Jessica Silver-Greenberg

Last updated

Jessica Silver-Greenberg is a business reporter for The New York Times whose investigative reporting on consumer financial issues has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Congress. [1] [2]

Contents

Silver-Greenberg was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series of New York Times articles that revealed how corporations use binding arbitration to prevent American consumers from suing for relief in the judicial system. [3]  She was also a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for her 2011 series in The Wall Street Journal revealing the increasingly exploitative tactics of debt collectors. [4]  Additional recognition includes the New York Press Club Award for consumer reporting and the Newswomen's Club of New York Award for Best Bylined Front Page Story. [5]

Silver-Greenberg has reported for The New York Times since March 2012. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life and career

Silver-Greenberg was born in New York City but grew up in Los Angeles. An early influence was her grandmother, "who never forgot a birthday and taught her how to be a sleuth". [6] Her father was Richard Alan Greenberg, an Oscar-nominated special effects designer. [7]

In 2004, Silver-Greenberg earned her bachelor's degree in English literature and American studies from Princeton University. [8] After a stint as an investigator in the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Silver-Greenberg began her journalism career in 2007 as a consumer finance reporter for BusinessWeek . [9] She then worked as a projects and investigations reporter at Bloomberg between in 2010 before serving as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal’s Money & Investing section from July 2010 to March 2012. [10]

She joined The New York Times in March 2012. [11]

2012: Wall Street Journal investigation of debt collectors

In 2012, Silver-Greenberg was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for her Wall Street Journal investigation on the U.S. debt collection industry. The Pulitzer citation highlights "her compelling examination of aggressive debt collectors whose often questionable tactics, profitable but largely unseen by the public, vexed borrowers hard hit by the nation's financial crisis". [12]

Her March 17, 2011 article, "Welcome to Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition", revealed that the debt collectors increasingly sought in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis to have borrowers who couldn’t pay arrested and put in jail, often as a result of "sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation that can result in borrowers having no idea before being locked up that they were sued to collect an outstanding debt". [13] Other articles in the series reported on the record number of complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2011 against the debt collection industry and the aggressive tactics used by “death debt collectors” to collect money from family members of the deceased. [14] [15] [16] U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown cited one of Silver-Greenberg's articles on the use of credit card offers to secure payment on already-expired debts in a letter calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ban the practice. [17]

2016: New York Times investigation of forced arbitration

After moving to The New York Times in 2012, Silver-Greenberg became a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for her reporting, along with New York Times reporters Michael Corkery and Robert Gebeloff, on the growing pattern of companies and banks using obscure clauses in contracts to require consumers to resolve disputes through private arbitration, effectively preventing consumers from using the judicial system to do so. [18] Six articles in this series between November 1 and November 21, 2015 were nominated. [19]

"By inserting individual arbitration clauses into a soaring number of consumer and employment contracts", Silver and her fellow New York Times reporters explained, "companies like American Express devised a way to circumvent the courts and bar people from joining together in class-action lawsuits, realistically the only tool citizens have to fight illegal or deceitful business practices". [20] The reporters combed through thousands of federal court records between 2010 and 2014 and conducted interviews with people involved in those cases to produce the series.

The series had an immediate impact. In Washington, U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Al Franken, joined by 14 others, wrote a letter to President Obama the month the series was published highlighting the New York Times reporting and calling for more action on forced arbitration. [21] Leahy and Franken introduced a bill the following year seeking to impose new restrictions on arbitration. [22]

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Representative Hank Johnson said the "exhaustive and thoughtful series by The New York Times cataloguing the immense harms of forced arbitration should shake Congress into action". [23] Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited the first article of the series in her dissent in the case Directv, inc. v Imburgia et al. [24] [25] [26]

