Murray S. Waas
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Murray S. Waas is an American independent investigative journalist known most recently for his coverage of the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
planning for the
2003 invasion of 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 ...
and ensuing controversies and American political scandals such as the Plame affair (also known as the "
CIA leak grand jury investigation The CIA leak grand jury investigation (related to the "CIA leak scandal", also known as the "Plame affair") was a federal inquiry "into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee's identity", a possible v ...
", the " CIA leak scandal", and " Plamegate"). For much of his career, Waas focused on national security reporting, but has also written about social issues and corporate malfeasance. His articles about the second Iraq war and Plame affair matters have appeared in ''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
'', where he has worked as a staff correspondent and contributing editor, ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', and, earlier ''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
''.
Matt Welch Matthew Lee Welch (born July 31, 1968) is an American blogger, journalist, author, and libertarian political pundit. Early life Welch was born on July 31, 1968 in Bellflower, California. He was raised in Long Beach, California. He attended UC ...

"Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists"
''Online Journalism Review'' ( Annenberg School for Communication at
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
), (April 30, 1998). Retrieved August 26, 2007.
Waas also comments on contemporary American political controversies in his personal
blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s ''Whatever Already!'' and at ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''. An "instant book", the ''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 Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of a broad range of subject areas, with multiple imprints and more than 5,000 titles in print. Founded in 1949 by David A. Boehm, Sterling also publishes books for a number of brands, including AAR ...
) in June 2007.Press release,
Sterling Publishing Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of a broad range of subject areas, with multiple imprints and more than 5,000 titles in print. Founded in 1949 by David A. Boehm, Sterling also publishes books for a number of brands, including AAR ...
, March 6, 2007
"Press Room"

US_v_ILewisLibby_Release.doc
(Downloadable document file); cf
catalogue description
; both retrieved June 21, 2007. ote: The downloadable press release file is misnamed; it is not a ".pdf" file; it is a ".doc" file.!--Checked and updated check on August 16, 2007. To access the downloadable DOC file misnamed with the faulty
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
extension, one must download it and then rename it with the DOC extension prior to opening it. Acrobat Reader does not open it, because it is actually a DOC file; the error might be corrected by the publisher's website in the future.-->
For related information, see Murray Waas
"A Book"
''Whatever Already!'' (blog), March 6, 2007 an

''Whatever Already!'' (blog), June 20, 2007; both retrieved June 21, 2007.


Personal history

Waas was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, and originally hoped to have a career in law and city politics ("To be the district attorney and mayor of the City of Philadelphia"), but he dropped out of
George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...
before graduating.Liz Halloran
"A Muckraker's Day in the Sun"
, interview with Murray Waas, '' U.S. News & World Report''. (May 15, 2006) Retrieved April 29, 2007.
In 1987, when Waas was only twenty-six years old, he learned that he had a life-threatening "advanced form" of cancer. On June 26, 2006, ''
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 nati ...
'' media writer Howard Kurtz disclosed that Waas had been told that he had an "incurable Stage C" cancer and faced a "terminal diagnosis." Howard Kurtz
"Writer Sat on His Own Life-and-Death Story."
''
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 nati ...
''. (June 25, 2006). C-01. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
Murray Waas
"A Reporter's Bias"
''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''. (June 26, 2006). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
Murray Waas
"The Wag Time Pet Spa Conspiracy ... And a Cancer Survivor's Right to Respect"
''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' (personal blog). (December 21, 2006). Retrieved June 21, 2007; contains hyperlink to Kurtz's article and his own related blog entries.
Subsequently, Waas successfully sued the
George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...
Medical Center, which had negligently "failed to diagnose his cancer, winning a $650,000 judgment ... in a 1992 verdict ... upheld by the D.C. Court of Appeals." Although, according to a pathologist hired by Waas to testify in the case, "over 90% of uchpatients... are dead within two years," Waas survived and was later declared "cancer-free." His recovery and survival were later described as a "miracle" by the physicians treating him. In winning the appeal of the jury's verdict by the hospital, the appeals court devised new case law expanding the rights of cancer patients and ordinary patients to sue and seek justice because of medical mistakes. Although he initially shied away from writing about health care because of his history as a cancer survivor, in 2009 and 2010, Waas weighed in with a series of articles for
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
, detailing how many of the nation's largest health insurance companies, improperly, and even illegally, canceled the policies of tens of thousands of customers shortly after they were diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and other life-threatening but costly diseases.Murray Waas
"Insurers Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage"
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
One story disclosed that the health insurer,
WellPoint Elevance Health, Inc. is an American health insurance provider. The company's services include medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans through affiliated companies such as Anthem Blue Cross and ...
, using a computer algorithm, identified women recently diagnosed with breast cancer and then singled them out for cancellation of their policies.Murray Waas
"WellPoint Routinely Targets Breast Cancer Patients"
euters, via ''Common Dreams''. (April 24, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2011.
The story not only caused considerable public outrage, but led Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American businesswoman and politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebeli ...
, and President Barack Obama, to call on WellPoint to end the practice.Michele Gershberg
"U.S. to WellPoint: Stop Dropping Breast Cancer Patients"
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
. (April 23, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2011.
Avery Johnson and Dinah Wisenberg Brin
"War of Words Heats Up Between Obama, WellPoint,"
''
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 ...
''. (May 11, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
Pressured by the Obama administration, WellPoint and the nation's other largest health insurers agreed to immediately end the practice."End to Rescission and More Good News"
''
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 ...
'' (editorial). (May 2, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
Waas was credited with saving the lives of countless other cancer patients like himself, and making sure that thousands of other people did not have their insurance unfairly canceled.Timothy Noah
"Obama vs. WellPoint: How the Insurance Giant's Bad Behavior Advances Health Reform"
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
. (May 20, 2010). Retrieved May 20, 2011.
Reynolds staf
"''Reuters'' and '' Milwaukee Journal'' Receive 2010 Barlett & Steele Awards,"
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Walter Cronkite School, Arizona State University. (October 4, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
He won the Barlett & Steele Award for Business Investigative Reporting from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication of
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
as well as other honors for the stories.Jim Impoc
"Thomson Reuters Wins 5 SABEW Best in the Business Awards"
''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
''. March 23, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.


