Inviting Jeremy Scahill, independent journalist and Wauwatosa East High School alumni, to speak at the Wauwatosa Public Library Foundation's Spring Leadership Luncheon on Monday also invited a few surprises.
Scahill swore a few times during his speech, poked fun at TMJ4 anchor, former classmate and longtime friend Vince Vitrano, and admitted to not being a very good student. Scahill didn't graduate from college, he said, and wasn't that interested in what was going on in the classroom. Vitrano added that Scahill would frequently change the subject in his father's Latin class.
But no matter what formal accolades Scahill did or did not earn in high school or college, he made one thing clear to six award recipients: educational institutions don't create leaders; passion does.
"Real change in our society, regardless of what profession people are in, is going to come from people who have a passion burning so strongly in their heart that they don't even identify it as work that they're doing; they identify it as a way of life," Scahill said to 300 luncheon attendees at the Crown Plaza hotel.
The 12th annual fundraising luncheon saw five Wauwatosa high school juniors and one outstanding resident receive the Arthur B. Kohasky Leadership Award, given to recognize leadership in its various forms.
Counselors selected high school recipients Annika Martensson, Divine Savior Holy Angels; Charles Elliott, Marquette University High School; Mary Nink, Pius XI; Lidarose Young, Wauwatosa East; and Theresa Canfield, Wauwatosa West.
The Library Foundation Board selected Caroline Krider, senior vice president of National Corporate and Institutional Banking for U.S. Bank, to be awarded for her volunteer work with the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Humane Society, U.S. Women's Open and other organizations.
Krider said she felt compelled to fight for animal welfare when a dinner guest once asked her what her passion was — and what she was doing about it. During her speech, Krider encouraged young people to use the talents they have been given to make the world better.
Scahill gladly accepted the invitation to speak at the luncheon, recalling his family's lifelong love for the Wauwatosa Public Library. He also is the first speaker to donate his speaking fee back to the Library Foundation Board, said Sharon deGuzman, a board director.
Scahill is a national security correspondent for Nation magazine and author of New York Times bestsellers "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and "Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield." He is the subject, producer and writer of the film, "Dirty Wars," which was nominated for a 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
During his speech, Scahill lauded librarians for their commitment to protect the public's privacy. When the Patriot Act was proposed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the government wanted to be able to know what people were reading without a search warrant.
"Librarians became freedom fighters by refusing those records," Scahill said.
Student award recipients said they felt inspired by Scahill's passion and desire to question the policy of institutions.
Young said she felt inspired to help people through her work as editor of the Cardinal News newspaper at East. Canfield said Scahill's point to think globally helped her rethink her community involvement. Elliott said he was charged to follow his passion and be consistent about it as a tutor.
"I was so inspired that someone would always question our policies because I think that is so important to leadership," Nink said.
Martensson added, "I can take back making a difference every day (to DSHA)."
In closing his speech, Scahill said, "It doesn't matter what kind of business you want to get into. You have to be about the business of improving the lives of others. At the end of the day, our society will benefit tremendously from it."
Okay I know this blog is mostly about posting cute and sexy pics of Jeremy but this article about Jeremy speaking to students at a function for his hometown library is super cute! :D
Here's a short clip of Jeremy and his BFF Rick Rowley on Charlie Rose's show last summer talking about Dirty Wars. The full 25-minute interview can be viewed here.
Charlie needs to learn to stop talking over his guests! So annoying. Reminds me a little bit of when he had Jeremy's mentor Amy Goodman on and treated her like crap.
John Carlos Frey and Nick Turse Share Annual Izzy Award;
Journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill Named to I.F. Stone Hall of Fame
ITHACA, NY — Past Izzy Award winners Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill are the first members selected to the I.F. Stone Hall of Fame, newly established by the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College.
Meanwhile, the center has announced that the sixth annual Izzy Award for “outstanding achievement in independent media” will be shared by journalists John Carlos Frey (for reporting on U.S./Mexico border deaths) and Nick Turse (for reporting on civilian war casualties from Vietnam to Afghanistan).
The Izzy Award is named in memory of the late I.F. “Izzy” Stone, the dissident journalist who launched I.F. Stone’s Weekly in 1953 and challenged McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, racial injustice and government deceit.
“The Izzy Award and I.F. Stone Hall of Fame are an inspirational fulcrum leveraging the courage and journalistic independence of my father’s spotlighted successors into a strengthening of world justice and freedom,” said Jeremy J. Stone, former president of the Federation of American Scientists and elder son of I.F. Stone.
“We established this hall of fame as an occasional honor reserved for the greatest and most productive journalists of our era — those who have won the annual Izzy Award and continued to produce content that would qualify them to win it again and again,” said Jeff Cohen, PCIM director and Izzy Award judge. “They are the new generation of Izzy Stones.”
Glenn Greenwald
Through exposés and incisive analysis, former constitutional lawyer Greenwald has revealed the outlines of a vast surveillance state, as well as its political and media protectors. Working with Laura Poitras and other collaborators and utilizing documents provided last spring by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, he broke story after story across the globe exposing widespread spying abuses. Along with Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!,” Greenwald had shared the first Izzy Award for his meticulous daily blogging in 2008 in defense of constitutional rights.
