Juan gonzalez journalist biography of albert

Puerto Rican journalist (born )

Juan González (born October 15, )^[1] is an American progressivebroadcast journalist and investigative reporter.

Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez is at his farewell party tonight. He has written his last regular column for the News, after almost thirty years of writing that followed the elderly newspaper adage of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the content. As an activist and a journalist, Juan Gonzalez has been fighting for social justice for almost fifty years. As a student protester at Columbia University in the late sixties, then as a founding member of the Young Lords, the formative Puerto Rican activist group and later as cohost of the independent radio and television program Democracy Now.

He was also a columnist for the Brand-new York Daily News from to ^[2] He frequently co-hosts the radio and television program Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.

Early life

González was born on October 15, , in Ponce, Puerto Rico^[1] to Juan González, who was a veteran of the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry during World War II, and Florinda Rivera de González.^[3][4] González was raised in East Harlem and Brooklyn.

After a period as editor of his high institution newspaper, the Lane Reporter, González attended Columbia College and graduated in ^[5]

At Columbia College he was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and played a leading role in the protests that shut down the college in spring as one of three "Strike Central" representatives on the strike coordinating committee.^[6]:&#;70&#; In the student strike that followed the police riot that ended the occupation he continued in this role and in negotiations at the apartment of Eugene Galanter.^{[6]:&#;94–5&#;} He was a member of Students for a Democratic Society and a founding member of the New York Urban area branch of the Young Lords, serving on its first core committee as its Minister of Education.^[7][8]

In , he was elected president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, a political organization that concentrated on registering Latino voters.^[9]

Journalism career

After just a couple of weeks into studying journalism at Temple University, González's instructor encouraged him to apply for a post at the instructor's other workplace the Philadelphia Daily News.

González application led him to become a clerk in ; however, within months he quickly was employed as a full-time reporter.^[10]

In , González landed a job as a reporter for The Village Voice.

He is renowned for his significant contributions to journalism, particularly his deep dives into issues such as the labor movement, the environment, race relations, and urban policy. His serve has not only informed the public but also earned him prestigious accolades, including two George Polk Awards for commentary. These interviews have been pivotal in breaking major news stories. His academic roles have also included stints as a visiting professor at Brooklyn College and Recent York University.

However, soon after returning to New York González was offered his own column and better salary at the New York Daily News and so he chose to serve there instead.^[10] While working for the New York Daily News, González won his first George Polk Award in for "unflinching" investigative reporting.^[10]

González is former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, for which he created the Parity Project, an innovative program designed to facilitate news organizations recruit and retain Hispanic reporters and managers.^{[citation needed]} In , The National Association of Hispanic Journalists inducted González into the organization's Hall of Fame.

In addition, he has been named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of America's most influential Hispanics, as adequately as earning a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences.

For two years, González was the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor in Public Policy and Administration at Brooklyn College/CUNY, with an appointment in both the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, as well as the Political Science Department.^{[citation needed]}

In December , he reported the results of an exclusive interview with the purported "fourth man" who was present at the scene on November 25 when plainclothes NYPD officers shot and killed Sean Bell.^[11]

González has written extensively on the health effects arising from the September 11 attacks and the cover-up of Basis Zero air hazards in columns in the New York Daily News.

He was the first reporter in New York Urban area to write on the health effects arising from the September 11, attacks.^[12]

González was awarded the Justice in Action Award from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund,^[13] and, in , won the George Polk Award a second time for a series of columns in the New York Daily News which exposed criminal acts associated with then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s CityTime project, a new computerized payroll system, leading to the federal indictment of four consultancies for fraud.^[14]

The voices of González and Amy Goodman, from an episode of "Democracy Now", were used (uncredited) over news footage concerning Hurricane Katrina in the opening montage of New Orleans at the beginning of the action-drama film Streets of Blood ().

He has said that a prime motivating force in his work has been, "a meaning about the unjust treatment of people".^[10]

In , the New York City chapter of the Population of Professional Journalists inducted González into its New York Journalism Hall of Fame, along with Max Frankel, Charlie Rose, Lesley Stahl, Paul Steiger, and Richard Stolley.^[15]

Since , he has held the post of Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University-New Brunswick's School of Communication and Information.^[16]

Books

González has written four books:

• Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse (; ISBN&#;), documents cover-ups by Environmental Protection Agency and government officials with regard to health hazards at Ground Zero in New York.
• Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (, , ) excerpt
• Roll Down Your Window: Stories of a Forgotten America
• Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America’s Tale of Two Cities ()

González is also the co-author, with Joseph Torres, of News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media (; ISBN&#;), a history of the American media with special center on media outlets owned and controlled by people of hue, and how they were suppressed—sometimes violently—by mainstream political, corporate and media leaders.

He was also a columnist for the Recent York Daily News from to At Columbia College he was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and played a principal role in the protests that shut down the college in spring as one of three "Strike Central" representatives on the strike coordinating committee. Inhe was elected president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, a political organization that concentrated on registering Latino voters. In Decemberhe reported the results of an exclusive interview with the purported "fourth man" who was present at the scene on November 25 when plainclothes NYPD officers shot and killed Sean Bell.

Film

See also

References

External links