Professional career

While still attending college, Waas began working for American newspaper columnist Jack Anderson. His journalistic work has since been published in such publications and outlets as ''
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 ...
'', ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'',''
The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', ''
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 nati ...
'', '' McClatchy Newspapers'', Reuters, the Associated Press,
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', ''
New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...
'', ''
Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
'', '' Vox'', '' Harper's'', ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', ''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
'', ''
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 tha ...
'', and ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. In his twenties he was a staff writer and investigative correspondent for ''The Village Voice''. The current masthead of the ''Voice'' lists Waas as a "Contributors Emeritus" to the newspaper, along with such other writers, critics, investigative reporters, and cartoonists who worked for the paper during the same era, such as Wayne Barrett, Jack Newfield, Teresa Carpenter,
Ron Rosenbaum Ronald Rosenbaum (born November 27, 1946) is an American literary journalist, literary critic, and novelist. Life and career Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in New York City, New York and grew up in Bay Shore, New York. He graduated fr ...
,
Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
, Mim Udovitch, Matt Groening and
Mark Alan Stamaty Mark Alan Stamaty is an American cartoonist and children's writer and illustrator. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stamaty's work appeared regularly in the ''Village Voice''. He is the creator of the long-running comic strip ''Washingtoon'' – on whi ...
. Waas first worked for columnist Anderson at age 18, the summer of his freshman year of college: "When I went out for interviews, the subjects took one look at me and just laughed out loud. I was one of those 18-year-old kids who looked 15."Murray Waas
"Jack Anderson: An Appreciation: The Muckraking Outsider Never Gave a Damn about Entree"
''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. (December 19, 2005). Retrieved August 16, 2007.
In an obituary of Anderson, ''The New York Times'' wrote that Anderson's column was "the nation's most widely read, longest-running political column," and that Anderson liked to boast that "he and his staff of eager investigators did daily what Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did just once when they dug out the truth of the Watergate scandal." One sympathetic biographer, Mark Feldstein, wrote that Anderson had flaws which "could be glaring. He was bombastic and self-righteous", presenting himself and his work in a "cliche-ridden evangelical style was an anachronism that sacrificed complex truths for simplistic but dramatic portrayals of good guys vs. bad.” And yet, wrote Feldstein, Anderson "was a bridge for the muckrakers of a century ago and the crop that came out of Watergate.”Murray Waas
"Jack Anderson: An Appreciation: The Muckraking Outsider Never Gave a Damn about Entree"
''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. (December 19, 2005). Retrieved August 16, 2007.
In his own appreciation of Anderson, which Waas published in ''The Village Voice'', after the columnist's death at the age of 83, columns he wrote for Anderson advocating that economic sanctions be imposed against the Ugandan regime of Idi Amin, likely led to the overthrow of Amin's genocidal regime.
The series of columns we nderson and Waasproduced regarding the role of U.S. companies doing business with
Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...
were instrumental in leading to the imposition of U.S. economic sanctions against the Amin regime, according to the congressman who originally sponsored legislation seeking the sanctions, and other key congressional staffers who worked on the issue. Some historians in turn say the sanctions may have played an instrumental role in Amin's subsequent overthrow.Murray Waas
"Jack Anderson: An Appreciation: The Muckraking Outsider Never Gave a Damn about Entree"
''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. (December 19, 2005). Retrieved August 16, 2007.
Ralph Nurnberger Ralph Nurnberger is a professor at Georgetown University, teaching international relations, and former legislative liaison with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ) is a lobbyin ...
, a former staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and professor at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
, later concluded in a study for the ''African Studies Review'' that the economic sanctions imposed against Amin by the U.S. likely led to Amin's downfall. Nurnberger wrote that the congressional initiative to impose the sanctions had garnered scant attention or support outside a small number of members of Congress and congressional staff interested in the matter until "Jack Anderson assigned one of his reporters, Murray Waas to follow the issue" and write regularly about it. "During the next several months, Waas wrote a dozen columns for Anderson dealing with U.S.-Ugandan relations", Nurnberger wrote, "He served as a useful contact for the congressional staff investigating this subject as well as Uganda expatriates who wanted to 'leak' stories to the press."Ralph Nurnberger
"Why Sanctions Never Work: In The Case of Idi Amin, They Clearly Helped Drive Him From Power"
''International Economy''. (Fall, 2003). Retrieved October 20, 2011.
The tremendous reach of Anderson's column amplified Waas' reporting on Amin and his advocacy of sanctions, without which the sanctions legislation would have been unlike to have caused the overthrow of the Amin regime. At the time, Anderson's columns were published in more than 1,000 newspapers, which in turn had 40 million readers. Waas was eighteen and nineteen years old at the time he wrote the columns. Prior to his overthrow from power, Amin had been alleged to have engaged in genocide and killed between 150,000 and 500,000 of his own citizens. The late Sen.
Frank Church Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an Americans, American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Idah ...
(D-Id.), a chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, later said the congressionally imposed boycott "had a profound impact on the internal conditions nside Ugandaand contributed to the fall of Idi Amin." Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Or.), commented that the sanctions "provided the psychological and practical ingredients to complete a formula that would come to break Amin's seemingly invincible survivability." In an article about the sanctions, published in 2003,
Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
magazine concluded that "the American sanctions proved devastating to the Ugandan economy" and that "they helped set in motion the events that led to the fall of the regime." The ''Foreign Policy'' article described the overwhelming and staggering odds to become enacted into law, and official U.S. policy: :State De­partment officials argued that as a major trading power, the United States should op­pose restraint of trade for political purposes. Although the U.S. government officially deplored massive violations of human rights in Uganda, U.S. long-term interest in an in­ternational economic system with minimal barriers would ultimately suffer from such action. A boycott against Uganda, the Wash­ington Post editorialized in November 1977, would set "a dangerous precedent for more of the same political manipulation of interna­tional trade in less egregious cases." It asserted that the world’s richest trading power should not arbitrarily use its massive economic power unilaterally to force the government of a smaller and weaker state to alter its internal treatment of subjects. Such long odds only underscored the crucial role Waas' reporting and the power of the Anderson column were for U.S. sanctions in Uganda becoming U.S. policy. During the Reagan administration, Waas was among a small group of reporters involved in breaking the story of the Iran-Contra affair. Waas won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1992 to research and write about the rights of the institutionalized and incarcerated in the U.S. For his fellowship, he investigated substandard conditions and questionable deaths at institutions for the mentally retarded, mental hospitals, nursing homes, juvenile detention centers, and jails and prisons. As part of his work for the
Alicia Patterson Foundation The Alicia Patterson Foundation (APF) program was established in 1965 in memory of Alicia Patterson Alicia Patterson (October 15, 1906 – July 2, 1963) was an American journalist, the founder and editor of ''Newsday''. With Neysa McMein, she cre ...
, Waas published a 7,912 word article in the ''Los Angeles Times'' on April 3, 1994, detailing how mentally retarded children institutionalized by the
District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
government had died because of abuse and neglect.Murray Waas
"Bleak House: As Patients Died One by One, a Washington D.C. Home for the Mentally Retarded Became One of the Nation's Deadliest Institutions"
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. (April 4, 1994). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
The story led to renewed scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice of the city's treatment of its mentally retarded wards and spurred on the settlement of a civil suit brought against the city government by the parents of several children who had died due to abuse or neglect.Murray Waas
"$1 Million Settlement Due in Death of Six Retarded Persons,"
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. (April 4, 1994). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
In 1998 and 1999, Waas reported on
Whitewater Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...
and the
Clinton impeachment Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on December 19, 1998, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The House adopted two articles o ...
for ''
Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
''. Following the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush, in 1993, while a reporter for the ''Los Angeles Times'', Waas, along with his ''Los Angeles Times'' colleague
Douglas Frantz Douglas Frantz (born September 29, 1949 in North Manchester, Indiana) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative journalist and author, and served as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and ...
, was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in the category of national reporting for his stories detailing that administration's prewar foreign policy towards the Iraqi regime of
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
That same year, Waas was also a recipient of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, awarded by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on The Press, of the
John F. Kennedy School of Government 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 ...
of
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 higher le ...
, for "a series that detailed United States policy toward
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 Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
