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Charles Lewis
Born	30 October 1953
Occupation	Journalist
Employer	American University School of Communication
Works	Windfalls of War
Spouse(s)	Pamela Gilbert
Website	http://www.charles-lewis.com/

Charles Lewis is an investigative journalist based in Washington D.C. He founded The Center for Public Integrity and several other nonprofit organizations and is currently the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication in D.C.

He was previously an investigative producer for ABC News and the CBS news program 60 Minutes. He left 60 Minutes in 1989 and founded the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a nonprofit news organization. In 1997, he led the creation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which focuses on cross-border crime and corruption. CPI was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for investigative reporting, with ICIJ winning 2017 in the category of explanatory reporting for the “Panama Papers” scandal.

He was a Ferris Professor at Princeton University in 2005, a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University in the spring of 2006, and is currently a tenured professor of journalism at American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the 2014 book is 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity In 2018, he was awarded the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard's Nieman Foundation.

Early life and education

Charles Reed Esray Lewis III grew up in a middle-class family in Newark, Delaware, where he attended public schools and graduated from Newark High School in 1971. As a senior, he was elected president of the school’s student government association, and he also wrote for the student newspaper, the Yellowjacket Buzz.

Lewis majored in political science at the University of Delaware. He worked weeknights in the sports department of the Wilmington News Journal newspapers, writing stories and a weekly column. In the spring of 1974, he served as a paid intern in the Washington office of Senator William Roth (R-DE). He graduated in 1975. In June 1977, he received a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington, D.C.

Lewis is married to Pamela Gilbert, a consumer-protection lawyer and former executive director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. They live in the Washington, D.C., area. They have two children.

Career

In October 1977, ABC News Vice President Sander Vanocur hired Lewis to be a reportorial producer (off-air reporter) in the newly created Special Reporting Unit, based in Washington, D.C.

CBS 60 Minutes

In early 1984, CBS News, in New York, hired Lewis as an associate producer for its news magazine program 60 Minutes. He was assigned to work with senior correspondent Mike Wallace, and was promoted to full producer.

During the preparation of his last story, "Foreign Agent," both Wallace and 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt forced Lewis to remove from his script the name of former Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson, a close personal friend of Hewitt's. Lewis deeply resented the internal censorship and quit 60 Minutes.

Center for Public Integrity

In October 1989, from his home in the Washington D.C. area, Lewis founded the Center for Public Integrity, whose mission was to pursue investigative reporting based on intensive, long-term projects involving teams of researchers and extensive documents. Within a few months, the Center was incorporated as a tax-exempt nonprofit with Lewis on the board of directors along with journalists Alejandro Benes and Charles Piller.

Lewis was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1998.

From 1989 to 2004, under Lewis' tenure as executive director, the Center for Public Integrity published roughly 275 investigative reports and 14 books. Three of them, co-authored by Lewis and published by HarperCollins, were finalists for book-of-the-year honors by Investigative Reporters and Editors:

• The Buying of the President (1996)
• The Buying of the Congress (1998)
• The Buying of the President 2000

The Buying of the President 2004, Lewis' fifth and last co-authored book with the Center, was a New York Times bestseller.

In 2009, The Encyclopedia of Journalism cited Lewis as "one of the 30 most notable investigative reporters in the U.S. since World War I." That same year, he was given an honorary degree by his alma mater the University of Delaware. In 2013, the University of Missouri awarded him its Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.

References

1. Lewis, Charles (2014-06-24). 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America S Moral Integrity. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-117-7.
2. "I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence". Nieman Foundation.
3. Miller, Marla (February 3, 2005). "Political integrity center of journalist's passion". Quill. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
4. ^ Hoadley, Tricia (December 30, 2020). "The fact seeker". Newark Life. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
5. ^ Adelman, Ken (2006-02-01). "Stories From a Watchdog Journalist: Interview with Charles Lewis | Washingtonian (DC)". Washingtonian. Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
6. "Consumer advocate Pamela Gilbert named recipient of The Public Interest Network's Alumni Achievement Award". publicinterestnetwork.org. 2019. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
7. Lewis, Charles. "Learn from civil rights past for better future". The News Journal. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
8. ^ Lewis, Charles (29 June 2014). "Why I Left 60 Minutes". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
9. "Center for Public Integrity - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
10. "The Center for Public Integrity: Defending Democracy with a Better Informed Citizenry" (PDF). Carnegie Corporation of New York. Spring 2012.
11. "Charles Lewis". Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
12. "BEST SELLERS: October 10, 2004 (Published 2004)". The New York Times. 2004-10-10. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
13. "Investigative journalist Charles Lewis in Asheville". The Asheville Citizen Times. May 7, 2015. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
14. "2013 Recipients of the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism Announced". Missouri School of Journalism. 2013-06-25. Retrieved 2021-01-25.

External links

• Charles Lewis homepage
• Charles Lewis, Founder Bio at The Center for Public Integrity
• Charles Lewis Bio at Investigative Reporting Workshop
• Official Website of Lewis' 2014 Book, 935 Lies: The Future Of Truth and the Decline of America's Moral Integrity
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Living people
• 1953 births
• MacArthur Fellows
• American investigative journalists