Raymond Bonner

Infobox journalist


name = Raymond Bonner


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birth_date = 1942
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age = 66
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occupation = journalist, author
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gender = male
status = married
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spouse = Jane Perlez
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credits = "The New York Times", "International Herald Tribune", "The New York Review of Books" (publications); "The Agony of El Salvador", "Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador", "Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy", "At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife" (books)
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Raymond Bonner (born 1942) is an American investigative reporter for "The New York Times" and the "International Herald Tribune." He has also been a staff writer at The New Yorker and contributed to "The New York Review of Books".

Early life

Bonner graduated from MacMurray College and earned a J.D. degree from Stanford University Law School in 1967. In 1968 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and was honorably discharged with the rank of captain in 1971. Before taking up journalism, Bonner worked as a staff attorney with Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Litigation Group, as a director for the West Coast office of the Consumers Union, and as director of the consumer fraud/white collar crime unit of the San Francisco District Attorney's office. ["Lyons Award Goes to American Journalist." "The Harvard University Gazette." May 2, 1996. Retrieved July 19, 2007. [http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/05.02/LyonsAwardGoest.html] ]

Career

From 1988 until 2007, Bonner lived in Nairobi, and then Warsaw, Vienna, and Jakarta. Bonner is best known as one of two journalists (the other was Alma Guillermoprieto of "The Washington Post") who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre, in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December 1981.

A "Times" staff reporter at the time, Bonner was smuggled by FMLN rebels to visit the site approximately a month after the massacre took place.

When the story broke simultaneously in the "Post" and "Times" on January 27, 1982, it was dismissed as propaganda by the Reagan administration, as it seriously undermined efforts by the US government to bolster the human rights image of the Salvadoran government, which the US was supporting with large amounts of military aid.

The "Times" was strongly criticized by the editorial page of the "Wall Street Journal", Accuracy In Media and the Reagan government for reporting the story of the massacre. The "Times" was pressured to pull Bonner from the Central American desk; then managing editor Abe Rosenthal moved Bonner to the Business desk, and Bonner resigned soon afterward. He continued to contribute as a freelance correspondent, and returned to the staff of "The New York Times" in 1992, after details of the massacre as first reported by Bonner and Guillermoprieto were verified.

He has since written on contract for The Times.He was a staff writer at The New Yorker, from 1988-1992, writing from Peru, Sudan, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Kurdistan

AWARDS:

Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, 1985, for "Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador.

Overseas Press Club Award, 1994, for coverage of Rwanda. Nominated by The Times for a Pulitzer for the Rwanda coverage.

Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, by the Nieman Foundation Fellows, in 1996. “In his work in Central America, the Philippines, Central Europe and Africa, Bonner has demonstrated a passionate, principled journalism,” the citation reads.

Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by The New York Times, in 2001, along with Sara Rimer, for their coverage of the death penalty.

Personal

Bonner is married to Jane Perlez, former Jakarta bureau chief of the "Times". They currently reside in England.

Books by Raymond Bonner

* "The Agony of El Salvador." New York: Times Books, 1981. ASIN|B0007266AY [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007266AY "The Agony of El Salvador Amazon.com"] ]
* "Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador." New York: Crown, 1984. ISBN 0812911083 ISBN 978-0812911084 (Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award)
* "Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy." New York: Crown, 1987. ISBN 0812913264 ISBN 978-0812913262 (winner of Overseas Press Club, and Sidney Hillman Foundation awards for best book on foreign affairs)
* "At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife." New York: Vintage, 1993. ISBN 0679400087 ISBN 978-0679400080 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n5_v25/ai_13786334] , [http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/archives/campfir1.htm]

References