before the Persian Gulf war". As part of that reporting, on March 10, 1992, Waas and Frantz disclosed that the Reagan and Bush administrations had engaged in secret intelligence sharing with Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, after falsely telling Congress and the congressional intelligence committees that it had long ago ended all such cooperation. The two reporters wrote: "The Bush Administration shared intelligence information with the regime of Saddam Hussein until at least May, 1990, three months before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, according to formerly classified documents ... even though Congress had been told Congress that such cooperation ended in 1988 when the war between Iraq and Iran ended." Also as part of that same series, the two reporters disclosed on April 18, 1992, that "The Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations secretly allowed Saudi Arabia to provide American-made weapons to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and other nations over a period of almost 10 years in covert operations designed to sidestep legal restrictions imposed by Congress, according to classified documents." Regarding the significance of these various disclosures, ''
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 ...
'', columnist
Anthony Lewis Anthony Lewis (March 27, 1927 – March 25, 2013) was an American public intellectual and journalist. He was twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and was a columnist for ''The New York Times''. He is credited with creating the field of legal jour ...
wrote on June 18, 1992: :With all that was and still is at stake in Iraq ... What ere the Reagan and Bush administrationsdoing while the Iraqi dictator was growing into such a menace? ...
here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...
is a shocking answer: The United States was feeding Saddam Hussein's war machine and his ambition. :That is the consistent theme of reports in ''
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 ...
'' in a piece by Seymour Hersh, and in a series by Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz in the ''Los Angeles Times'' . ... In 1982 the Reagan Administration, wanting to prevent Saddam Hussein's defeat in the war with Iran, decided to provide him with secret intelligence. The intelligence helped Iraq learn the disposition of Iranian forces. :The Administration also allowed Iraq's regional allies, which at the time included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, to send Baghdad American-made arms ... :The United States immediately began giving Iraq guarantees for credit to buy American farm products. Farm and other credits for Iraq eventually came to $3 billion -- no doubt freeing Saddam Hussein to spend money on arms." Also in 1992, Waas disclosed in an investigative story in ''
The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' that the George H. W. Bush administration had allowed Pakistan "to buy American-made arms" from U.S. commercial firms, despite a federal law that prohibited such sales unless the President were to certify to Congress that "Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device." (At the time, Pakistan maintained a nuclear arsenal.). The March, 1992 story led to several powerful members of Congress to assert that Bush administration was violating federal law by allowing for the arms sales. The late Senator
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
, Democrat of Ohio, told Waas: "They knew what the intent of the law was. The legislative history was clear." The arms ban "was signed by the President and into law. And then his wnAdministration took steps not to comply with it." Then-Senator Claiborne Pell, Republican of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Foreign Services Committee, said that the Bush State Department "has knowingly violated federal law by permitting" the "sales of arms to Pakistan." More recently, Waas worked as a national correspondent and contributing editor of ''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
''. Summarizing the stories that Waas wrote for ''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
'' during 2005 and 2006 about the second Bush administration's policies that led up to war with Iraq, ''
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 nati ...
'' online White House columnist
Dan Froomkin Dan Froomkin is the editor of Press Watch, an independent website previously known as White House Watch. He is a former senior writer and Washington editor for ''The Intercept''. Prior to that, he was a writer and editor for ''The Huffington Post' ...
, wrote on March 31, 2006: :Slowly but surely, investigative reporter Murray Waas has been putting together a compelling narrative about how President Bush and his top aides contrived their bogus case for war in Iraq; how they succeeded in keeping charges of deception from becoming a major issue in the 2004 election; and how they continue to keep most of the press off the trail to this day. :What emerges in Waas's stories is a consistent White House modus operandi: That time and time again, Bush and his aides have selectively leaked or declassified secret intelligence findings that served their political agenda -- while aggressively asserting the need to keep secret the information that would tend to discredit them.Dan Froomkin
"A Compelling Story"
''
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 nati ...
''. (March 31, 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
While writing about the second Bush administration's policies that led up to war with Iraq, Waas simultaneously reported about the investigation of CIA leak prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation as to who leaked covert CIA operative
Valerie Plame Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
's identity to the press—illustrating in his reporting how the two stories were inextricably linked in that the effort to damage Plame was part of a broader Bush White House effort to discredit those who were alleging that it had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war.Murray Waa
"What Bush Was Told About Iraq"
''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
''. (May 14, 2006). Retrieved June 26, 2011.
Murray Waas
"Insulating Bush"
''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
''.(April 1, 2006). Retrieved June 26, 2011.
Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent was leaked to the media by senior Bush White House officials to discredit and retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador
Joseph C. Wilson IV Joseph Charles Wilson IV (November 6, 1949 – September 27, 2019) was an American diplomat who was best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his ''New Y ...
, who had alleged the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
. I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
, was later convicted on federal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in an attempt to conceal his own role and that of others in the Bush White House in outing Plame, although President Bush would later commute Libby's thirty-month prison sentence. (President Bush's then chief political adviser, Karl Rove, was investigated by the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as well, but not charged.) Waas not only wrote the first story disclosing that it was Libby who had leaked Plame's identity to ''New York Times'' reporter Judith Miller, but the same story also paved the way for Miller, then in jail for more than a hundred days, to be released and testify against Libby.Murray Waas
"The Meeting"
''
American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
''. (October 4, 2005)
Howard Kurtzbr>"The Lone Ranger"
''
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 nati ...
''. (April 17, 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2011.
On August 6, 2005, Waas disclosed for the first time that it was Libby who had provided Plame's name to Miller, writing: "I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has told federal investigators that he met with ''New York Times'' reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to legal sources familiar with Libby's account.Josh Gerstein
"Prosecutor Thought Libby Deliberately Failed to Intervene on Reporter's Behalf"
'' New York Sun''. (October 4, 2005). Retrieved May 10, 2011.
That same story also disclosed that Libby was encouraging Miller to stay in jail and not reveal that Libby was her source. A short time later, citing the Waas story, prosecutor Fitzgerald wrote Libby's attorney, alleging that "Libby had simply decided that encouraging Ms. Miller to testify was not in his best interest" and that Libby discouraging Miller to testify might be an illegal effort to obstruct his investigation. As a result, Libby then wrote and called Miller saying that it was alright for her to testify. After spending more than a hundred days in jail, Miller was released, whereupon she provided testimony and evidence to prosecutors against Libby, directly leading to Libby's indictment, and subsequent conviction, on multiple federal criminal charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. ''Washington Post'' media columnist Howard Kurtz wrote on April 17, 2006, that Waas' account "set in motion the waiver springing Miller from jail on contempt charges." Regarding these same stories on the Plame case, as well as his earlier stories on the misrepresentation of intelligence information by the Bush administration to take the U.S. to war with Iraq,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
journalism professor and press critic
Jay Rosen Jay Rosen (born May 5, 1956) is a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University. Rosen is a contributor to ''De Correspondent'' and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of directors. Biography Rosen has been on ...
wrote that Waas had the promise to be his generation's ""new Bob Woodward": "Today the biggest story in town is what really went down as the Bush team drove deceptively to war, and later tried to conceal how bad the deception—and decision-making—had been." Waas, Rosen wrote, had been doing "what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding, tracking, breaking it into reportable parts. Writing in the ''
American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
'', political journalist Greg Sargent opined at the time that Waas' reporting on both the misuse of intelligence by the Bush administration to take the nation to war with Iraq, combined with his reporting on the outing of Valeire Plame, provided a framework and context for the public to finally understand the inextricable link between these two "disparate subplots". Sargent explained: : hetrue larger significance of Waas' reporting is still crying out to be explained. :To do this we need to step back and look at his revelations in the context of the ongoing investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame. If you do, you can see that what once were a bunch of disparate subplots -- the pre-war duplicity, the 2004 election, the Libby indictment, the continuing investigation into Karl Rove -- suddenly can be woven together into one grand narrative that makes coherent sense in a way that much of this story didn't before.Greg Sargent
"The Plame Game: What Murray Waas' Big Scoop May Really Tell us About Bush's Pre-war Deceptions"
''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
''. (April 4, 2006). Retrieved August 20, 2007.
Several of Waas's later published accounts of that aspect of the Plame affair informed his Union Square Press book on the Libby trial published in June 2007, which he discusses in some detail in his interview with
Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
on '' Democracy Now!''.
Amy Goodman Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...

