Richard Read

For the British-born artist sent to Australia as a convict, see Richard Read Sr. For other people, see Richard Reid (disambiguation).

Richard Read (born 1957) is a freelance reporter based in Seattle, where he was a national reporter and bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times from 2019 to 2021.^[1] A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he was a senior writer and foreign correspondent for The Oregonian, working for the Portland, Oregon newspaper from 1981 to 1986 and 1989 until 2016.

Read has reported from more than 60 countries and all seven continents, covering wars in Cambodia and Afghanistan and disasters including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. He won his first Pulitzer^[2] in 1999, The Oregonian's first in 42 years, for explaining the Asian financial crisis by following a container of french fries from a Northwest farm to the Far East, in a series^[3] that ended with riots presaging the Fall of Suharto.

Early life

Read was born in St Andrews, Scotland, to Katharine Read and Arthur Hinton Read,^[4] a mountaineer and St. Andrews University mathematics professor who worked during World War II for the Government Code and Cypher School that cracked the codes in Germany's Enigma machine. His paternal grandfather was John Read (chemist). He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he and several grade-school friends founded a newspaper called The Old Rabbit. He graduated in 1980 from Amherst College, where he edited The Amherst Student newspaper.

Career

Read was press secretary in 1980 for the Ward Commission,^[5] a Massachusetts crime commission that exposed widespread corruption and proposed reforms including campaign-finance legislation whose design he oversaw.^[6] He moved to Portland in 1981 to become a reporter for The Oregonian.^[7]

In 1996-1997, Read was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University. He was selected by the Eisenhower Fellowships for a month's reporting in Peru in 1998, interviewing President Alberto Fujimori.^[8] He reported in North Korea in 1989 and 2007.^[9]

Read left The Oregonian in 2016 after taking a buyout,^[10] leaving words of advice to colleagues.^[11]

In 2016, Read joined the public-interest investigative reporting team at NerdWallet,^[12] a San Francisco company that helps consumers navigate personal finance. Team members investigated student-loan debt-relief companies, posting a Watch List of 150 businesses for borrowers to avoid.^[13]

In 2019, Read became a national reporter and Seattle bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, covering Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii.^[14] A story^[15] by Read the next year on a super-spreading event early in the coronavirus pandemic gained a record online readership of more than 8 million, reporting on the deaths of two Skagit Valley Chorale members after a rehearsal on March 10, 2020.

According to a New York Times Sunday magazine article,^[16] the story attracted the attention of researchers who went on to study the incident and prove that Covid-19 spread through the air via respiratory aerosols—not merely via droplets and surface contact. Scientists from 32 countries cited the choir incident as a prime example of airborne contagion when they urged the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control to acknowledge aerosols as a transmission route.^[17] The agencies changed their guidance, potentially saving many lives.^[18]

Read retired from the Los Angeles Times in September, 2021.^[19]

Awards

Read won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 1999^[20] for a series that dramatized the global effects of the Asian financial crisis through the movement of a container of french fries from a Washington-state farm to a McDonald's restaurant in Singapore.^[21] The series also received the Overseas Press Club award for best business reporting from abroad, the Scripps Howard Foundation award for business reporting and the Blethen award for enterprise reporting.^[22][23]

In 2000 he received the Oregon governor’s award for achievement in international business, and in 1999 and 2002 he was named the state’s international citizen of the year. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Willamette University.^[24]

In 2001, he was one of four reporters on a team that, with editorial writers, won The Oregonian the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for chronicling abuses by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.^[25]

In 2009, Read was a member of a team named as a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for reports on a breakthrough in production of microprocessors.^[26] He won first-place awards for reporting on social issues (2001,2005), business (1998, 2004, 2011), spot news (1997), education (1990) from the Pacific Northwest Society of Professional Journalists.^{[27] [28]}

In 2011, he won first place for Best of the West business and financial reporting.^[29] In 2012, he won first place for best feature story/personality from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association.^[30]

In 2018, Read received the National Press Club's Consumer Journalism Award for periodicals,^[31] awarded to NerdWallet for his investigation of U.S. Agriculture Department failings in policing the $43 billion organic food industry.^[32] A Costa Rican legislative committee held hearings on allegations reported by Read against USDA certifiers and a Costa Rican company accused of exporting "organic" pineapples grown with banned chemicals.^[33]

Citations

Read is a frequent public speaker whose work has been cited in several books. Quoted in "Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism," by Roy J. Harris.^[34] and cited in "Pulitzer's Gold: A Century of Public Service Journalism," by Roy J. Harris.^[35] Approach as a foreign correspondent described in "Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting," by John Maxwell Hamilton.^[36] Role in transformation of foreign reporting described in "News From Abroad," by Donald R. Shanor.^[37]

Approach as a narrative writer described in "Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction," by Jack R. Hart.^[38] Reporting approach described in "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That Work," by Jack R. Hart.^[39] Style as a narrative storyteller described in "The Ethics of the Story: Using Narrative Techniques Responsibly in Journalism," by David Craig.^[40] Role in explanatory journalism described by Lewis M. Simons in "Breach of Faith: A Crisis of Coverage in the Age of Corporate Newspapering," edited by Gene Roberts and Thomas Kunkel.^[41]

Work for Massachusetts crime commission^[42] described in "John William Ward: An American Idealist," by Kim Townsend.^[43][44]

