Greg Mitchell (born 1947) is an American author and journalist who has written twelve non-fiction books on United States politics and history of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has also written and directed two film documentaries, the award-winning feature ''Atomic Cover-up'' (2021), which screened at fifteen film festivals, and in early 2022 ''The First Attack Ads: Hollywood vs. Upton Sinclair''. His latest book, published by the New Press in 2020, was the award-winning ''The Beginning or the end: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb''. His previous book, a bestseller, was published by Crown in October 2016 (and in ten editions abroad), was ''The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill''. From 2009 to 2016 he blogged on the media and politics for ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'', where he closely covered

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

. He co-produced the acclaimed 2014 film documentary "Following the Ninth," about the political and cultural influence of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In three recent books, he has addressed issues of the relations between the press and government, especially related to the conduct of the 21st-century United States wars in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He was the editor of '' Editor & Publisher'' (E&P) (2002 through 2009), Pérez-Peña, Richard
"Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews Close,"
''New York Times'' (Dec. 10, 2009). which covers the news and newspaper industry. His book, ''The Campaign of the Century'' (1992), about

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

's run for governor of California and the rise of media politics, received the 1993

Goldsmith Book Prize The Goldsmith Book Prize is a literary award for books published in the United States. Description The award is meant to recognize works that " mprovegovernment through an examination of the intersection between press, politics, and public policy. ...

for journalism. It was adapted by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

as a documentary episode for its seven-part series on ''The Great Depression'' (1993). In addition, it was adapted as a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

-style musical and received an award in California in 2006 for musical theatre. Mitchell was editor of ''Nuclear Times'' magazine (1982 to 1986), and became interested in the history of the United States' use of the atom bomb during World War II. He addressed issues related to this in a 1996 book co-written with Robert Jay Lifton, "Hiroshima in America," and a later book "Atomic Cover-up." Mitchell served as senior editor of ''

Crawdaddy The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues acts a ...

'' magazine in the 1970s.

Early life and education

Greg Mitchell was born in 1947 in

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

Career

He first worked in journalism as a summer intern for the ''

Niagara Falls Gazette The ''Niagara Gazette'', also referred to as ''The Gazette'', is a morning daily newspaper published in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, which covers several parts of Niagara County, including the Town of Niagara, and the City of Niagara ...

'' (now the ''Niagara Gazette''). In the 1970s, Mitchell began working for ''

Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine w ...

'' magazine, where he became a senior editor. With fellow editor

Peter Knobler Peter Knobler (born 1946) is an American writer living in New York City. He has collaborated on fifteen books, ten of them best sellers and was the editor-in-chief of ''Crawdaddy'' magazine from 1972 to 1979.Bruce Springsteen. They first met Springsteen and watched him perform at a promo gig in Sing Sing Prison before his first album was released.

Marriage and family

From his first marriage Mitchell has a daughter Jeni, who lives in London. After divorce, he married the writer Barbara Bedway. They live in

Nyack, New York Nyack () is a village located primarily in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retains a very small western section in Clarkstown. It is a suburb of New York City lying approximately no ...

. The couple has a son, Andy, who has become a filmmaker. Mitchell wrote about their experiences in

Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, published in magazines and newspapers including ''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 ...

'' and the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

''. His book on how the U.S. suppressed shocking footage shot by American military film crews in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ''Atomic Cover-Up'', was published in 2011. Mitchell is co-author with Robert Jay Lifton of ''Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial'' (1996) on the perceptions in the United States of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In an interview, he discussed the long-censored stories of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' correspondent

George Weller George Anthony Weller (July 13, 1907 – December 19, 2002) was an American novelist, playwright, and journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Chicago Daily News''. He won a 1943 Pulitzer Prize as a ''Daily News'' war correspondent. Welle ...

, the first Western news reporter to reach

after the atomic bombing. He wrote a second book with Lifton about capital punishment called ''Who Owns Death?'' (2002).

Political campaigns

Mitchell has written two books about notable

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

political campaigns: ''The Campaign of the Century'' (1992) examined

's race for governor in 1934 and the birth of media-driven elections.

adapted it as "We Have a Plan", the fourth of seven documentary episodes featured in ''The Great Depression'' (1993) series, produced and directed by Lyn Goldfarb.''The Great Depression'' series
Lyn Goldfarb Productions, accessed 4 February 2013 In 2011 the book was republished in new print and e-book editions.Greg Mitchell, "Upton Sinclair's EPIC Campaign"
''The Nation'', 1 November 2011, accessed 4 February 2013 It was also adapted as a

-style musical and first produced in a concert version at the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2004. The book is by Robert L. Freedman, lyrics by Freedman and

Steven Lutvak Steven Lutvak (born 1959) is an American musician based in New York City. He is a composer for theatre and film, as well as a singer-songwriter. Career Lutvak is most known for his work on ''A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'' with Rober ...

