Greg Palast

Greg Palast has earned a reputation as one of America's most dedicated and fearless investigative journalists, even though his work is more likely to be seen in Great Britain rather than the United States. Palast's stories often ruffle enough feathers than many major U.S. news outlets pass on publishing them, but he's found a ready audience for his material in London's The Observer and The Guardian and as a correspondent for the BBC. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Palast attended college at the University of Chicago, where he studied finance under famed economist Milton Friedman. However, Palast soon found that the ethics of the "free trade" movement didn't agree with him, and he became a researcher working with progressive political, environmental, and labor groups, learning how to uncover evidence of wrongdoing by corporations and the government. In time, Palast took what he had learned about digging up hard facts and put his skills to work in journalism. In 1998, Palast broke a story of lobbyists using money to buy political influence in Britain, extending as far as the offices of Prime Minister Tony Blair, and in 2000, he revealed evidence that Florida governor Jeb Bush spearheaded an effort to purge African-Americans from his state's voter registration rolls, helping to ensure a narrow victory in the presidential election for his brother George W. Bush. Palast's other controversial investigations include research into the financial practices of evangelist Pat Robertson, the FBI's scuttled monitoring of Osama bin Laden prior to September 11, 2001, George W. Bush's efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, and the U.S. government's failed response to Hurricane Katrina. Palast has also published two best-selling books of his writings, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse, and wrote and directed the documentary film Bush Family Fortunes. In addition, two CDs taken from Palast's lecture tours have been released, Weapon of Mass Instruction and Live from the Armed Madhouse. ~ Mark Deming