Behar was born to a Jewish family[4] in Manhattan and raised on Long Island.[5] He is a 1982 graduate of New York University. Before joining Time in 1989, he was a reporter and associate editor for Forbes magazine for six years. He has also worked at The New York Times as a researcher and writer. Behar reported extensively about organized crime and the business backgrounds of politicians for Time, for whom Behar wrote a 1993 cover story on the World Trade Center bombing.[citation needed]
In 1991, he wrote "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", a Time cover story on Scientology.[6] The acclaimed article won several awards.[7] The Church of Scientology brought several lawsuits over the article, all of which were eventually dismissed.[7] While investigating the story, he experienced some of Scientology's Fair Game tactics. He later learned that a copy of his personal credit report, containing detailed personal information, had been improperly obtained.[6]
A 2003 report by Behar in Fortune explored Donald Rumsfeld's role in helping North Korea build its potential Nuclear weapon capacity, in an article entitled "Rummy’s North Korea Connection: What Did Donald Rumsfeld Know About ABB’s Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors There? And Why Won’t He Talk About It?"[8] Behar is the only known journalist to have read the classified Phoenix Memo, the infamous pre-9/11 FBI document which warned the FBI about Osama bin Laden supporters enrolling in flight-training schools across the country.[9] Reporting from Pakistan for Fortune magazine and CNN after 9-11, Behar’s “The Karachi Connection” broke ground by exposing a logistics leader of the 9-11 attacks—including his secret travels near the Afghanistan border just days before the terror attacks. A second article, "Kidnapped Nation" revealed how radical forces are undermining Pakistan's economy.
Behar and Time Inc. were sued for libel in June 2001 by the billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben, who built one of the world's largest aluminum companies, Trans-World Group. They claimed Behar defamed them in a 2000 Fortune article. Shortly before trial, in July 2004, the suit was settled after Fortune ran a lengthy clarification.[10][11]
In October 2004, Behar left Fortune to pursue book writing and various independent projects, including the launch of Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance investigating the July 2004, murder of Paul Klebnikov, who was then the editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia. Behar also served on the advisory committee of New York University's business journalism Master's program (BER), and has long been reporting and writing a book about Bernard Madoff, to be published by Simon & Schuster.[1] The book was initially purchased by Random House.[2] In 2015, Behar co-wrote an article for the New York Observer that accused the Associated Press of improperly reporting civilian deaths in the 2015 Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.[12]
In 2015, Behar and journalist Gary Weiss co-founded The Mideast Reporter, now known as Mideast Dig, a not-for-profit news site and investigative journalism project. Its aim is to deepen news coverage of the Middle East. Weiss left the venture in November 2015.[12][13]
Recognition
Behar has won more than 20 major journalism awards and honors for his reporting. Behar was included among the 100 best business journalists (the "100 luminaries") of the 20th century by the TJFR business journalism trade group. [citation needed] In 1999, columnist Jack Anderson called Behar "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs."[14]
Awards
Behar has won journalism awards, including:
Four awards in recognition of his 1991 story for Time about Scientology:
Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism in a magazine(1992)[7][15]
George Polk Award (twice): One for his 1995 story about the strong-arm tactics used by the Allstate Insurance Co. against its own employees; a second Polk for a 2008 story about China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa[19]
Business Journalist of the Year Award from the City of London Corporation for articles about counterfeiting in China and organized crime in Russia's aluminum industry [20]
2008 Ed Cunningham Award, Overseas Press Club for China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa[24]
Jack Anderson Award (twice) for "Top Investigative Reporter of the Year"– 1997 and 1999
National Headliner Award, as a member of the CNN Investigation Team, for "outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath."
SAPA award (Society of Publishers in Asia) for best feature writing for an in-depth account of the royal family of Brunei
"Best of the Best" award in 2009 from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), for an article on China's business activities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Fortune was awarded the National Magazine Award for public interest for two articles written by Behar on organized crime's influence in the garbage-hauling industry (1997) [25]
1 2 Richard Behar, "Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes: Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam– and aiming for the mainstream", book rev. of "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, Time Magazine, May 6, 1991: 50, rpt. in cs.cmu.edu, accessed May 11, 2007. [Part of "Special Report (cover story)".]