"Ex-Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis 'Scooter' Libby Convicted of Perjury, Obstruction in CIA Leak Trial"
. Interview with Murray Waas and
Marcy Wheeler Marcy Wheeler (known on Twitter by the handle "emptywheel") is an American independent journalist specializing in national security and civil liberties. Wheeler publishes on her own site, ''Emptywheel'', established in July 2011. She has reported ...
. '' Democracy Now!''. (March 7, 2007). Retrieved June 20, 2007.
During the final days of the 2012 presidential campaign, Waas wrote a series of articles for the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' detailing how
Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...
, as governor of Massachusetts, had implemented policies to restrict the rights of the state's LGBT community, as a way to curry favor with conservative and evangelical voters who vote in large numbers in the Republican presidential primaries. Among those policies, Waas disclosed, Romney refused to grant birth certificates to the children of same sex parents. Confidential state records obtained by Waas showed that a senior Department of Public Health lawyer warned the Romney administration that the failure to provide birth certificates to these children would constitute "'violations of existing statutes,' impair law enforcement and security efforts in a post 9/11 world, and would cause the children to encounter difficulties later in life as they tried to register for school, obtain a driver's license or a passport, enlist in the military, or even vote." The reaction to the Waas stories on Romney, especially the one about denying birth certificates to the children of same sex parents was swift. Outraged civil rights and LGBT groups condemning Romney—in the days just prior to the election.
Chad Griffin Chad Hunter Griffin (born July 16, 1973) is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States. Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, which ...
, the president of the
Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...
, the nation's largest gay-rights advocacy organization, said in a statement: "Mitt Romney has stood before the American people multiple times and said he does not support discrimination against LGBT people – and that is an outright lie.’’ Griffin further commented that by "denying birth certificates to children
f same sex parents F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
.. Romney has undertaken to disenfranchise LGBT people.’’ During the Trump administration, Waas was one of the first reporters to write about efforts by the ''
National Enquirer The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabl ...
'', its parent company, American Media, Inc., and President Trump's then-personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to women with whom Trump had extramarital affairs. Also during the Trump administration, Waas broke more than two dozen significant stories regarding special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, focusing primarily on whether President Trump obstructed justice. Those stories appeared in ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', '' Vox'', and ''
Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
''. Waas broke the first story disclosing that former FBI Director James Comey had corroboratory witnesses when it came to Comey's allegations that President Trump ordered him to shut down an FBI investigation into whether his then National Security Advisor Micheal Flynn had lied to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, while Trump and Comey were completely alone in the Oval Office, on February 14, 2017. Special Counsel Mueller investigated Comey's allegations as a potential obstruction of justice by Trump. Trump and his political supporters had prior to Waas' story argued that Trump would not face any serious legal jeopardy, as a result of Comey's allegations, because whatever was said or transpired between Trump and Comey, was based solely on the word of the President of the United States against the FBI Director he had only recently fired: "We have to keep in mind that is one person's record of what happened," Republican National Committee Chair
Ronna Romney McDaniel Ronna McDaniel (' Romney; born March 20, 1973) is an American politician and political strategist serving as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) since 2017. A member of the Republican Party and the Romney family, she was chair of th ...
said on Fox News in one typical comment repeated by Trump White House surrogates. "The only two people who know what happened in these meetings are the president and James Comey."" But in a June 7, 2017 report in ''Vox'', Waas disclosed that Comey contemporaneously spoke at length with three of his top aides about the president ordering him to shut down the FBI investigation of Flynn. Waas wrote: "Those three officials, according to two people with detailed, firsthand knowledge of the matter, were Jim Rybicki, Comey's chief of staff and senior counselor; James Baker, the FBI's general counsel; and Andrew McCabe, then the bureau's deputy director, and now the acting director." The Trump White House denied that this could have been true, asserting that Comey could not have told his three aides about something that never happened in the first place. But Comey himself confirmed that this was case when he testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee the following day, in response to questions prompted by the Waas story. Waas also was one of the first reporters to disclose how President Trump attempted to exploit the U.S. Department of Justice to improperly investigate his perceived political enemies. On November 9, 2018, Waas reported in '' Vox'' that then-Acting Attorney General
Matthew Whitaker Matthew George Whitaker (born October 29, 1969) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and politician who served as the acting United States Attorney General from November 7, 2018, to February 14, 2019. He was appointed to that position by President D ...
"privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate the president's political adversaries"—more specifically, also disclosing for the first time, that Whitaker had "counseled the president in private on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to name a special counsel to investigate... Hillary Clinton."" On November 20, ''The New York Times'', citing Vox's original story, reported that the newspaper's own sources had independently confirmed that President Trump had "repeatedly pressed Justice Department officials about the status of Clinton-related investigations, including Mr. Whitaker." The ''Times'' story went even further, disclosing that Trump ordered his then-White House Counsel, Don McGahn, to prosecute two of his political adversaries", Hillary Clinton and James Comey, even if there was no real evidence that either did anything wrong. McGahn was so distressed by Trump's demands, The ''Times'' reported, that the White House Counsel warned the president in a memo that Trump might face "possible impeachment" if he persisted with such efforts. Based on the disclosures in the ''Vox'' and ''The New York Times'' reports, Senate Majority Leader, Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, requested that the Justice Department's Inspector General investigate Whitaker's conduct. Schumer wanted the Inspector General to investigate allegations "by veteran journalist Murray Waas
n ''Vox'', which N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
revealed that Whitaker, while he was serving as chief of staff to hen-Attorney General JeffSessions, was counseling the White House on how the president might pressure Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to direct the Justice Department to investigate Trump's enemies." Schumer also asked the Justice Department to investigate whether, Whitaker, while Acting Attorney General "may have shared with the White House... confidential grand jury or investigative information from the Special Counsel investigation." In 2019, Waas broke numerous exclusive stories for ''Vox'' and ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'' about the impeachment investigation of President Trump. As explained by Waas in ''Vox'', "At the core of the impeachment inquiry is a substantial body of evidence that President Trump, both personally and through subordinates, pushed Ukraine to investigate former Vice President's Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and his business dealings in Ukraine. This pressure campaign stood to materially benefit Trump's 2020 presidential reelection effort by manufacturing dirt against a key rival. It is alleged that Trump withheld $390 million in congressionally-approved military assistance to Ukraine for months pending Zelensky's public agreement to open an investigation." In 2019 and 2020, Waas broke a number of exclusive stories in ''The New York Review of Books'' and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' regarding the politicization and corruption of the Department of Justice during the Trump administration. In 2021 and 2022, Waas wrote a series of investigative stories about the attorneys who while working with, and to the benefit of, then president Donald Trump, attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, in part by "propagating increasingly implausible conspiracy theories to federal courts that Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States was illegitimate." In a Dec. 2, 2021 article in ''The Guardian'', Waas disclosed that one of the lead attorneys in that effort, Sidney Powell, had "on several occasions represented to federal courts that people were co-counsel or plaintiffs in her cases without seeking their permission to do so. Some of these individuals say that they found out that Powell had named them only once the cases were already filed." On the very next day, Waas disclosed in ''The Guardian'' that Powell had "filed false incorporation papers with the state of Texas for a non-profit she heads, Defending the Republic" when she "listed two men whom she said served with her on the organization’s board of directors, even though neither one of them gave Powell permission to do so." The Waas article also first disclosed that a federal grand jury was investigating "allegations of fundraising and financial fraud by Powell in the running of her non-profit", and "whether Powell diverted money from
Fitzgerald The FitzGerald/FitzMaurice Dynasty is a noble and aristocratic dynasty of Cambro-Norman, Anglo-Norman and later Hiberno-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the ...
CIA leak grand jury investigation">investigation Investigation or Investigations may refer to: Law enforcement * Investigation, the work of a detective * Investigation, the work of a private investigator * Criminal investigation, the study of facts, used to identify, locate and prove the guilt ...
," 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?" Asked during the same interview by Halloran why Waas had chosen not only not to appear on cable television shows, but had also been known to decline to go on such shows as ''Nightline'' and ''Meet the Press'', he responded: "There's not much of it that really enlightens us. There are journalists who don't do journalism anymore. They go on television; they're blogging; they're giving speeches; they're going to parties. And then at the end of the week they've had four or five hours devoted to journalism." Waas also told Halloran: :An acquaintance of mine, [Doonesbury cartoonist] Garry Trudeau, went a long time without going on TV, and we talked about having a 12-step program for people who appear on television too much. It would be a boom business in Washington. But Garry has lapses – he's been on Nightline, Charlie Rose. I also believe he did a morning show one time. But I've been steadfast. I have not been broken. I thought it was me and Garry against the world, the two amigos. He's left me hanging out there. Waas similarly told ''
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 nati ...
'' media writer Howard Kurtz, who had nicknamed Waas "The Lone Ranger": "If my journalism has had impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses than greenrooms," Claude Lewis, a member of the editorial board of ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' wrote in a profile of the journalist that his low-key approach had proved to be effective: "His quiet and sometimes unorthodox manner is disarming. He often lulls his subjects into thinking he isn't very sharp. But he is an intelligent and intense digger, who checks and double-checks his facts."Claude Lewi
"See the Mighty Fall: Investigative Reporting Has Its Rewards"
''
The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
''. (October 1, 1988). Retrieved June 26, 2011.