, and music by Lutvak. In 2006 it won the California Musical Theatre Award from the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild.Current Projects: ''Campaign of the Century''
Robert L. Freedman Productions, accessed 4 February 2013 Mitchell's ''Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady:

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Helen Gahagan Douglas Helen Gahagan Douglas (born Helen Mary Gahagan; November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician. Her career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and in Hollywood films. Her portrayal of the villain ...

--Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950'' (1998) studies an era in California politics as it reflected and influenced national issues in the post-World War II years. He also wrote an e-book on the Obama-Romney race in 2012 titled "Truth, Lies, and Videotape."

Views on news coverage

In 2003 and 2004, Mitchell wrote and spoke about issues in journalistic integrity. In an ''E&P'' column in 2003, Mitchell wrote about having made up some quotes in a man-in-the-street article at age 21, while working as a summer intern (what he described as his

Jayson Blair Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for ''The New York Times''. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories. Blair publi ...

moment). He was then working for the ''Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Gazette'' (now the ''Niagara Gazette'') and assigned to gather quotes from tourists at Niagara Falls. He wrote that he and other journalists learn from their mistakes. In a 2004 interview with the Echo Chamber Project, Mitchell discussed the duty of news reporters to be "skeptical."Interview with Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, Editor
Echo Chamber Project, June 28, 2004 He cited coverage of the Bush administration's justification of the

2003 War in Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

as a failure of the media to exercise skepticism. He said,

l our coverage on all subjects—is not to be partisan or not to be left or right or anything like that. But we believe in the—what should be the main principle of journalism, besides being accurate and fair, is to be skeptical—to raise questions, to not take what officials say as the gospel truth—unless it's really proven—if there's documents.

Whether covering Washington or a small town, Mitchell said,

e journalistic principle is the same: to be skeptical unless there's hard evidence and proof. And you report what someone says—"It's their claim." "It's what they say." "It's what they allege." "It's what they're trying to prove." But you don't present these things as fact if you're not sure they're fact. And what happened with the Iraq coverage was that too often newspapers—and especially television—went with stories that were based on official claims, and in retrospect, were really propaganda. Because in some cases, the officials were well-meaning. Maybe they thought that they had the evidence. But in other cases, they knew their evidence was incredibly shaky—or should have known—and yet went with the evidence claiming it was fact. And the press just, in most cases, accepted it.

Press and government

Three of Mitchell's recent books have dealt with relations between the press and government, inspired in part by revelations of Bush administration misdirection related to justification of the War in Iraq, as well as issues related to the

scandal. These are ''So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed in Iraq'' (2008)—re-published as an e-book in 2013, '' Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences'' (2011, coauthor with Kevin Gosztola), and ''The Age of WikiLeaks'' (2011).

Blogs

Mitchell blogs regularly as his own site, Pressing Issues. He also blogs for the '' Huffington Post'', among other sites. His Twitter feed is @GregMitch.

Books

''The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill''
(2016)
''Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made''
(2011)
''The Age of WikiLeaks''
(2011)
''Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences''
(2011) * ''So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed in Iraq'' (2008) * ''October Light: Paris and Auvers'', photographs by Greg Mitchell (2006) * ''Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir'' (2000/2002) * ''Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon Vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950'' (1998) * ''Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970s, from the Pages of Crawdaddy'', ed. Peter Knobler and Greg Mitchell (1995) * ''The Campaign of the Century:

's E.P.I.C. Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics'' (1992) Reissued in 2011 in print and e-book editions as ''The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics'') * ''Truth and Consequences: 7 Who Would Not Be Silenced'' (1987)

With Robert Jay Lifton

* ''Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions'' (2002) * ''Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial'' (1996)

Awards

* Winner of the 1993

for ''The Campaign of the Century'', Joan Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School"Winner of the 1993 Goldsmith Book Prize
] , Joan Shorenstein Center,

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

References

External links

Official blog

''Media Fix'' blog
''The Nation''
Interview: Greg Mitchell
''Book Reporter''
Mitchell's online column archive
''Editor & Publisher''
Excerpt: Greg Mitchell, ''Joy in Mudville''
''Book Reporter'', 2000 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Greg Living people 1947 births American anti–nuclear weapons activists American male journalists American print editors American bloggers American media critics American political writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male bloggers