Jason Leopold
Encyclopedia
Jason Leopold is an American
investigative reporter. Leopold is known for his work at Truthout as a senior editor and reporter, a position he left after three years on February 19, 2008 to co-found the web-based political magazine, The Public Record, according to an email sent to his readers. Leopold's profile page on The Public Record now says he is Editor-at-Large. Leopold has since returned to Truthout as Deputy Managing Editor.
Leopold has written stories on BP
, Enron
, the California Energy Crisis, the Bush administration's torture polices, and the Plame affair
. His pieces have been published in Asia Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS MarketWatch, The Nation, and Utne.com. Leopold has also written about foreign and domestic policy online for publications such as Alternet
, CounterPunch
, Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, The Huffington Post
, Political Affairs Magazine
, The Raw Story
, Scoop
, ZNet.
as its Los Angeles bureau chief. According to a Washington Post report, the press release for Leopold's unpublished book Off the Record stated that "He says he was fired by the Los Angeles Times 'for threatening to rip a reporter's head off.' Leopold says he quit Dow Jones Newswires in a dispute over his beat but later learned the news service was planning to fire him because of a correction to one of his Enron stories: 'Seems I got all of the facts wrong.'" Leopold is currently the US correspondent for 95bfm in Auckland, New Zealand.
, a columnist for the now-defunct New Times LA
newspaper in Los Angeles. An article Leopold wrote for CBS Marketwatch about Enron's role in the California energy crisis was cited during a floor speech by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and read into the Congressional Record on June 10, 2003 as Congress was debating energy policy.
removed from its website an article authored by Leopold about Army Secretary Thomas E. White
's role in the Enron
collapse, due to questions about the validity of an e-mail and allegations that portions of the article had not been adequately credited to the Financial Times. The disputed e-mail was said to have been from White, telling the recipient to "Close a bigger deal to hide the loss." According to Salon, Leopold's article "used seven full paragraphs amounting to 480 words, virtually verbatim, from the FT. There were two attributions to the FT within the passage, but they appeared to apply only to the specific sentences that contained them, not to the full passage." Leopold later admitted that he had been careless by not providing the FT with additional credit, but insisted that Salons editors had all the relevant documents, including the disputed White email, before the story was published. Paul Krugman
of the New York Times, who wrote a piece based in part on Leopold's work, also had to backpedal, acknowledging that he should not have cited the e-mail.
Salon removed the story from its website and said that Leopold had plagiarized text from the FT, but the article remains in the Nexis archives. Leopold said he had slightly misquoted the email, which should have read "Close a bigger deal. Hide the loss before the 1Q". White denied sending the email in a letter he sent to The New York Times, and when Salons editors contacted Leopold's source, the source denied speaking to him. The Village Voice reported, "Obviously, Leopold made mistakes, but it's not at all clear they justify a full repudiation of the story or a revocation of his journalistic license. As Paul Krugman told the Voice, 'Everything else in that story checked out. The substance of his reporting was entirely correct. Commenting on the case, Kerry Lauerman of Salon said that "Leopold definitely represents the dark side of the web ... he became this sort of hero for throngs people online."
, who, according to the manuscript, invested in energy companies using inside information. The author of the Washington Post story about Leopold's book, Howard Kurtz, was featured in News Junkie. Leopold called him "lazy."
In the book, Leopold also revealed many secrets about his life such as a prior drug addiction, bouts with mental illness and suicide attempts. He also disclosed how he lied to employers about a criminal conviction for larceny that took place when Leopold was in his 20s and working in the record business.
Publishers Weekly
wrote of News Junkie that "While there's a lot of lying admitted to in this scrappy memoir, from Leopold's hiding of his criminal past to his playing of sources to get his scoops, it's (probably) not an untruthful memoir—indeed, it might become required reading for aspiring journalists." The book was on the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers / Paperbacks list on June 11, 2006. and July 16, 2006
had been indicted
by the grand jury
investigating the Plame affair
. Rove spokesman Mark Corallo
denied the story, calling it "a complete fabrication". Truthout vigorously defended the story saying variously that it had two or three "independent sources," before the executive director, Mark Ash, issued a statement apologizing for “getting too far out in front of the news-cycle.” The grand jury concluded with no indictment of Rove.
In his memoir, Courage and Consequence, Karl Rove addressed the Leopold article. Rove writes that Leopold is a "nut with Internet access" and that "thirty-five reporters called [Robert] Luskin or Corallo to ask about the Truthout report." According to Rove, "Fitzgerald
got a kick out of the fictitious account and e-mailed Luskin to see how he felt after such a long day."
has been cited by CNN
, 60 Minutes
and the Los Angeles Times
.
60 Minutes cited a report by Leopold, published at Truthout as a source for their episode on May 16, 2010 about the BP oil spill and the whistleblower
who was warning about a possible blowout at another BP deepwater drilling
site.
Digital Journal wrote up the story and also cited the Truthout report.
CNN's Randi Kaye in an article also cited a report by Leopold on Mark Kovak's inside knowledge about the safety concerns at the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska BP oil field.
