Peter Zuckerman
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Peter Zuckerman (born December 27, 1979) is an American journalist and author who has focused his career in court reporting,
investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...
, and adventure stories. He is also a leader of several prominent progressive political campaigns.


Early life and education

Zuckerman attended the
Chadwick School Chadwick School is a nonsectarian independent K-12 day school located in an unincorporated area on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Specifically it is located at the top of the neighborhood referred t ...
in
Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...
, and graduated from
Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
with a degree in
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
in 2003. As a student at Reed, Zuckerman served on the editorial board of the Reed College ''Quest'', a student-run newspaper. In March 2002 he wrote an opinion piece in ''The Oregonian'' ("The drug Olympics") condemning competitive use of drugs like
gamma-hydroxybutyric acid ''gamma''-Hydroxybutyric acid (or γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also known as 4-hydroxybutanoic acid) is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter and a depressant drug. It is a precursor to GABA, glutamate, and glycine in certain brain areas. ...
, or GHB, at the school. He was the target of numerous threats within the Reed College community, and he was both criticized and praised in letters to the ''Oregonian''. Zuckerman interned for the LGBTQ-focused Portland weekly ''
Just Out ''Just Out'' was an LGBTQ publication in Portland, Oregon founded in 1983 by Jay Brown and Renee LaChance. It ceased publication as a semimonthly newspaper in December 2011. In February 2012, Glenn-Kipp Publishing, Inc purchased the Just Out bran ...
'' while at Reed, delivering the paper and fact-checking telephone numbers. He also interned for the Portland bureau of the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
and ''The Springfield News''. He went on to work as a journalist in
Eastern Idaho Eastern Idaho is the area of Idaho lying east of the Magic Valley region. It is generally understood to include: Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Bonneville, Butte, Caribou, Clark, Custer, Franklin, Fremont, Jefferson, Madison, Oneida, Power and ...
.


Career


Journalism

In 2006, Zuckerman was the lead writer of a multi-part story, ''Scouts' Honor'', in the
Idaho Falls Idaho Falls (Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: Dembimbosaage) is a city in and the county seat of Bonneville County, Idaho, Bonneville County, Idaho, United States. It is the state's largest city outside the Boise metropolitan area. As of the 2020 Un ...
''
Post Register The ''Post Register'' is a U.S. daily newspaper serving the Idaho Falls, Idaho, area, as well as Jackson, Wyoming, and West Yellowstone, Montana. It is owned by the Adams Publishing Group. History In 1931, The local ''Daily Post'' merged with ...
'' about the coverup of a multi-state child molestation case involving at least two dozen minors and the
Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...
in Idaho. After the story was published, Zuckerman was accused of having a bias against the Boy Scouts of America and the LDS Church because of his sexual orientation. and he became the target of personal attacks on the basis of his sexual orientation. For work on the series, Zuckerman received the 2006
Livingston Award The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan are American journalism awards issued to media professionals under the age of 35 for local, national, and international reporting. They are the largest, all-media, general reporting prizes in Ame ...
and the 2007 C.B. Blethen Award, and the Post-Register won the Scripps Foundation's 2005
National Journalism Awards The Scripps Howard Awards, formerly the National Journalism Awards are $10,000 awards in American journalism given by the Scripps Howard Foundation. As of 2022, the categories are: * Excellence in Coverage of Breaking News * Excellence in Broad ...
for distinguished service to the
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
. Zuckerman was profiled in a September 25, 2007, documentary, "In A Small Town," broadcast in the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
series, Exposé: America's Investigative Reports. The documentary was a nominated for an
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. A profile about Zuckerman in
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's
Nieman Foundation for Journalism The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...
report about courage in journalism won the 2007 Mirror Award for best coverage of breaking news, and he appeared on
The Rachel Maddow Show ''The Rachel Maddow Show'' (also abbreviated ''TRMS'') is an American liberal news and opinion television program that airs on MSNBC, running in the 9:00 pm ET timeslot Monday evenings. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained a public pr ...
. After moving back to Oregon, Zuckerman continued to investigate the Boy Scouts of America and the LDS church while working for ''
The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
''. In this article, ''Men Sue Scouts, Mormon Church'', six men allege a former troop leader and church teacher abused them and seek $25 million in compensation as the LDS church failed to thoroughly investigate, report the abuse to law enforcement, provide mental health services to victims or remove the abuser from contact with children once it learned about the abuse. Zuckerman later changed his reporting to focus on stories that had more of an environmental bent. For example, he wrote about the Forest Service loosening its environmental standards so a gas corporation can clear cut through old growth in the
Mount Hood National Forest The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River valley. The Forest extends south from the Columbia River Gorge across more than of fore ...
to make way for an
LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
pipeline. In 2020, Zuckerman and his journalism were the subject of a documentary, "Church and the Fourth Estate," a retrospective about his reporting in Idaho, attempts to stop that reporting, and what happened to the people involved. The documentary premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.