A backlash from supporters of arbitration also followed the publication. Theodore J. St. Antoine, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan Law School and former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, wrote in a letter to the editor in The New York Times that private arbitration is "cheaper, faster, at least as fair and far more accessible to the average consumer or employee than a costly, complicated court action" and that "the ban on class actions is the true villain". [27] Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Action Network purchased attack ads against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which sought to restrict arbitration, and lobbied in Congress to restrict the CFPB's powers. [28]

The forced arbitration series continued to receive attention in Washington well after its initial publication. In 2017, during the Senate confirmation hearing of Neil Gorsuch as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Senator Al Franken asked Gorsuch directly if he had read The New York Times investigation and pressed Gorsuch regarding his stance on forced arbitration. [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

James Bennett Stewart is an American lawyer, journalist, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point72 Asset Management</span> American hedge fund

Point72 Asset Management, is an American hedge fund. It was founded in 2014 by Steve Cohen, after his previous company S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to insider trading charges.

Manohla June Dargis is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for The New York Times. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Clifford J. Levy is deputy publisher of two Times company publications, the Wirecutter and The Athletic. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and considered one of the main architects of the digital transformation of The New York Times.

Tony Bartelme, an American journalist and author, is the senior projects reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina. He has been a finalist for four Pulitzer Prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Leonhardt</span> American journalist and columnist (born 1973)

David Leonhardt is an American journalist and columnist. Since April 30, 2020, he has written the daily "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times. He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. He previously wrote the paper's daily e-mail newsletter, which bore his own name. As of October 2018, he also co-hosted "The Argument", a weekly opinion podcast with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Barstow</span> American journalist

David Barstow is an American journalist and professor. While a reporter at The New York Times from 1999 to 2019, Barstow was awarded, individually or jointly, four Pulitzer Prizes, becoming the first reporter in the history of the Pulitzers to be awarded this many. In 2019, Barstow joined the faculty of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism as a professor of investigative journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael S. Schmidt</span> American journalist and author (born 1983)

Michael S. Schmidt is an American journalist, author, and correspondent for The New York Times in Washington, D.C. He covers national security and federal law enforcement, and has broken several high-profile stories. He is also a national security contributor for MSNBC and NBC News.

Alix Marian Freedman is an American journalist, and ethics editor at Thomson Reuters.

<i>Inside Climate News</i> American climate journalism website

Inside Climate News is a non-profit news organization, focusing on environmental journalism. The publication writes that it "covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science—plus the territory in between where law, policy and public opinion are shaped."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Apuzzo</span> American journalist

Matt Apuzzo is an American journalist working for The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Craig</span> Canadian journalist

Susanne Craig is a Canadian investigative journalist who works at The New York Times. She was the reporter to whom Donald Trump's 1995 tax returns were anonymously mailed during the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, she was an author of The New York Times investigation into Donald Trump's wealth that found the president inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father, some through fraudulent tax schemes. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2019 for this coverage. In 2020, she further reported on Donald Trump's tax record which disclosed that he paid $750 in federal income tax during 2016 and nothing at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. Craig is also known for her coverage of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and of New York State and New York City government and politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Twohey</span> American journalist

Megan Twohey is an American journalist with The New York Times. She has written investigative reports for Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Twohey's investigative reports have exposed exploitative doctors, revealed untested rape kits, and uncovered a secret underground network of abandoned unwanted adopted children. Her investigative reports have led to criminal convictions and helped prompt new laws aimed at protecting vulnerable people and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Pulitzer Prize</span>

The 2018 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2017 calendar year. Prize winners and nominated finalists were announced by Dana Canedy at 3:00 p.m. EST on April 16, 2018.