On July 8, 2010 Kim Murphy
, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times cited Leopold's investigation into neglect and cost-cutting practices at Alyeska Pipeline in her report on the resignation of Alyeska's CEO one day after Leopold's report was published at Truthout.
On July 14, 2010 the United States House of Representatives
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. The hearing titled "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management," cited an investigative report by Leopold, published at Truthout as a document for the committee's investigation.
had with Ken Lay prior to the film star's being elected Governor of California.
Leopold also received a Project Censored
award for a story he wrote on Halliburton
in 2005.
In 2008, Leopold received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
investigative reporter. Leopold is known for his work at Truthout as a senior editor and reporter, a position he left after three years on February 19, 2008 to co-found the web-based political magazine, The Public Record, according to an email sent to his readers. Leopold's profile page on The Public Record now says he is Editor-at-Large. Leopold has since returned to Truthout as Deputy Managing Editor.
Leopold has written stories on BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
, Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
, the California Energy Crisis, the Bush administration's torture polices, and the Plame affair
Plame affair
The Plame Affair involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer. Mrs. Wilson's relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information...
. His pieces have been published in Asia Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS MarketWatch, The Nation, and Utne.com. Leopold has also written about foreign and domestic policy online for publications such as Alternet
AlterNet
AlterNet, a project of the non-profit Independent Media Institute, is a progressive/liberal activist news service. Launched in 1998, AlterNet now claims a readership of over 3 million visitors per month .AlterNet publishes original content as well as journalism from a wide variety of other sources...
, CounterPunch
Counterpunch
Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
, Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, Political Affairs Magazine
Political Affairs Magazine
Political Affairs Magazine is a monthly, online Marxist publication. It aims to provide an analysis of events from a working class point of view. Political Affairs Magazine is a publication of the Communist Party USA. It was founded in 1944 upon the closure of its predecessor, The Communist, which...
, The Raw Story
The Raw Story
The Raw Story is a progressive news, politics and weblog publication founded in 2004. Updated continuously, it is known primarily for its investigative reporting...
, Scoop
Scoop (news website)
Scoop.co.nz is a New Zealand internet news site with a readership of 25,000 unique visitors a day, delivering 2,000,000 pages of information per month....
, ZNet.
Career
Leopold began his career in 1992, writing obituaries for The Reporter Dispatch newspaper in White Plains, New York. He became the crime and courts reporter for the Whittier Daily News in 1997 and then moved to the City News Service where he covered court trials. Leopold has also worked as a city editor and reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He then worked for Dow Jones NewswiresDow Jones Newswires
Dow Jones Newswires is the real-time financial news organization owned by Dow Jones . Founded in 1882, its primary competitors are Bloomberg L.P. and Thomson Reuters. The company reports more than 300,000 subscribers -- including brokers, traders, analysts and fund managers -- as of July 2011.-...
as its Los Angeles bureau chief. According to a Washington Post report, the press release for Leopold's unpublished book Off the Record stated that "He says he was fired by the Los Angeles Times 'for threatening to rip a reporter's head off.' Leopold says he quit Dow Jones Newswires in a dispute over his beat but later learned the news service was planning to fire him because of a correction to one of his Enron stories: 'Seems I got all of the facts wrong.'" Leopold is currently the US correspondent for 95bfm in Auckland, New Zealand.
California energy crisis
Leopold was referred to as "one of the most aggressive reporters" on the California energy crisis by Jill StewartJill Stewart
Jill Stewart is the Deputy Editor of News at LA Weekly, the largest alternative weekly newspaper in the Western U.S. She directs a staff of metro reporters who specialize in Los Angeles and California news and politics...
, a columnist for the now-defunct New Times LA
New Times LA
New Times LA is a now-defunct alternative weekly newspaper that was published in Los Angeles, California by the New Times Media corporation from 1996 until 2002. The editor-in-chief for its entire run was Rick Barrs...
newspaper in Los Angeles. An article Leopold wrote for CBS Marketwatch about Enron's role in the California energy crisis was cited during a floor speech by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and read into the Congressional Record on June 10, 2003 as Congress was debating energy policy.
Enron
Leopold's reporting on Enron was featured in a National Public Radio special broadcast, "Blind Trust." According to Publishers Weekly, Leopold was "one of the few reporters who'd actually interviewed Enron President Jeff Skilling" following Enron's bankruptcy in December 2001.Salon article removal
In September 2002, following a two week investigation, SalonSalon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
removed from its website an article authored by Leopold about Army Secretary Thomas E. White
Thomas E. White
Thomas E. White, Jr. is an American businessman and former United States Army officer who served as senior executive at the now collapsed Enron and as the United States Secretary of the Army from May 31, 2001 until April 25, 2003.-Military career and education:In 1963 White graduated from Cass...
