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Murray Waas

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Murray S. Waas (born circa 1961) is an American freelance investigative journalist noted most recently for his coverage of the White House planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and ensuing controversies such as the CIA leak scandal (2003). His recent articles have appeared in The American Prospect, The National Journal, and Salon. Waas also comments on contemporary American political controversies in his blog Whatever Already! An "instant book" on United States v. I. Lewis Libby which he edited, with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco, was published by Union Square Press (an imprint of Sterling Publishing) in June 2007.

Personal history

Waas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and originally hoped to pursue a career in local politics, but he dropped out of George Washington University before graduating. In 1987, when he was twenty-six years old, he learned that he had a life-threatening "advanced form" of colon cancer, which he has survived and relating to which he successfully sued the George Washington University Medical Center, which "failed to diagnose his cancer, winning a $650,000 judgment," according to Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz; later, "he had to fight off a recurrence and his subsequent bankruptcy from medical bills." Kurtz observes that "over the years he has persuaded other reporters to steer clear of his medical history on grounds that it was private -- an interesting stance for a journalist who asks probing questions for a living." Since that experience, Waas has asserted what he says is "my responsibility to speak up against any act of prejudice against cancer survivors," receiving considerable moral support from others in the blogosphere. He currently lives in Washington, D.C.

Professional career

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While still attending college, Waas began working for Jack Anderson. His journalistic work has been published in such publications as The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Village Voice, and The Boston Globe. In his twenties he was a staff writer and investigative correspondent for the Village Voice. During the Reagan administration, Waas was among a small group of reporters involved in breaking the story of the Iran-Contra affair. He reported on Whitewater and the Clinton impeachment for Salon.com.

In 1992, Waas was a fellow with the Alicia Patterson Foundation, investigating substandard conditions and questionable deaths at institutions for the mentally retarded, mental hospitals, nursing homes, jails, prisons, and other publicly run facilities.

During the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush, in 1993, while a reporter for the The Los Angeles Times, Waas was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category of national reporting for his stories detailing that administration's prewar foreign policy towards the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. That year he was a recipient of the Harvard University Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

His reporting on the administration of George W. Bush, especially with regard to the Plame affair, has been called "groundbreaking" by New York University journalism Professor Jay Rosen, who considers Waas the "new Bob Woodward."

In the May 15, 2006 interview with Halloran, when she asked whether he was "working on stories other than those involving the Fitzgerald investigation," Waas indicated that he has "been working on a long, explanatory piece about healthcare issues, the cervical cancer vaccine." Among the questions that he raised with Halloran are: "Why isn't that vaccine going to get to the people it should get to? Is it going to be locked away?"

Main article: Cervarix

When Halloran went on to ask the subject of his "next story," Waas identified it as "another story about the level of knowledge among high-level administration officials about attempts to discredit Wilson and when they knew about it." Several of his later published accounts of that aspect of the CIA leak scandal inform his Union Square Press book on the Libby case published in June 2007, which he discusses in some detail in his interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!.

Book publication

The United States v. I. Lewis Libby, edited and with reporting by Waas, was published by Sterling Publishing's Union Square Press imprint on June 5, 2007. According to the press release, Waas has "drawn from the transcript of the trial of Scooter Libby" in editing and assembling this "instant book," which combines "pivotal testimony by key witnesses from the trial, along with original reporting and an introductory essay by Waas," who "receiv research assistance" from Jeff Lomonaco, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.

In "FDL Book Salon", Jeff Lomonaco, Waas's collaborator in preparing the book, observes:

The bulk of the book is an edited version of the trial transcript, carefully cut down from its original size of nearly one million words to a more manageable and readable length, along with the most important and illuminating of the extraordinary documentary evidence presented at the trial. Murray has simply owned this story since the beginning with his ability to get sources and documents no one else can. The book has an excellent introduction entitled 'The Last Compartment' which emphasizes what I think is at the heart of the case: the compartmentalized effort of Vice President Dick Cheney and Libby, his most important adviser, to respond to Joe Wilson’s criticisms of the OVP over its role in publicly justifying the Iraq war in part by disclosing to reporters that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA. We also offer a variety of editorial aids to making your way through the transcript.