Paul Klebnikov was an American journalist and historian of Russia. He worked for Forbes magazine for more than 10 years and at the time of his death was chief editor of the Russian edition of Forbes. His murder in Moscow in 2004 was seen as a blow against investigative journalism in Russia. Three Chechens accused of taking part in the murder were acquitted. Though the murder appeared to be the work of assassins for hire, as of 2022, the alleged organizers of the murder had yet to be identified. According to another version, widely reported in Russian media, Klebnikov was killed by a close associate to the high-ranking member of Lazansky organized criminal gang linked both to Russian FSS service and Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch.
Russell Miller (born c. 1938) is a British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.
David Miscavige is the leader of the Church of Scientology. His official title within the organization is Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that controls the trademarks and copyrights of Dianetics and Scientology. He is also referred to within the Scientology organization as "Captain of the Sea Org".
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was established in 1957 by Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of E.F. Hutton & Co. Loeb's intention in creating the award was to encourage reporters to inform and protect private investors as well as the general public in the areas of business, finance and the economy.
"The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" is an article, written in 1991 by U.S. investigative journalist Richard Behar, which is highly critical of Scientology.
Brian Elliot Ross is an American investigative journalist who served as the Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News until 2018. He reported for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, Nightline, Good Morning America, 20/20, and ABC News Radio. Ross joined ABC News in July 1994 and was fired in 2018. His investigative reports have often covered government corruption. From 1974 until 1994, Ross was a correspondent for NBC News.
Gary Weiss is an American investigative journalist, columnist and author of books that examine the ethics of Wall Street. He was also a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. His Businessweek articles exposed organized crime on Wall Street and the Salomon Brothers bond trading scandal in the 1990s, and he covered the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. Weiss is co-founder of The Mideast Reporter.
James Walker Michaels was an American journalist and magazine editor. Michaels served as the longtime editor of Forbes magazine from 1961 until his retirement in 1999.
The Conscience-in-Media Award is presented by the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) to journalists that the society deems worthy of recognition for their distinctive contributions. The award is not given out often, and is awarded to those journalists which the ASJA feels have demonstrated integrity to journalistic values, while enduring personal costs to themselves. Candidates are decided by an initial vote of the ASJA's First Amendment Committee, which must then be confirmed by a separate vote of the ASJA's board of directors.
The Worth Bingham Prize, also referred to as the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Reporting, is an annual journalism award which honors: "newspaper or magazine investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served."
Allan Sloan is an American journalist, formerly senior editor at large at Fortune magazine. He is currently a columnist for The Washington Post.
Russell Warren "Russ" Baker 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 New York Times Magazine,The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Esquire,Vanity Fair, and The Village Voice.
Martin Smith is a producer, writer, director and correspondent. Smith has produced dozens of nationally broadcast documentaries for CBS News, ABC News and PBS Frontline. His films range in topic from war in the Middle East to the 2008 financial crisis.
Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times, currently writes for The New Yorker Magazine and is the author of two books on habits and productivity, titled The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Smarter Faster Better. In 2013, Duhigg was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series of 10 articles on the business practices of Apple and other technology companies.
Diana Blackmon Henriques is an American financial journalist and author working in New York City. Since 1989, she has been a reporter on the staff of The New York Times working on staff until December 2011 and under contract as a contributing writer thereafter.
Mideast Dig, formerly known as The Mideast Reporter, is a non-for-profit news site and investigative journalism project founded by Richard Behar and Gary Weiss to deepen news coverage of the Middle East. The project describes itself as, "completely nonpolitical, and not affiliated with any advocacy group." The two journalists announced their intention of creating The Mideast Reporter in a March 2015 article in The New York Observer.
Ben Taub is an American journalist who is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. He has written for the magazine about a range of subjects related to jihadism, crime, conflict, and human rights, mostly in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Elizabeth MacDonald is an American financial journalist working for Fox Business. MacDonald used to work for The Wall Street Journal and as a senior editor at Forbes magazine. She won a Gerald Loeb Award for her work in magazines.
Mary Pat Flaherty is an American journalist who specializes in investigative and long-range stories. She has won numerous national awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Specialized Reporting. Formerly of the Pittsburgh Press, she has worked for the Washington Post since 1993.
The Gerald Loeb Award is given annually for multiple categories of business reporting. The "Magazine" category is one of the two original categories awarded in 1958, with the last award given in 2014. The category included articles published the prior year in national and regional periodicals until 2008, when it was expanded to include magazine supplements to newspapers. Previously, newspaper magazine supplements were entered into an appropriate newspaper category. The "Magazine" and "Large Newspaper" categories were replaced by the "Feature" category in 2015.
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