Book publication

'' The United States v. I. Lewis Libby'', edited and with reporting by Waas, was published by
Sterling Publishing Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of a broad range of subject areas, with multiple imprints and more than 5,000 titles in print. Founded in 1949 by David A. Boehm, Sterling also publishes books for a number of brands, including AAR ...
's Union Square Press imprint on June 5, 2007.AP Staff Writer
"Instant Book Coming on Libby Trial"
''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
''. (March 7, 2007). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
James Boylan
"Brief Encounters: The United States v. I Lewis Libby"
''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
''. (November/December 2007). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
The bulk of the book was an edited version of the trial transcript of the federal criminal trial of I. Lewis Libby, carefully culled from its original size of nearly a million words. The book also included an original essay written by Waas, entitled "The Last Compartment", which contained new information and reporting. The book's editor and publisher told ''USA Today'' that the book was an attempt to be "like the published reports from the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group" in both thoroughness and accuracy, providing additional context to the original documentary record, and adding new reporting and information. Reviewing the book in the ''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'', James Boylan, a contributing editor of the magazine, wrote for its November/December 2007 issue: :Murray Waas, a disciple of Jack Anderson, the ultimate outsider, has assembled a plump volume of the trial and grand-jury records in the case of I. Lewis Libby ... convicted in March of obstruction of justice and lying in the case involving disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. The transcripts make clear that Waas may have had less interest in Libby's missteps than in the foibles of a cohort of Washington's current insider journalists, among whom Tim Russert, Bob Woodward, Judith Miller (jailed for a time for refusing to testify), and Robert Novak ... were the most celebrated. Their accounts of dealing with Libby and other members of the administration constitute an encyclopedia of insiderdom—the anonymous-source-concealment dance, the sometimes transparent charade of selective source protection, the willingness to be spun in exchange for access to power.