's role in the Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
collapse, due to questions about the validity of an e-mail and allegations that portions of the article had not been adequately credited to the Financial Times. The disputed e-mail was said to have been from White, telling the recipient to "Close a bigger deal to hide the loss." According to Salon, Leopold's article "used seven full paragraphs amounting to 480 words, virtually verbatim, from the FT. There were two attributions to the FT within the passage, but they appeared to apply only to the specific sentences that contained them, not to the full passage." Leopold later admitted that he had been careless by not providing the FT with additional credit, but insisted that Salons editors had all the relevant documents, including the disputed White email, before the story was published. Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
of the New York Times, who wrote a piece based in part on Leopold's work, also had to backpedal, acknowledging that he should not have cited the e-mail.
Salon removed the story from its website and said that Leopold had plagiarized text from the FT, but the article remains in the Nexis archives. Leopold said he had slightly misquoted the email, which should have read "Close a bigger deal. Hide the loss before the 1Q". White denied sending the email in a letter he sent to The New York Times, and when Salons editors contacted Leopold's source, the source denied speaking to him. The Village Voice reported, "Obviously, Leopold made mistakes, but it's not at all clear they justify a full repudiation of the story or a revocation of his journalistic license. As Paul Krugman told the Voice, 'Everything else in that story checked out. The substance of his reporting was entirely correct. Commenting on the case, Kerry Lauerman of Salon said that "Leopold definitely represents the dark side of the web ... he became this sort of hero for throngs people online."
Books
Prior to the publication of News Junkie, Leopold's book was titled Off the Record. The book's publisher, according to the Washington Post report, said the book has been dropped for "business reasons." The Post wrote that it was canceled following reported legal threats from Steven Maviglio, the press secretary to former Governor Gray DavisGray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who served as California's 37th Governor from 1999 until being recalled in 2003...
, who, according to the manuscript, invested in energy companies using inside information. The author of the Washington Post story about Leopold's book, Howard Kurtz, was featured in News Junkie. Leopold called him "lazy."
In the book, Leopold also revealed many secrets about his life such as a prior drug addiction, bouts with mental illness and suicide attempts. He also disclosed how he lied to employers about a criminal conviction for larceny that took place when Leopold was in his 20s and working in the record business.
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
wrote of News Junkie that "While there's a lot of lying admitted to in this scrappy memoir, from Leopold's hiding of his criminal past to his playing of sources to get his scoops, it's (probably) not an untruthful memoir—indeed, it might become required reading for aspiring journalists." The book was on the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers / Paperbacks list on June 11, 2006. and July 16, 2006
Karl Rove indictment claim
On May 13, 2006, Leopold reported on Truthout that Karl RoveKarl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
had been indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
by the grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
investigating the Plame affair
Plame affair
The Plame Affair involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer. Mrs. Wilson's relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information...
. Rove spokesman Mark Corallo
Mark Corallo
Mark Corallo is a political communications and public relations professional, who is currently the co-founder and co-principal of Corallo Comstock...
denied the story, calling it "a complete fabrication". Truthout vigorously defended the story saying variously that it had two or three "independent sources," before the executive director, Mark Ash, issued a statement apologizing for “getting too far out in front of the news-cycle.” The grand jury concluded with no indictment of Rove.
In his memoir, Courage and Consequence, Karl Rove addressed the Leopold article. Rove writes that Leopold is a "nut with Internet access" and that "thirty-five reporters called [Robert] Luskin or Corallo to ask about the Truthout report." According to Rove, "Fitzgerald
Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick J. Fitzgerald is the current United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel...
got a kick out of the fictitious account and e-mailed Luskin to see how he felt after such a long day."
Safety issues at BP
Leopold's investigative reporting on safety issues at BPBP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
has been cited by CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
60 Minutes cited a report by Leopold, published at Truthout as a source for their episode on May 16, 2010 about the BP oil spill and the whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
who was warning about a possible blowout at another BP deepwater drilling
Deepwater drilling
Deepwater drilling is the process of oil and gas exploration and production in depths of more than 500 feet. By this definition, there are approximately 600 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico....
site.
Digital Journal wrote up the story and also cited the Truthout report.
CNN's Randi Kaye in an article also cited a report by Leopold on Mark Kovak's inside knowledge about the safety concerns at the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska BP oil field.
On July 8, 2010 Kim Murphy
Kim Murphy
Kim Murphy is an American actress known for her roles in such movies as Houseguest and Burning Annie and her roles in the television series Level 9 and 24.-Biography:...
, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times cited Leopold's investigation into neglect and cost-cutting practices at Alyeska Pipeline in her report on the resignation of Alyeska's CEO one day after Leopold's report was published at Truthout.
On July 14, 2010 the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing in the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. The hearing titled "The Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (Part 2): Integrity Management," cited an investigative report by Leopold, published at Truthout as a document for the committee's investigation.
Awards
Leopold won a Project Censored award in 2004 for a story he wrote about an alleged secret meeting Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
had with Ken Lay prior to the film star's being elected Governor of California.
Leopold also received a Project Censored
Project Censored
Project Censored is a non-profit, media criticism and investigative journalism project within the Sonoma State University Foundation. It is managed through the School of Social Sciences at the university....
award for a story he wrote on Halliburton
Halliburton
Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....
in 2005.
In 2008, Leopold received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is a watchdog / advocacy group and civil rights organization whose stated goals are to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they are entitled by virtue of the Establishment...
.