James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author.
Early life and education
Stewart was born in
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...
. He graduated from
DePauw University
DePauw University is a private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is ...
and
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class i ...
.
Career
He is a member of the Bar of New York, the Bloomberg Professor of Business and Economic Journalism at the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City.
Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...
, Editor-at-Large of ''
SmartMoney
''SmartMoney'' was ''The Wall Street Journal''s magazine of personal business. The finance magazine launched in 1992 by Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. Its first editor was Norman Pearlstine. In 2010, Hearst sold its stake to Dow Jone ...
'' magazine, and author of ''Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff'' (2011). He is a former associate at New York law firm
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (known as Cravath) is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City, and an additional office in London. The firm is known for its complex and high profile litigation and mergers & acquisition ...
, which he left in 1979 to become executive editor of ''
The American Lawyer
''The American Lawyer'' is a monthly legal magazine and website published by ALM Media. The periodical and its parent company, ALM (then American Lawyer Media), were founded in 1979 by Steven Brill. He later joined ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', where earned the 1987
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was esta ...
for Deadline and/or Beat Writing. He shared the 1988
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism
The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear p ...
and the Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers for his articles about the 1987 dramatic upheaval in the stock market and
insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...
. These writings led to the publishing of his best-selling work of non-fiction called '' Den of Thieves'' (1991), which recounted the criminal conduct of Wall Street arbitrager
Ivan Boesky
Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937) is a former American stock trader who became infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States during the mid-1980s. He was charged and pled guilty to insid ...
and
junk bond
In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit event ...
king
Michael Milken
Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for vio ...
. Stewart became page one editor of ''The Wall Street Journal'' in 1988 and remained at the paper until 1992, when he left to help found ''
SmartMoney
''SmartMoney'' was ''The Wall Street Journal''s magazine of personal business. The finance magazine launched in 1992 by Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. Its first editor was Norman Pearlstine. In 2010, Hearst sold its stake to Dow Jone ...
''.
Stewart's book ''Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder'' (1999), won the 2000
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...
in the Best Fact Crime category. ''
DisneyWar
''DisneyWar'' is a book that serves as an exposé of Michael Eisner's 20-year tenure as chairman and CEO at The Walt Disney Company by James B. Stewart. The book chronicles the careers and interactions of executives at Disney, including Card Wal ...
'' (2005), his book on
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...
's reign at Disney, won the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book. In 2007, he was ranked 21st on '' Out'' magazine's 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America. He is currently a contributor to ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and a columnist for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', which he joined in 2011. Stewart also serves on the board of advisory trustees of his alma mater,
DePauw University
DePauw University is a private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is ...
, and is past president of that board.
Notable stories
Jeffrey Epstein
On August 12, 2019, Stewart reported on a conversation he had with convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
. Epstein reportedly told Stewart that he was advising
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...
and Tesla. Stewart was also told by Epstein that he had dirt on powerful people including personal details about their sexual activities and drug use.
On July 31, 2019, Stewart along with
Matthew Goldstein Matthew Goldstein (born November 10, 1941) is the former chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY).
Goldstein was appointed CUNY chancellor on September 1, 1999. He was the first City University graduate to head the University, having re ...
and
Jessica Silver-Greenberg
Jessica Silver-Greenberg is a business reporter for ''The New York Times'' whose investigative reporting on consumer financial issues has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress.
Silver-Greenberg was a finalist for the 2016 Pu ...
reported about Epstein's interest in
Eugenics
Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...
and how he wished to seed the human race by using his own DNA. He also reportedly wanted his head and penis frozen.
In October 2019, Stewart and Emily Flitter partnered on a piece which provided more detail as to Epstein's relationship with Microsoft founder
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
, which had started after Epstein had become a registered sex offender.
Bibliography
Books
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Rick Rescorla
Cyril Richard Rescorla (May 27, 1939 – September 11, 2001) was a British-American soldier, police officer, educator and private security specialist. He served as a British Army paratrooper during the Cyprus Emergency and a commissioned officer ...
, Morgan Stanley security director who died at WTC
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Essays and reporting
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Awards
Stewart was inducted as a Laureate of
The Lincoln Academy of Illinois
The Lincoln Academy of Illinois is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to recognizing contributions made by living Illinoisans. Named for Abraham Lincoln, the Academy administers the ''Order of Lincoln'', the highest award given ...
and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2002 in the area of Communications.
In 1996 Stewart received an honorary doctorate from Quincy University.
Stewart has earned five
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was esta ...
s: the 1987 Deadline and/or Beat Writing award for "Coverage of Wall Street Insider Trading Scandal", the 1988 Large Newspapers award for "Terrible Tuesday", the 2006 Business Book award for "DisneyWar", the 2016 Commentary award for "Inside the Boardroom", and the 2019 Feature award for "'If Bobbie Talks, I'm Finished': How Les Moonves Tried to Silence an Accuser".
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
PBS NewsHour
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...