REESE ERLICH
Author
Most of these online biographies are deadly boring recitations of all the wonderful things the speaker had done in his life, followed by some self-serving mention of awards received. This bio is no exception.
I stumbled into the wonderful world of journalism without premeditation. I had been attending the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 when I was suspended for organizing anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. I found part-time work as a late-night typist at Ramparts, then the country's premiere investigative reporting magazine. The editors promoted me to reporter so I could learn journalism the old fashioned -- by making lots of mistakes and getting yelled at. Eventually I learned how to write journalistically.
By 1986 I had been freelancing for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, which had recently formed a radio network. The very patient producers at Monitor Radio trained me as a radio reporter. I later learned television journalism the same way, by on-the-job training. Despite never having taken a class in journalism, and a vow by administrators at UC Berkeley never to allow me back on campus, I eventually taught journalism at UC Berkeley Extension, San Francisco State University , and California State University at Hayward . These days I work full time as a freelance print and broadcast journalist.
As promised, here comes the typical, boring bio information. Notice how everything is cleverly written in the third person in order to make the speaker look more important.
Reese Erlich reports regularly for National Public Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio. (Don't forget that he also writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, and Dallas Morning News.) Erlich’s "Perspectives on Jazz" series airs public radio stations in the United States and Canada . These are three- to four-minute profiles of jazz, blues and Latin artists.
Erlich coauthored the best-selling book Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You with Norman Solomon (Context Books, 2003).
Erlich has won numerous journalism awards. Erlich’s article “Hidden Killers” was voted the eighth most censored story in America for 2002-3 by Project Censored at Sonoma State University . In 2002 the radio documentary the Russia Project, hosted by Walter Cronkite, won the depth reporting prize for broadcast journalism awarded by the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
In 2005 Erlich received a grant from the Kaiser Family Foundation to report on Brazil ’s successes in fighting AIDS. In 2000 he received a major grant from the California Council for the Humanities to produce radio specials on class, race, and jazz. Erlich is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the Media.
To book a speaker
or questions
contact us:
Speakers & Performers
Clearinghouse
PO Box 5031, Eugene OR, 97405
(541) 484-9167
Email chouse@efn.org
ASSOCIATE MEMBER