John R. MacArthur

John R. MacArthur (June 4, 1956, New York City) is a journalist and the president of Harper's Magazine. He is the son of J. Roderick MacArthur and Christiane L’Entendart and the grandson of billionare John D. MacArthur. He lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.

Biography

He grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated in 1978 from Columbia College with a B.A. in history.

MacArthur has been a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal" (1977), the "Washington Star" (1978), "The Bergen Record" (1978–1979), "Chicago Sun-Times" (1979–1982), and an assistant foreign editor at United Press International (1982).

In 1980 MacArthur persuaded his grandfather's charitable foundation to partner in creating and funding a Harper's Magazine Foundation to acquire and operate the magazine of the same name. This new entity acquired Harper's Magazine (which was then losing nearly $2 million per year and was on the verge of ceasing publication) for $250,000. Eventually John R. MacArthur took over the foundation that owned Harper’s. He became president and publisher of "Harper's Magazine" in 1983.

In 1993 he received the Mencken Award for best editorial/op-ed column for his "New York Times" exposé of "Nayirah", the Kuwaiti diplomat's daughter who helped fake the Iraqi baby-incubator atrocity.

Neither John R. MacArthur nor his father inherited any substantial amount of money from John D. MacArthur.

Works

*"Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War" (Hill and Wang,1992)
*"The Selling of "Free Trade": Nafta, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy" (Hill and Wang, 2000).
*"You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America" (Melville House Publishing, 2008).

External links

* [http://www.harpers.org Harper's Magazine]
* [http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct_archive/may03/cover.php Columbia College Today Article]