Notable assessments of Waas's journalism

Murray Waas's reporting on the administration of
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
—especially with regard to the Bush administration's misrepresentation of intelligence to take the nation to war, and the Plame affair—has been called "groundbreaking" by
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
journalism Professor
Jay Rosen Jay Rosen (born May 5, 1956) is a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University. Rosen is a contributor to ''De Correspondent'' and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of directors. Biography Rosen has been on ...
, who considers Waas the "new Bob Woodward": "By Woodward Now," Rosen writes of Waas: "I mean the reporter who is actually doing what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding, tracking, breaking into reportable parts—and then publishing—the biggest story in town. The Biggest Story in Town (almost a term of art in political Washington) is the one that would cause the biggest earthquake if the facts sealed inside it started coming out now. Today the biggest story in town is what really went down as the Bush team drove deceptively to war, and later tried to conceal how bad the deception—and decision-making—had been."
Jay Rosen Jay Rosen (born May 5, 1956) is a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University. Rosen is a contributor to ''De Correspondent'' and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of directors. Biography Rosen has been on ...

"Murray Waas Is Our Woodward Now"
''PressThink'' (blog). (April 9, 2006). Retrieved June 21, 2007.
Garrett Graff Garrett M. Graff (born 1981) is an American journalist and author. He is a former editor of ''Politico Magazine'', editor-in-chief of '' Washingtonian'' magazine in Washington, D.C., and instructor at Georgetown University in the Masters in Profes ...