Article^[45] on a Covid-19 super-spreading event cited May 1, 2020, as evidence that the coronavirus spreads via air—in the scientific journal Indoor Air, "Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 by inhalation of respiratory aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale superspreading event," ^[46] and the research publication Risk Analysis, Sept. 26, 2020, "Consideration of the Aerosol Transmission for COVID‐19 and Public Health."^[47]

Other work

From 2007–2008, Read was president of the Board of Directors of The International School, a Portland full-immersion language elementary school, where he served as a trustee for six years.^[48]

References

1. "LA Times hires Read to be its Seattle reporter". 12 February 2019.
2. "The 1999 Pulitzer Prize Winners".
3. "Welcome to Storyline". The Washington Post.
4. "Arthur Hinton Read, 1922-1961".
5. Knight, Michael (January 1981). "Massachusetts told of wide corruption". The New York Times.
6. Kim Townsend (25 November 2014). John William Ward: An American Idealist. The Trustees of Amherst College. pp. 205–. ISBN 978-0-943184-17-3.
7. "Richard Read, The Oregonian". The Oregonian. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
8. "Eisenhower Fellowships 10/2005". Eisenhower Fellowships.
9. "Still behind the iron curtain".
10. "Many of The Oregonian's top staffers have applied for buyouts".
11. "Departing Oregonian reporter: if you write a story to win an award, you won't get one". 2 February 2023.
12. "NerdWallet hires Pulitzer winner Read, among others". 5 December 2016.
13. "Don't Trust These Companies With Your Student Debt". 23 March 2023.
14. "Muck Rack Richard Read".
15. "A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead". Los Angeles Times. 30 March 2020.
16. Tingley, Kim (8 April 2021). "All Together Now: How the Skagit Valley Chorale Learned to Sing Again Amid Covid". The New York Times.
17. "Scientists say WHO ignores the risk that coronavirus floats in air as aerosol". Los Angeles Times. 4 July 2020.
18. Anthes, Emily (8 April 2021). "Has the era of overzealous cleaning finally come to an end?". The New York Times.
19. "Richard Read". Los Angeles Times. 17 September 2020.
20. "AP garner 2 Pulitzer Prizes for pictures".
21. "The 1999 Pulitzer Prize Winners:Explanatory Reporting". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
22. . Archived from the original on 2013-12-31.
23. "Times' Reporters land-swap series wins Blethen award".
24. "Willamette University Holds 145th Commencement". Willamette University. 2003-05-13. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
25. "The 2001 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Public Service". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
26. "The 1999 Pulitzer Prize Winners:Explanatory Reporting". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
27. "2005 Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest Excellence in Journalism" (PDF).
28. "The Oregonian wins 12 first-place awards in regional competition". 20 May 2012.
29. "2011 journalism contest results for newspapers, magazines, websites |".
30. "2012 Better Newspaper Contest :: Winning entry". Orenews.com. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
31. "WSJ, Reuters and NerdWallet among National Press Club award winners". 30 July 2018.
32. "The 'Dirt' on Organic Food: You May be Paying for Fakes". 12 July 2022.
33. "Costa Rica: Government accused of ignoring organic pineapple issue: Conventional pineapples are being exported as organic products". 8 March 2018.
34. Roy J. Harris (1 January 2008). Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism. University of Missouri Press. pp. 447–. ISBN 978-0-8262-1768-4.
35. Roy J. Harris (22 December 2015). Pulitzer's Gold: A Century of Public Service Journalism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-17028-4.
36. John Maxwell Hamilton (2009). Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 473-. ISBN 978-0-80713474-0. Journalism's Roving Eye.
37. Donald R. Shanor (30 July 2003). News From Abroad. Columbia University Press. pp. 134–. ISBN 0-231-12240-3.
38. Jack R. Hart (2011). Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction. University of Chicago Press. pp. 2, 4, 150, 173, 183, 192, 195, 199, 201, 243, 250, 251, 263-. ISBN 978-0-226-31814-1.
39. Jack R. Hart (22 August 2006). A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That Work. Anchor. ISBN 1400078695.
40. David Craig (27 October 2006). The Ethics of the Story: Using Narrative Techniques Responsibly in Journalism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. ISBN 978-0742537774.
41. Gene Roberts and Thomas Kunkel (2002). Breach of Faith: A Crisis of Coverage in the Age of Corporate Newspapering. The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-728-7.
42. "A usable past: In 1980, the Ward Commission exposed a culture of corruption and brought about far-reaching reforms".
43. Kim Townsend (25 November 2014). John William Ward: An American Idealist. The Trustees of Amherst College. pp. 160, 205–. ISBN 978-0-943184-17-3.
44. "Unknowable man". 12 February 2015.
45. "A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead". Los Angeles Times. 30 March 2020.
46. Miller, Shelly L.; Nazaroff, William W.; Jimenez, Jose L.; Boerstra, Atze; Buonanno, Giorgio; Dancer, Stephanie J.; Kurnitski, Jarek; Marr, Linsey C.; Morawska, Lidia; Noakes, Catherine (2021). "Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by inhalation of respiratory aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale superspreading event". Indoor Air. 31 (2): 314–323. doi:10.1111/ina.12751. PMC 7537089. PMID 32979298.
47. Anderson, Elizabeth L.; Turnham, Paul; Griffin, John R.; Clarke, Chester C. (2020). "Consideration of the Aerosol Transmission for COVID-19 and Public Health". Risk Analysis. 40 (5): 902–907. doi:10.1111/risa.13500. PMC 7267124. PMID 32356927.
48. "The International School Fundraising Report, 2007" (PDF). The International School. June 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2010.