

Throughout his career, Bagdikian contributed to more than 200 national magazines and journals.<ref name="whoswho"/>

During his college years Bagdikian worked as a reporter for the Worcester Gazette and Springfield Morning Union.Template:Sfn<ref name="sfgate"/> After World War II he briefly joined the staff of Flying Traveler, a magazine for private flying in New York.Template:Sfn

The Providence Journal

Bagdikian began working for the Providence Journal in 1947 as a reporter and Washington bureau chief. He also served as a local reporter. Bagdikian and Journal editor and publisher Sevellon Brown won a Peabody Award in 1951 for their "most exacting, thorough and readable check-up of broadcasts" of Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson, and Fulton Lewis, leading TV and radio commentators.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/><ref name="WaPo"/> He was a member of the staff that received the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, Edition Time for coverage of a bank robbery in East Providence (including an ensuing police chase and hostage standoff) that resulted in the death of a patrolman.<ref name="providencejournal"/><ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Bagdikian later described the paper as one of the better papers, besides their pro-Republican and anti-union editorials.Template:Sfn

As a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, he covered the Suez Crisis in the fall of 1956 riding with an Israeli tank crew.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> In 1957, Bagdikian covered the civil rights movement, especially the crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the fall of that year he traveled to the South with black reporter James "Jim" N. Rhea<ref name="providencejournal"/><ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> to cover the widespread discontent of the whites with the Supreme Court order to desegregate public schools.Template:Sfn

Freelance

Bagdikian began a freelance career after leaving the Providence Journal in 1961.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> He researched media matters at the Library of Congress with the Guggenheim Fellowship he was awarded in 1961.<ref name="Guggenheim"/><ref name="sfgate"/> Subsequently, he was a Washington-based contributing editor of The Saturday Evening Post from 1963 to 1967. He also wrote for The New York Times Magazine when he focused on social issues, such as poverty, housing, and migration. Bagdikian researched news media at the RAND Corporation in 1969–70 and published a book titled The Information Machines: Their Impact on Men and the Media in 1971․ Edwin B. Parker of Stanford University praised the report for its readability, and breadth and depth of Bagdikian's "perception of technological and economic trends and his insight into potential social and political consequences."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Washington Post

Bagdikian joined The Washington Post in 1970 and later served as its assistant managing editor and in 1972 its second ombudsman as a representative of the readers.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/><ref name="WaPo"/>

In June 1971 Bagdikian, as the assistant managing editor for national news at the Post, met with Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst and former RAND Corporation colleague, who in a Boston-area motel<ref name="Secrets">Template:Cite book</ref> passed him 4,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers, excerpts from which were published by The New York Times days earlier and halted by a federal judge.<ref name="WaPo"/> Bagdikian flew with the Papers to Washington, where he physically presented them in large boxes to executive editor Ben Bradlee at the latter's home; he also gave the Papers to US Senator Mike Gravel on June 26 <ref name="wapo090907">Template:Cite news</ref> in front of the Mayflower Hotel.<ref name="uu2001">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Democracy Now 2007">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="nyt McFadden"/><ref name="WaPo"/> While the Post lawyers and management were opposed,Template:Sfn Bagdikian argued strongly in favor of publication of the documents despite pressure from the Nixon administration not to on national security grounds.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Bagdikian famously stated: "the (only) way to assert the right to publish is to publish."<ref name="WaPo"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn The first part was published by the Post on June 18, 1971.Template:Sfn William Rehnquist phoned Post executive editor Bradlee and threatened him with prosecution if the publication of the documents was not stopped. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court decided 6–3 that "to exercise prior restraint, the Government must show sufficient evidence that the publication would cause a 'grave and irreparable' danger."<ref name="WaPo"/>

Just months after the publication of the Pentagon Papers Bagdikian became an undercover inmate at the Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania, to expose the harsh prison conditions.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> With permission from the attorney general of Pennsylvania, he disguised himself as a murderer to observe the prison life without the knowledge of anyone inside the prison. He remained there for six days and his eight-part series on the conditions of the prison were published in the Post from January 29 to February 6, 1972.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He reported "widespread racial tension behind bars, outbursts of violence, open 'homosexualism' and an elaborate, yet fragile, code of etiquette." Bagdikian and Post reporter Leon Dash published the series first as a report in 1972 and later as a book (1976).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="WaPo"/>