"Waas is the New Woodward"
. ''Mediabistro''. (April 10, 2006). Retrieved July 3, 2011.
On October 27, 1992, the late David Shaw, then a staff writer for the ''Los Angeles Times'' who won a
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...
the previous year, assessed the reporting by his colleagues Murray Waas and Douglas Frantz on the first Bush administration's prewar policy towards Iraq leading up to the first
Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, which included "more than 100 stories, totaling more than 90,000 words": "The Times's stories—many based on previously secret papers prepared by the Bush administration—alleged that the Bush administration tried to cover up what it had done by altering documents it supplied to Congress and by attempting to obstruct official investigations of aid to Iraq," quoting the observation of
Leonard Downie Leonard "Len" Downie Jr. (born May 1, 1942) is an American journalist who was executive editor of ''The Washington Post'' from 1991 to 2008. He worked in the ''Post'' newsroom for 44 years. His roles at the newspaper included executive editor, manag ...
, executive editor of ''
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 nati ...
'', that his own newspaper was "slow in getting up to speed on that story, in part because it's the kind of story involving careful work with documents ... Once you're behind, it takes a while to catch up." Downie credits the ''Los Angeles Times'' with "pav ngthe way," saying that that is "why we began pursuing it after really not noticing it from the outset." Based in part o those same stories by Waas and Frantz, ABC News Nightline anchor Ted Koppel told his viewers that it was "increasingly clear...that George Bush, operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into the aggressive power that the United States ultimately had to destroy," media critic
Russ Baker Russell Warren "Russ" Baker (born 1958) is an American author, and investigative journalist. Baker is the editor-in-chief and founder of the nonprofit news website ''WhoWhatWhy''. He has written for a variety of publications, including ''The Ne ...
noted in the ''Columbia Journalism Review''. Baker observed that their "reportage" was "admirably, light on anonymous sources and heavy on information from lassifieddocuments." Baker further pointed out that Waas had earlier been one of only a handful of reporters who had written about the covert Reagan and Bush administration's covert foreign policies leading up to hostilities with Iraq, prior to the war itself. Baker noted that the ''Village Voice'' on Dec. 18, 1990 "published a major investigation by... Waas in which he pulled together a massive amount of information... that George Bush was a behind-the-scenes advocate of a pro-Iraq tilt," during and after the Iran-Iraq war. During the presidential administration of William Jefferson Clinton, Waas wrote some of the very first investigative stories critical of Whitewater Independent Counsel
Kenneth Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, kno ...
. Some conservative media outlets, among them, the now defunct '' Weekly Standard'' and the editorial pages of 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 ...
'', as well as the late conservative syndicated columnist, Robert Novak, harshly criticized his reporting of both Starr's investigation and the resulting impeachment saga. The ''Journal's'' editorial page disparaged his stories for primarily appearing in "an Internet magazine called ''
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...
'' (paid circulation zip)." ''
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 nati ...
'' media critic Howard Kurtz wrote, however, that "what has infuriated the president's detractors is that Waas (who will reveal only that he's in his thirties) and his colleagues are starting to draw blood. The Justice Department has asked Starr to investigate the allegation of llicitpayments to
ne of Starr's own key witnesses NE, Ne or ne may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Neutral Evil, an alignment in the American role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' * New Edition, an American vocal group * Nicomachean Ethics, a collection of ten books by Greek philosopher ...
and the story has moved up the media food chain to ''
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''." And in sharp contrast, media critics writing for the ''
Online Journalism Review The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school’s Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J ...
'', the '' American Journalism Review'', and ''The Washington Post'', praised the very same reporting.Matt Welch
"Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists"
''
Online Journalism Review The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school’s Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J ...
.'' (June 3, 1998), Retrieved May 28, 2019.
In ''The Washington Post'', columnist John Schwartz wrote that reporting by Waas and his colleagues as Salon was "one crucial element that keeps guys like me coming back: investigative reporting." Schwartz explained: "This astyear... ''
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...
'' dove into investigative reporting, the hard digging that can yield amazing things. They chose one of the biggest stories around: the continuing scandals surrounding the Clinton administration." In June 1998,
J.D. Lasica Joseph Daniel Lasica is an American entrepreneur, public speaker and journalist. He is the author of ''Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation'' () (2005), a book about the copyright wars and the future of media. Early years Las ...
published "The Web: A New Channel for Investigative Journalism", a "sidebar" to his article entitled "Salon: The Best Pure-Play Web Publication?", published in ''American Journalism Review'', assessing reporting on the Impeachment of Bill Clinton in ''
Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...
'' by Waas and his colleagues, wrote: "For some time now, the mainstream media have taken shots at the Internet for allowing anyone to spread rumors, lies and conspiracy theories to a global audience of millions. But now the flip side of that equation is beginning to emerge: The Net is becoming an alternative channel for original investigative journalism shut out of the mainstream press." Lasica further observed that "''Salon's'' coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky matter—its first sustained foray into classic investigative journalism—has served as a counterweight to the
mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes mai ...
's wolfpack mindset" and citing the view of Andrew Ross (then-managing editor of ''Salon''); according to Lasica, "Salon's investigative journalism ... has raised old media's hackles because, Ross says, it was done the old-fashioned way: shoe leather, cultivating sources, working the phones—no new-media tricks here." Indeed, Lasica continues the 1998 account, by pointing out that Waas, who has written a dozen stories for ''Salon'', was
t that time T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...
a bit of a technophobe; he never signs onto the Web and has never seen his stories online. He writes for ''Salon'', he says, because 'I like the daily rhythm and the immediacy.'" David Weir, a cofounder of the Center for Investigative Reporting and journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told the journalism review that the reporting of Waas and his colleagues represented a "breakthrough" for a news site on the Web. "This was the first time we’ve seen an Internet news organization dig out an important national story that the rest of the media missed." Waas was the winner in 1998 of the
Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...
Award for Depth Reporting for his coverage of Whitewater and the impeachment crisis. In the ''
Online Journalism Review The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school’s Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J ...
'', Matt Welch commented, that "web-only journalism adofficially graduated to the Beltway's radar screen" due to stories written by Waas and two other Salon reporters, the results of which were that "Kenneth Starr's key Whitewater witness David Hale has suffered a serious blow to his credibility, and the independent counsel himself has been forced to fend off conflict-of-interest questions from the Justice Department" On April 17, 2006, then-''
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 nati ...
'' media critic Howard Kurtz, published a profile of Waas describing him at times both elusive and a serious journalist. Despite Waas having "racked up a series of scoops" for over a "quarter-century", and his reporting on the presidency of George W. Bush being regularly "cited by New York Times columnists Frank Rich and Paul Krugman", Kurtz wrote, the reporter preferred to remain in the "journalistic shadows." Kurtz noted that Waas wasn't apt to "toot his own horn" and "only reluctantly granted an interview" for his profile of Waas. Kurtz quoted Waas as saying that when journalists are too often seen as pursuing stories to get "television appearances or million-dollar book contracts, it is difficult for us to play our proper role... My theory is, avoid the limelight, do what's important and leave your mark. . . . If my journalism has had impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses than greenrooms." In the summer of 2006, writing in ''
Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...
'', Jim Boyd, former deputy editorial page editor of the '' Minneapolis Star-Tribune'' for twenty-four years, prepared an "exclusive list" of newspaper reporters whom he considered "courageous," including among them Murray Waas: "People I consider courageous are Murray Waas at the ''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
'';
Dan Froomkin Dan Froomkin is the editor of Press Watch, an independent website previously known as White House Watch. He is a former senior writer and Washington editor for ''The Intercept''. Prior to that, he was a writer and editor for ''The Huffington Post' ...
at
washingtonpost.com ''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 nat ...
and niemanwatchdog.org; Warren Strobel and several of his colleagues at the
Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...
Washington bureau (soon to be the McClatchy Washington bureau); Dana Priest of the ashingtonPost. And, of course, Helen Thomas." Jim Boyd
"Editorial Pages: Why Courage Is Hard to Find"
''Niemann Reports''. (
Nieman Foundation for Journalism The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...
of
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 higher le ...
). (Summer 2006). ("Reflections on Courage: United States"). Retrieved August 19, 2007.
In July 2007, ''GQ'' Magazine named Waas as one of four of "The Best Reporters You Don't Know About," writing about him: "Years of groundbreaking watchdog journalism have resulted in this nickname: the new Bob Woodward. His pieces on the Plame leaks and U.S. attorney firings inadvertently provided candidates with more ammunition against the current administration than any campaign strategist could hope for." In 2009,
Eric Alterman Eric Alterman (born January 14, 1960) is an American historian, journalist, author, media critic, blogger, and educator. He is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and the author of eleven books. From 199 ...
and Danielle Ivory, wrote for the website of the Center for American Progress that it was becoming "increasingly evident every day... hatInternet-based reporters are increasingly setting priorities for the national news agenda". citing as one example Waas' role in "unearthing the truth about the outing of Valerie Plame." (Waas primarily broke his stories on the Plame affair on the websites of ''National Journal'' and the ''American Prospect,'' and earlier on his personal blog, when there was scant interest by the Washington establishment in the story.) Twice in 2010, Ryan Chittum of the ''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'' wrote columns praising Waas' investigations of the U.S. health insurance industry. On March 17, 2010 Chittum wrote: "Reuters has an eye-opening investigation today showing how the health-insurance company, Assurant... systematically targeted sick patients... ofind technicalities to dump them," noting that the "great investigative journalist Murray Waas is on the case here."Ryan Chittum
"Reuters Is Excellent In Digging Up A Health Insurer's Tactics"
''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
''. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved May 11, 2011.
On April 22, 2010, Chittum further wrote: "Reuters and Murray Waas are at it again with another great health-care investigation. It shows how WellPoint... systematically targeted customers with breast cancer to find excuses to drop their coverage. Reuters is on the right track with these investigative stories, an area where it had been hitting far below its weight for too long."


Investigation of the U.S. health insurance industry

On the eve of the historic health reform vote in Congress, on March 17, 2010,
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
published a story, based on a months long investigation by Waas, detailing how one of the nation's largest insurance companies, Assurant, had a "company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV" for cancelation of their policies once they were diagnosed. The story asserted: "A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy ... eir insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all." The Obama administration and members of Congress cited the report as a reason health care reform was needed. In a column appearing only a few nights before the vote, following up on his own blog post on the same subject from two days earlier, ''New York Times'' columnist
Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...
wrote that the actions of Assurant were representative of the "vileness of our current system" and illustrated why reform was necessary."
Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...