“Glenn Greenwald may be the closest thing we have today to a living, breathing I.F. Stone,” said Cohen.
Jeremy Scahill
Through his work as the national security reporter for both “Democracy Now!” and The Nation, and his book “Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield” and the Oscar-nominated documentary based on it (directed by Richard Rowley), Scahill has exposed the brutalities, illegalities and strategic flaws in the nearly 13-year-long global “war on terror.” He had won the second annual Izzy Award for reporting that elevated the issue of Blackwater and military contractor abuses to front-page news.
“Scahill’s unique first-hand reporting is the work of a journalist motivated by such a strong sense of justice that he is repeatedly willing to place himself in dangerous war conditions to get at the truth,” commented Izzy judge Linda Jue.
Greenwald, Scahill and Poitras are the founding editors of The Intercept, a digital magazine that is part of the recently launched First Look Media.
The I.F. Stone Hall of Fame induction of Greenwald and Scahill and the presentation of the sixth annual Izzy Award to independent journalists Frey and Turse will be held in an April ceremony at Ithaca College; details to be announced. All four honorees will speak at the ceremony, either in person or via remote broadcast.
John Carlos Frey
A reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, Frey has tirelessly probed in articles and television reports the increasingly militarized U.S./Mexico border and rise in fatal shootings by U.S. Border Patrol agents, including cross-border shootings into Mexico that killed innocent civilians. He also brought to light heart-breaking accounts of people who died in Mexico’s desert while trying to return to their family members (often U.S. citizens) after being deported. Frey’s reports on excessive force by Border Patrol agents had impact — sparking Congressional inquiry, criminal probes, federal investigations and changes in the Border Patrol’s training and use-of-force protocols.
“John Carlos Frey ventured where few U.S. journalists had been willing or able to go — on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border under dangerous circumstances — to investigate crimes that many people knew about but remained beyond public awareness,” said judge Linda Jue. “And his well-documented reporting brought an extraordinary response.”
Nick Turse
In news pieces and a book published last year, Turse has given human form and voice to civilian victims of U.S. wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan. His acclaimed best-seller, “Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam,” relied on classified Pentagon documents and fresh first-person interviews to reveal that violence against Vietnamese noncombatants was “pervasive and systematic — the predictable result of official orders.” A journalist, historian and Nation Institute fellow, he monitors current U.S. military interventionism in articles for TomDispatch.com (where he is managing editor) and The Nation, for which he coauthored the special report “America’s Afghan Victims.”
Said Izzy judge Robert McChesney, “Nick Turse combines the fastidiousness of a serious historian and a journalist’s intuition for the big story, along with an uncompromising commitment to the truth, wherever it leads.”
Other previous winners of the Izzy Award are the nonprofit outlet Mother Jones; journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous; the Center for Media and Democracy/“ALEC Exposed”; author/columnist Robert Scheer; and New York City’s in-depth outlet City Limits.
Based in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, the Park Center for Independent Media was launched in 2008 as a national center for the study of media outlets that create and distribute content outside traditional corporate systems.
Of course well done Jeremy and Glenn but omg how AWESOME that John Carlos Frey and Nick Turse were recognized with this amazing award! Hope it sheds more light on their work.
What a time to be away from the internet! From the Oscar nom for Dirty Wars to Jeremy teaming up with his gay BFF Glenn Greenwald to kick some journalist ass, so much amazing Jeremy news has been happening! But I am back and ready to post with delicious news and photos about Jeremy. I will be backfilling with some delish photos as well. :D
For now enjoy this old photo. I'm imaging Jeremy is raising his hands in confusion at my absence. :D
Hahaha srsly tho that’s so cool that you’re related to him! I’ve been stanning him since his early Democracy Now! days, so glad (and actually even proud) of how he’s progressed since then. :D Clearly you have amazing relatives bb <3
EDIT: And actually wait I’m glad not to be related to him! That way I can keep perving over him :D
The nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild of America awards were announced today - the best indicator of Oscar nods since it's usually the same people in the guild and Academy:
DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Dirty Wars, Written by Jeremy Scahill & David Riker; Sundance Selects
Herblock – The Black & The White, Written by Sara Lukinson & Michael Stevens; The Stevens Company
No Place on Earth, Written by Janet Tobias & Paul Laikin; Magnolia Pictures
Stories We Tell, Written by Sarah Polley; Roadside Attractions
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks; Written by Alex Gibney; Focus Features
Weeeeee're baaaack! :D Sorry for being away for a few months.
Here's a cute holiday picture of Jeremy <3 and here's to a happy 2014 full of amazing exposés and groundbreaking reporting from Jeremy and his BFFs Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, etc! :D
And OMG at all the new followers! Welcome to THE HOTNESS THAT IS JEREMY SCAHILL.
He may live in Brooklyn, and his work as a journalist may take him across the globe. But Jeremy Scahill is still a Wisconsinite at heart.