Non-fiction author

In January 2009, Zuckerman took a leave from ''
The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'' to work on a "dream book project" after his partner,
Sam Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
, was elected mayor of
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
. While researching the book, Zuckerman nearly died while traveling through remote regions of Nepal and ingesting a "half plant, half animal"
caterpillar fungus ''Ophiocordyceps sinensis'' (formerly known as ''Cordyceps sinensis''), known colloquially as caterpillar fungus, is an entomopathogenic fungus (a fungus that grows on insects) in the family Ophiocordycipitaceae. It is mainly found in the mead ...
. The book, ''Buried in the Sky'', co-written with Amanda Padoan, tells the true adventure story of the
2008 K2 disaster The 2008 K2 disaster occurred on 1 August 2008, when 11 mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second- highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. The series of deaths, over the course of the Friday asce ...
from the perspective of Sherpas and Pakistani high-altitude porters. The book was published on June 11, 2012 in the United States and Canada by W.W. Norton & Company. Reviews are positive. Outside magazine described it as "easily the most riveting and important mountaineering book of the past decade." ''The Wall Street Journal'' described it as "enthralling." ''Men's Journal'' called it "an indispensable addition to the genre," and many publications, such as ''The Boston Globe'', favorably compared it to ''
Into Thin Air ''Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster'' is a 1997 bestselling nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several ...
''. The book was awarded the 2012 NCTE George Orwell Award, the
Banff Mountain Book Festival The Banff Mountain Book Festival is an annual book festival held at the Banff Centre in Banff, Canada. Grand Prize * 1994: Chris Bonington and Audrey Saukeld (editors), ''Heroic Climbs'' * 1995: Thomas Wharton, ''Icefields'' * 1996: Stephen Ven ...
Award for mountain history, the
National Outdoor Book Award The National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) was formed in 1997 as an American-based non-profit program which each year presents awards honoring the best in outdoor writing and publishing. It is housed at Idaho State University and chaired by Ron Watte ...
for History., the Independent Publishers Association award for general non-fiction, and the American Society of Journalists and Author's Outstanding Book Award for general non-fiction. In 2019, Outside Magazine chose "Buried in the Sky" as part of a "Contemporary Adventure Canon" made up of the best contemporary adventure books of all time.


Teaching

Zuckerman has received numerous journalism awards, including the
Livingston Award The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan are American journalism awards issued to media professionals under the age of 35 for local, national, and international reporting. They are the largest, all-media, general reporting prizes in Ame ...
, the
National Journalism Award The Scripps Howard Awards, formerly the National Journalism Awards are $10,000 awards in American journalism given by the Scripps Howard Foundation. As of 2022, the categories are: * Excellence in Coverage of Breaking News * Excellence in Broad ...
and the C.B. Blethen Award Zuckerman has visited and taught at
Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netwo ...
,
University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...
and the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
. He is currently an adjunct fellow at the Attic Institute writing workshop and a resident at the Falcon Art Community.


Political campaigns

In 2013, Zuckerman became the press secretary for Oregon United for Marriage, the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Oregon, and for Oregon United Against Discrimination, a related campaign organized to defeat an anti-gay ballot measure. The anti-gay measure would have created an exception to Oregon's anti-discrimination law, allowing businesses deny service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. During the marriage campaign, support for gay marriage increased by 14 points, volunteers collected 160,000 signatures to put gay marriage on the ballot, and the marriage campaign raised $3 million. Later that year, Zuckerman went on to become the communications director for New Approach Oregon / Yes on 91, the campaign to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Oregon ( Measure 91). The campaign followed perennial, unsuccessful efforts to legalize marijuana by ballot initiative, including in 1986 and in 2012, which made it to the ballot, but voters had rejected. Marijuana legalization in Oregon passed with 56 percent of the vote, making Oregon the third state to legalize marijuana. Drug policy advocates described the victory as a major turning point in the drug reform movement. In 2016, Zuckerman directed communications for 2016 Oregon Ballot Measure 98, to provide more funding for education. The initiative, allocated $150 million a year into the schools to improve Oregon's graduation rate, won with 65% of the vote. In 2018, Zuckerman directed communications for the No on 105 campaign to protect Oregon's anti-discrimination law (No on 105). The No on 105 campaign was victorious, receiving 63% of the vote. In 2019 and 2020, Zuckerman was the campaign manager for the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act to decriminalize drug possession and expand drug treatment, paying for it with existing taxes on legal marijuana sales. In 2020 during the pandemic, the campaign gathered 143,000 signatures, enough to qualify the initiative for the ballot and become Measure 110. The campaign raised $5.4 million and won endorsements from more than 140 organizations. Measure 110 passed with 59% of the vote, making Oregon the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize all drugs, including hard drugs. A similar effort to decriminalize drugs in Ohio had failed. ''The New York Times'' described the victory in Oregon as "one of the most radical drug-law overhauls in the nation's history," and ''The Intercept'' called it the "biggest step yet to ending the war on drugs." Measure 110 is expected to generate $100 million in additional money for drug treatment in Oregon, which is four times more than the state currently spends outside of Medicaid and the criminal justice system.


Personal life

Zuckerman's partner is
Sam Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
, the former mayor of
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
.


See also

*
List of LGBT people from Portland, Oregon Portland, Oregon has a large LGBT community for its size. Notable LGBT people from the city include: * Sam Adams – first openly gay mayor of a large U.S. city * Matt Alber – singer-songwriter * Terry Bean – gay rights activist and p ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuckerman, Peter 1980 births Living people Journalists from Portland, Oregon American LGBT writers Reed College alumni LGBT journalists from the United States The Oregonian people Livingston Award winners for Local Reporting LGBT people from Oregon