Bagdikian left the Post in August 1972 after clashing with Bradlee "as a conduit of outside and internal complaints."<ref name="WaPo"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

UC Berkeley

Bagdikian wrote for the Columbia Journalism Review from 1972 to 1974.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> He taught at University of California, Berkeley from 1976 until his retirement in 1990. He taught courses such as Introduction to Journalism and Ethics in Journalism.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was the dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism from 1985 to 1988.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/><ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> He was named Professor Emeritus upon departure.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Media criticism

In an interview with PBS's Frontline Bagdikian stated that while the First Amendment allows newspapers to print anything, especially unpopular things, newspapers have an implied moral obligation to be responsible, because of their power on popular opinion and because the First Amendment was "framed with the supposition that there would be multiple sources of information."<ref name="frontline"/>

Bagdikian was an early advocate of in-house critics, or ombudsmen in newspapers, who he believed, would "address public concerns about journalistic practices."<ref name="WaPo"/> He described the treatment of news about tobacco and related health issues as "one of the original sins of the media," because "for decades, there was suppression of medical evidence ... plain suppression."<ref name="frontline"/> Bagdikian criticized the wide use of anonymous sources in news media, the acceptance of government narratives by reporters, particularly on "national security" grounds.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Bagdikian formulated a law, dubbed the Bagdikian Law of Journalism: "The accuracy of news reports of an event is inversely proportional to the number of reporters on the scene."<ref name="nyt McFadden"/>

He was a harsh critic of TV news and the celebrity status of news anchors, which he argued, was the "worst thing that can happen to a journalist." He noted, "The job of the celebrity is to be observed, to make sure others learn about him or her, to be the object of attention rather than an observer."<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Bagdikian stressed the importance of local media. He argued that only locally based journalism can adequately report the local issues and candidates, otherwise "voters become captives of the only alternative information, paid political propaganda, or no information at all."<ref name="Nichols nation"/> Regarding online journalism, Bagdikian stated that there is "lots of junk on it, but it's still an outlet for an independent with no money but plenty of ingenuity and skill, like MoveOn.org. It's not controlled by the corporations. Not yet."<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/>

Bagdikian was a regular New York Times reader, and appreciated The Nation, The Progressive, alternative radio, The New York Review of Books; he also read Time and Newsweek to "get a view of the total picture most magazine readers are getting." He also occasionally read the National Review and The Weekly Standard "to know what the right is thinking." Bagdikian recommended The Nation, The Progressive and Newsweek for those who wanted to stay informed but have limited time to do so.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/>

In 1987 Bagdikian testified on the effects of profit on news reporting before the House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, along with economist John Kenneth Galbraith.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Both Galbraith and Bagdikian voiced their concerns about the takeover of TV networks by large corporations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Publications

Bagdikian's first book, In the Midst of Plenty: The Poor in America, was published in 1964 by Beacon Press and covered various categories of poverty in America, including the poor in Appalachia, the elderly in Los Angeles, men in flophouses in Chicago, and others.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> His studies at the RAND Corporation produced two books: The Information Machines: Their Impact on Men and the Media and The Effete Conspiracy and Other Crimes by the Press, published by Harper & Row in 1971 and 1972, respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His memoir, Double Vision: Reflections on My Heritage, Life and Profession, was published by Beacon Press in 1995.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Media Monopoly

In 1983 Bagdikian authored a widely cited and acclaimed work,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Media Monopoly, which was published by Beacon Press after it was rejected by Simon & Schuster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Richard E. Snyder, Simon & Schuster's president, was, according to Bagdikian, "vehemently opposed to the manuscript, because, among other reasons, [Snyder] felt it made all corporations look bad."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The book examines the increasing concentration of the media in the US in the hands of corporate owners, which, he argued, threatened freedom of expression and independent journalism. He wrote that some 50 corporations controlled what most people in the United States read and watched.<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Bagdikian argued that "media power is political power."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The book went into 5 more editions—in 1987, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2000. In 2004, The New Media Monopoly was published, essentially the 7th edition of the original.<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/> In 2000 Bagdikian stated, "Every edition has been considered by some to be alarmist and every edition ends up being too conservative."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In this latest version, Bagdikian wrote that the number of corporations controlling most of the media decreased to five: Disney, News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom, and Bertelsmann.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He argued, "This gives each of the five corporations and their leaders more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history."<ref name="nyt McFadden"/>