"Demons and Demonization"
''
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 ...
''. (March 17, 2010). Retrieved June 5, 2011.
After passage of the health reform bill, Reuters followed up, with another story by Waas on April 23, 2010, disclosing that
WellPoint Elevance Health, Inc. is an American health insurance provider. The company's services include medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans through affiliated companies such as Anthem Blue Cross and ...
, the nation's largest health insurance company, had similarly targeted policyholders with breast cancer, shortly after their diagnoses. The Reuters story asserted that WellPoint utilized "a computer algorithm that automatically targeted ... every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies." An earlier investigation by the
House Energy and Commerce Committee The Committee on Energy and Commerce is one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives. Established in 1795, it has operated continuously—with various name changes and jurisdictional changes—for more than ...
had determined that WellPoint (now
Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
), Assurant, and UnitedHealth Group, had made at least $300 million by improperly rescinding more than 19,000 policyholders over one five-year period.." A Wellpoint executive testified before the committee that the company only engaged in rescission as a means of "stopping fraud and material misrepresentation that contributes to spiraling health care costs." But as Waas reported in his story, federal and state regulators could find virtually no instances in which a patient's policy has been legitimately canceled. Waas wrote: :A 2007 investigation by the California Department of Managed Health Care bore this out. The agency randomly selected 90 instances in which Anthem Blue Cross of California dropped the insurance of policyholders after diagnoses with costly or life-threatening illnesses to determine how many were legally justified. :None were. “In all 90 files, there was no evidence (that Blue Cross), before rescinding coverage, investigated or established that the applicant’s omission/misrepresentation was willful,” the DMHC report said. The Waas story garnered immediate attention. Published not only on Reuters' website, one of the nation's most highly trafficked news sites, it also appeared on seven other of the ten most highly read news sites—those of ''
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 ...
'', ''
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 nati ...
'', Yahoo News,
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
,
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
,
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
, and ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''. On April 23, 2010, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American businesswoman and politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebeli ...
wrote Wellpoint's CEO, Angela Braly, to say that Wellpoint's actions were "deplorable" and "unconscionable," and called on the company to "immediately cease these practices." Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
weighed in as well after reading the story, saying: "Americans who are fighting for their lives should not have to fight for their health insurance." President Obama, whose late mother had problems and disagreements with her own insurance carrier before she died from ovarian cancer, followed up on May 8, 2010, by severely criticizing WellPoint for the practice in his weekly radio address. As a result of both the public reaction to the story as well as intense pressure from the Obama administration, WellPoint agreed to voluntarily end such practices only a week after Waas' story appeared. The nation's other largest health insurance companies only days later followed suit. Praising the reform, ''The New York Times'' editorial page said in a May 2, 2010 editorial:
Americans are already starting to see the benefits of health care reform ... In recent days insurers and their trade association have rushed to announce that they will end rescissions immediately ...
The insurers decided to act quickly after they were whacked by some very bad publicity. An investigative report by Reuters said that one of the nation's biggest insurers, WellPoint, was targeting women with breast cancer for fraud investigations that could lead to rescissions.Editors, ''The New York Times''
"End to Rescission and More Good News"
''
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 ...
''. (May 2, 2010). Retrieved May 10, 2010.
Waas later won the Barlett & Steele Award for Business Investigative Reporting from the Walter Cronkite School at
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
for his stories on WellPoint and other health insurance companies. He also won a second award by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) in the category of investigative reporting for reporting the same stories.


See also

* Iran-Contra affair *
Kenneth Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, kno ...
* Watchdog journalism


References


Bibliography

;Pertinent selected articles and books by Murray Waas
"Administration: The CIA Leak Investigation"
Articles by Murray Waas in ''
National Journal ''National Journal'' is an advisory services company based in Washington, D.C., offering services in government affairs, advocacy communications, stakeholder mapping, and policy brands research for government and business leaders. It publishes da ...
'' (2005–2007). Retrieved June 21, 2007.
"Articles by Murray Waas"
in ''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
'' (2001–2005). Retrieved June 21, 2007.
"Murray S. Waas"
Archived articles in ''
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...
''. Retrieved June 21, 2007. *Waas, Murray, ed., with Jeff Lomonaco. '' The United States v. I. Lewis Libby''. New York: Union Square Press (imprint of
Sterling Publishing Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. is a publisher of a broad range of subject areas, with multiple imprints and more than 5,000 titles in print. Founded in 1949 by David A. Boehm, Sterling also publishes books for a number of brands, including AAR ...
), 2007. (10). (13). ("Edited & with reporting by Murray Waas" and with research assistance by Jeff Lomonaco.) ;Pertinent selected articles about and interviews of Waas *Baker, Russ W
"Iraqgate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away: Who Chased It and Who Didn't"
''
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
''. (March/April 1993). Retrieved August 19, 2007. *Gootman, Elissa L
"Goldsmith Prizes Awarded: Top Investigative Reporting Teams Rewarded by $25,000"
''
The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
''. (March 26, 1993). Retrieved August 21, 2007. *Halloran, Liz
"A Muckraker's Day in the Sun"
'' U.S. News & World Report''. (May 15, 2006). Retrieved April 29, 2007. * Kurtz, Howard
"The Lone Ranger:
After a Quarter Century in the Journalistic Shadows, Murray Waas Is Getting His Day in the Sun." ''
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 nati ...
'', April 17, 2006. Retrieved June 20, 2007. * Lasica, J. D.br>"The Web: A New Channel for Investigative Journalism:
Salon's Groundbreaking Stories on the
Ken Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, kno ...
Investigation Challenge the Conventional Wisdom Laid Down by the Mainstream Media's Wolfpack Mindset". '' American Journalism Review''. (June 1998). Retrieved August 19, 2007. *Lewis, Anthony
"Abroad at Home; Trust"
''
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 ...
''. (October 26, 1992). Retrieved March 26, 2008. *–––
"Abroad at Home; Who Fed This Caesar?"
''
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 ...
''. (March 15, 1992). Retrieved March 26, 2008. * Rosen, Jay
"Murray Waas Is Our Woodward Now"
''PressThink'' (blog). (April 9, 2006). Retrieved June 20, 2007. *Sargent, Greg
"The Plame Game: What Murray Waas' Big Scoop May Really Tell us About Bush's Pre-war Deceptions"
''
The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted to ...
''. (April 4, 2006). Retrieved August 20, 2007. *Schanberg, Sydney H
"Press Clips: If Old Journalism Dies... Where Will New Media Get the News?"
''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''. (November 29, 2005). Retrieved August 20, 2007. *Welch, Matt
"Salon's Coverage Commands Respect for Net Journalists"
''Online Journalism Review''. ( Annenberg School for Communication at
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
). (March 30, 1998). Retrieved August 26, 2007.


External links


Personal website (incomplete; under construction)


{{DEFAULTSORT:Waas, Murray 1961 births Living people American investigative journalists George Washington University alumni Writers from Philadelphia People from Washington, D.C. People associated with the Plame affair