For Immediate Release:
May 18, 2006
Contact:
Ana Mileva
415/321-1741
amileva@motherjones.com

Mother Jones Hires James Ridgeway as Washington Editor
San Francisco-based magazine will open investigative Washington bureau

Mother Jones has hired investigative reporting legend James Ridgeway to head its new Washington bureau. Ridgeway, longtime Washington correspondent for the Village Voice, was recently fired by New Times, the chain that now owns the Voice, when it closed the Voice’s D.C. office. The move ignited intense and continuing controversy among Voice staffers and media observers. Interviewed on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now veteran Voice journalist Nat Hentoff said of Ridgeway: "I don’t know another reporter we’ve had at the Voice who is so widely knowledgeable about so many areas of government and . . . and who does such consistent, comprehensive research."

Defying the trend throughout the media of slashing reporting resources, Mother Jones is expanding its investigative reach by hiring a new investigative team and opening a Washington bureau. As Washington Editor, Ridgeway will be supported by mid-career reporting fellows working out of D.C. and San Francisco. The investigative team will be overseen by investigative editor Monika Bauerlein. Mother Jones’ investigative reporting is supported in part by a grant from the Lannan Foundation.

Ridgeway helped launch the modern muckraking era when he revealed that General Motors had hired private eyes to spy on a then-obscure consumer advocate named Ralph Nader. The exposé prompted hearings on Capitol Hill (in which GM President James Roche was eventually forced to apologize to Nader) and made Nader’s book, Unsafe at Any Speed, a bestseller.

Since then, Ridgeway has written sixteen books, including 2005’s The Five Unanswered Questions About 9/11. His broad-based national reporting has appeared in publications ranging from Harper’s to The Economist and the New York Times Magazine. He is known for his writing on the American right wing, from the mainstream conservative movement to the racist far right. He has also reported many international stories, including the coup in Haiti and the democratic revolution in Eastern Europe. Ridgeway co-directed Blood in the Face, a companion film to his book by the same name, as well as Feed, a documentary on the 1992 presidential campaign. Recently he launched Ridgewayng.com, a web site for short news videos. His blog entries and reporting, along with daily news updates from the investigative fellows, will appear prominently on motherjones.com.

Mother Jones—which this year is celebrating the 30-year anniversary of its birth during the investigative reporting heyday of the 1970s—is proud it has this opportunity to help reinvigorate muckraking and train a new generation of investigative journalists. We are especially proud to provide a new home for the talents of James Ridgeway.