The book became a "standard text for many college classes"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and, along with Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in the opinion of Neil Henry, is a work that is the "most widely cited scholarly work about the effects of economics on modern news media practices, including market and political pressures that determine news content."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The book was criticized by Jack Shafer for alleged bias.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Christian Science Monitor, though accepting such problems, declared that it is a "groundbreaking work that charts a historic shift in the orientation of the majority of America's communications media—further away from the needs of the individual and closer to those of big business."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Political views

Bagdikian was a self-proclaimed advocate for social justice.Template:Sfn He described the McCarthy era as "very reactionary."Template:Sfn In 1997 Bagdikian opined that "criticizing capitalism has never been a popular subject in the general news."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the 2000 U.S. presidential election Bagdikian endorsed Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate. He was a founding member of the grassroots network Armenians for Nader. He stated: "I think Ralph Nader has already powerfully defined the issues in this campaign and has had influence on the positions of both major party candidates."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He argued that "there's a natural hostility among corporate organizations toward Nader, because they see him as the person who's embarrassed them endlessly and sees them as part of the national political problem."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He appeared on KPFK along with Serj Tankian and Peter Balakian on April 24, 2005, to talk about the Armenian Genocide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had a 200-page file on Bagdikian spanning from 1951 to 1971. One document described him as well known in FBI files as a "writer who has criticized the FBI in the past. He has made snide remarks relative to" FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and "some of his work has been described [specifically, by Hoover] as 'utter bunk'."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When Bagdikian requested all his FBI record under the Freedom of Information Act in 1975, the FBI withheld records on the part he played in the Pentagon Papers case. They were not released until 2018.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Legacy and recognition

C. Edwin Baker describes Bagdikian as "probably the most quoted, certainly one of the most acute, commentators on media ownership."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Arthur S. Hayes, Fordham University professor, wrote in his 2008 book Press Critics Are the Fifth Estate that Bagdikian has been "farsighted, inspirational, influential, long lasting, and a forerunner."Template:Sfn<ref name="WaPo"/> Sociologist Alfred McClung Lee praised Bagdikian as having the virtues of both an investigative journalist and a participant-observing social scientist.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Robert D. McFadden of The New York Times called Bagdikian "a celebrated voice of conscience for his profession, calling for tougher standards of integrity and public service in an era of changing tastes and technology."<ref name="nyt McFadden"/> Edward Wasserman, the dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism at the time of his death, Bagdikian was a "major figure in 20th century US journalism and journalism education, and we're all his beneficiaries."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="sfgate"/> Jeff Cohen, the founder of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) stated: Template:Quote frame

Michael Moore has named The Media Monopoly the most influential book he ever read.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Robert W. McChesney, who cites Bagdikian as one of the strongest influences on him, called Bagdikian one of the finest journalists of the 20th century.Template:Sfn McChesney argued that Bagdikian was "certainly accorded more respect by working journalists" than Herman and Chomsky, the authors of Manufacturing Consent, due to their perceived radicalism, in contrast to Bagdikian's liberal views.Template:Sfn Progressive journalist and writer John Nichols, writing for The Nation, called Bagdikian a "pioneering media reformer."<ref name="Nichols nation"/> In an interview with Democracy Now!, he said of Bagdikian : Template:Quote frame

The Pentagon Papers controversy at The Washington Post was recounted in the Steven Spielberg film The Post (2017), where Bagdikian was played by Bob Odenkirk.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards and honors

• Peabody Award (1950)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, Edition Time (staff contributor; 1953)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Hillman Prize (1956) for his series on civil liberties<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Guggenheim Fellowship (1961)<ref name="Guggenheim">Template:Cite news</ref>
• James Madison Award (1998)<ref name="berkeleydailyplanet"/><ref name="whoswho"/>

Bagdikian received honorary degrees, among others, from<ref name="whoswho"/> Brown University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1961),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Clark University (Doctor of Letters, 1963),<ref name="clarku"/> Berkeley Citation from University of California, Berkeley (equivalent of an honorary degree, 1990),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="sfgate"/> University of Rhode Island (Doctor of Letters, 1992).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was the commencement speaker of the 1972 Journalism Convocation of Northwestern University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The fellowship program of the progressive magazine Mother Jones is named for Bagdikian due to his "professional record, his personal integrity, and his commitment to social justice."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bagdikian was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame on October 30, 2016. According to the board he had "long and significant ties to Rhode Island."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bibliography

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External links

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