Criticism

In May 2007, Erik Wemple, Jason Cherkis, and Chris Peterson published an eleven-page online article in the Washington City Paper entitled "Murray Waas Against the World" and captioned "A National reporter has fashioned a reputation among his peers: He's a tough act to follow", in which they examine Waas's body of journalistic work culminating in publication of the book on the Libby case. They begin by observing that in June 2006

Waas arrived at Yearly Kos, a Las Vegas bloggers’ convention, to a hero's welcome. At 47, he was the veteran reporter preaching to an audience eager for conspiracy babble. "The question that I think journalism faces, the question that I think the panel faces, and the question I think you all face is, Are some stories not even going to get covered at all?" Waas asked the packed room. "And what are you not being told? And what do you not even know you're not being told?" ... "Let's try and reclaim our media," he concluded.

"Yet, they continue, "there's a hole in the story of Waas' ascent to heroism":

Froomkin mentioned it in the column that arguably started the bandwagon rolling, concluding, "Waas' fellow reporters at major news operations should either acknowledge and try to follow up his stories—or debunk them. It's not okay to just leave them hanging out there. They're too important." ... Whether Froomkin knows it or not, many major news operations do vet Waas' pieces. ... But the majors aren't often able to advance Waas' reporting. A shared experience among Washington correspondents is following up a Waas story and coming away empty-handed. ... Perhaps Waas has simply developed sources and unearthed scoops that his competitors have never been able to get. But there's another way to look at it—namely, that many of Waas' stories fail to pan out, and many offer less than meets the eye.

While they grant that "Certainly Waas has produced good and valuable journalism," their own "story," they say, "is about the other stuff."

As Wemple and Cherkis acknowledge in their article, Waas himself has questioned repeatedly the ethics of their reports about him and his work.

See also

Notes

  1. For a perspective on Waas's work as a "net journalist" in Salon, see, for example, Matt Welch, "Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists", Online Journalism Review, March 30, 1998, accessed June 20, 2007.
  2. ^ Press release, Sterling Publishing, March 6, 2007, downloadable DOC file from publisher's "Press Room": US_v_ILewisLibby_Release.doc; cf. catalogue description; both accessed June 21, 2007. Cite error: The named reference "Sterling" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. For related information, see Murray Waas, "A Book", Whatever Already! (blog), March 6, 2007 and "Book Party", Whatever Already! (blog), June 20, 2007; both accessed June 21, 2007.
  4. ^ Liz Halloran, "A Muckraker's Day in the Sun", interview with Murray Waas, U.S. News and World Report 15 May, 2006, accessed 29 April, 2007.
  5. ^ Howard Kurtz, "Writer Sat on His Own Life-and-Death Story", The Washington Post, June 25, 2006, C-01, accessed June 21, 2007.
  6. ^ Murray Waas, "The Wag Time Pet Spa Conspiracy ... And a Cancer Survivor's Right to Respect", The Huffington Post (personal blog), December 21, 2006, accessed June 21, 2007; contains hyperlink to Kurtz's article and his own related blog entries.
  7. Jay Rosen, "Murray Waas Is Our Woodward Now", PressThink (blog), April 9, 2006, accessed June 21, 2007.
  8. Amy Goodman, "Ex-Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Convicted of Perjury, Obstruction in CIA Leak Trial", interview with Murray Waas and Marcy Wheeler, Democracy Now!, March 7, 2007, accessed June 20, 2007.
  9. "FDL Book Salon Welcomes Murray Waas and Jeff Lomonaco", online posting by "Jeff", Firedoglake (blog), June 10, 2007, accessed June 20, 2007. (Online interview with Waas and Lomonaco, who answer questions about the book in the format of an online chat with FDL Book Salon participants after an introduction by Lomonaco.)
  10. ^ Erik Wemple, and Jason Cherkis, with additional reporting by Chris Peterson, "Murray Waas Against the World": A National Journal Reporter Has Fashioned a Reputation Among His Peers: He's a Tough Act to Follow". Washington City Paper, May 16, 2007, accessed June 21, 2007 (11 pages).

References

Articles and books by Murray Waas
Others' articles and interviews of Waas

External links

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