Martha Mendoza is an Associated Press journalist whose reporting has helped free over 2,000 enslaved fishermen and prompted action by the U.S. Congress and the White House. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Pulitzer Prize</span>

The 2019 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2018 calendar year. Prize winners and nominated finalists were announced by administrator Dana Canedy at 3:00 p.m. EST on April 15, 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Gabler</span> American investigative reporter

Ellen Gabler is an investigative reporter for The New York Times and a member of a team awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Dickerson</span> American journalist

Caitlin Dickerson is an American journalist. She is a reporter for The Atlantic, focused on immigration. She previously worked as a national reporter for The New York Times, a political analyst for CNN, and an investigative reporter for NPR. She was awarded a 2015 Peabody Award for an NPR special series on the testing of mustard gas on American troops in WWII. She is a 2023 winner of the Pulitzer prize.

Jaeah Lee is an independent American journalist who writes primarily about justice, race, and labor in America. She is the recipient of the inaugural American Mosaic Journalism Prize, the 2018 Los Angeles Literary Award and was a Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan. Her reporting work on the racial bias of using rap lyrics as evidence in criminal prosecutions has drawn attention to the acknowledgement of rap as protected speech under the First Amendment, particularly in California.

Danny Hakim is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. Hakim shared a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 as one of the lead reporters on a team that covered the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.

References

  1. ↑ "Sen Franken Judge Gorsuch Arbitration | User Clip | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  2. ↑ Kramon, Glenn (2016-04-18). "3 Things The Times Looks for in a Pulitzer Nominee". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  3. ↑ "2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Investigative Reporting".
  4. ↑ "2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in National Reporting".
  5. ↑ "NYT Hires Banking Reporter from WSJ". 17 February 2012.
  6. ↑ "Jessica Silver-Greenberg". The New York Times. 2018-12-31. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  7. ↑ Barnes, Mike (June 20, 2018). "Richard Alan Greenberg, Main Title Designer on 'Superman' and 'Alien' and Oscar Nominee for 'Predator,' Dies at 71". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Silver-Greenburg, Jessica — International Reporting Project". internationalreportingproject.org. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  9. ↑ "Silver-Greenburg, Jessica — International Reporting Project". internationalreportingproject.org. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  10. ↑ "Jessica Silver-Greenberg".
  11. ↑ "NYT hires banking reporter from WSJ - Talking Biz News". talkingbiznews.com. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  12. ↑ "2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in National Reporting".
  13. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica (2011-03-17). "Welcome to Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  14. ↑ "A Super Journal Story on". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  15. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica (2011-12-28). "Judge Says Widow Harassed". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  16. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica (2011-12-15). "Consumers Cry Foul Over Debt Collectors". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  17. ↑ "Brown Calls on CFPB to Enact Rules to Rein in Debt Collection Agencies and End Consumer Abuses | U.S. Senator for Ohio". www.brown.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  18. ↑ "Have We Lost A Constitutional Right In The Fine Print?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  19. ↑ "2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Investigative Reporting".
  20. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica; Gebeloff, Robert (2015-10-31). "Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  21. ↑ "Sens. Franken, Leahy Urge President Obama to Take Action Against Forced Arbitration Clauses That Strip Away Americans' Rights | U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont". www.leahy.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  22. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica; Corkery, Michael (2016-02-04). "Bill Seeks to Limit Use of Arbitration to Avoid Courts". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  23. ↑ "The Voter's Self Defense System". Vote Smart. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  24. ↑ Kramon, Glenn (2016-04-18). "3 Things The Times Looks for in a Pulitzer Nominee". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  25. ↑ Liptak, Adam (2018-05-21). "Supreme Court Upholds Workplace Arbitration Contracts Barring Class Actions". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  26. ↑ "Supreme Court Opinion Directv vs Imbrugia" (PDF).
  27. ↑ "Opinion | Forcing Consumers Into Arbitration". The New York Times. 2015-11-04. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  28. ↑ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica; Corkery, Michael (2015-11-15). "Efforts to Rein In Arbitration Come Under Well-Financed Attack". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  29. ↑ "Sen Franken Judge Gorsuch Arbitration | User Clip | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
  30. ↑ "Arbitration Comes Up at Judge Gorsuch's Senate Confirmation Hearing". SAC Blog. 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2019-02-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.