Earlier this summer, Scahill came home to his native Milwaukee to present his documentary “Dirty Wars” at the Downer Theater there (where an audience hissed at the sight of Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner). He also had time to hit Summerfest, seeing his friend, the rapper K’Naan, on stage.
This weekend, he’ll bring “Dirty Wars” to Sundance Cinemas in Madison, where he attended school at both Madison Area Technical College and the UW-Madison in the 1990s. The film is based on Scahill’s book of the same name, and follows his efforts to uncover evidence of drone strikes, night raids and other covert military operations against targets in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Scahill’s focus on world affairs (he’s the national security correspondent for The Nation, and also wrote a book on Blackwater private military contractors) came after he left Wisconsin. But he said his interest in social justice was forged at a young age, growing up in the racially diverse Merrill Park neighborhood of Milwaukee.
“My dad in particular really made part of our education growing up understanding issues involving the politics of racism and war issues,” Scahill said in a phone interview. “It was part of the regular discussion in our household growing up.”
Scahill attended high school in Wauwatosa, planning to become a middle-school teacher in an economically disadvantaged area. But formal education training just didn’t seem to be in the cards for him.
“I definitely was not cut out for the classroom,” he said. “I was a voracious reader and was following current events very carefully. I just wasn’t good at school.”
Even in Madison, his formative education came outside the classroom. While attending the UW in 1994, Scahill was one of several students who protested the administration’s decision to cover heating grates that homeless people were sleeping on. Scahill organized an occupation of the administration building and had a public debate against Chancellor David Ward over the issue.
“Hundreds of students came, and we won,” Scahill said. “We forced the issue and they removed the heating vents. Getting involved with that struggle and winning that struggle, I became very interest in the cause of homeless people.”
In the summer of 1995, Scahill followed that interest in homeless issues to Washington, D.C., where he joined the Community for Creative Non-Violence, the nation’s largest homeless center. His entry into journalism came when he started working for “Democracy Now” radio host Amy Goodman at the progressive Pacifica Radio Network.
“I learned journalism as a trade working for Amy Goodman. On my Facebook page, I still list my university as ‘Democracy Now.’”
Scahill’s reporting for the “Dirty Wars” book and documentary took him into some dangerous war zones, and into some politically sensitive areas (in interviewing him in July, Stephen Colbert joked that “it’s an honor to be the last person to see him alive.”)
“Dirty Wars,” which Scahill produced and co-wrote, uncovers damning evidence that the United States is taking out targets across the globe, and only trying to justify it after the fact. (In one haunting sequence, a moderate Muslim cleric in Yemen turns radical after being harassed and detained by U.S. forces and is killed in a drone strike. Weeks later, his teenage son is killed in another drone strike.)
While Scahill’s primary medium is print, he thought an accompanying film would make those policies hit home for viewers by showing them exactly who is being targeted on a personal and visceral level.
“The appeal of film was to tell a narrative story that was true, that would humanize the policies that were being conducted in the names of all Americans,” he said. “It’s very difficult to translate into print what you can do on film.”
As much as the film is about those policies, “Dirty Wars” is also about Scahill himself, his attempts to work sources and interview grieving relatives to piece together the story. It ends on a note of frustration and futility, as Scahill wonders what an investigative journalist can do against an unending, undeclared war.
“We felt we could do something unusual by letting people into the head of someone doing this kind of work,” he said. “You carry around these stories from these people who have let you into their homes and have shared with you the most painful, horrifying things that have ever happened to them and their loved ones. We’re not robots. That has to affect you on some level.”
Scahill said he was initially very resistant to the idea of being the “star” of “Dirty Wars,” and it was only after director Rick Rowley had a four-hour rough cut assembled that he agreed the film needed him as a focal point. Still, he’s sensitive about how his presence is received by audiences.
“I think there’s a legitimate criticism – and I’ve heard it from people – that it’s the white guy going and explaining what’s happening in all of these exotic places,” he said. “I agree with that criticism. If there was another way that we thought we could tell this in 90 minutes and in a way that people who are not addicted to this issue as part of their daily media diet would find accessible, I would have been totally open to it.”
Either way, Scahill said he’s been immensely gratified that the film has sparked so much discussion, beginning with its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where “Dirty Wars” won an award for its cinematography. He’ll be hosting post-show discussions at both Sundance screenings this weekend in Madison.
“It’s been fascinating,” he said. “If we contributed to a dialogue that ends up in people asking sober questions about how far we’ve gone since 9/11, I will consider the film a success.”
For his part, Scahill said he’s seen enough to realize that if Americans don’t understand the implications of what’s being done in their name in the dark of night, the physical and moral blowback may be severe.
“I have no problem saying that what we’re doing in Yemen is wrong on multiple levels,” he said. “I think it doesn’t make sense for our own national security policy, but we’re also killing so many innocent civilians, and if we don’t as a society face up to what we’re doing to these people and these countries, it’s going to come back and hit us in a raw, violent way.”
Sorry to quote pretty much the whole article but this is a great piece that talks about Jeremy's background a lot, which we often don't hear much about!
Very cool that he organized in college on behalf of unhoused people, and I like that he acknowledges his white privilege and how that affects his work.
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