See also: Lewis Perdue, Co-Author
Lewis Perdue’s investigative reporting experience dates from 1970 and continues to the present as co-founder of the Stealth Syndromes Project.
His most internationally prominent investigative reporting came in Washington D.C. when, as a freelancer for Jack Anderson, he played a major role in breaking the Koreagate Congressional payoff scandals.
The biggest break came in 1977 when he figured out how to put shredded documents back together. (See Washington Post, “Tongsun Park’s Paper Jigsaw Puzzle Solved.”
Also relevant: What The Argo Movie Got Wrong About Shredded Documents
Perdue, his partner Ken Cummins and three interns Lew hired from Jack Anderson’s staff, resurrected the shredded documents.
The follow-up reporting resulted in a steady stream of articles in Jack Anderson’s columns revealing the Koreagate involvement of disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew, and scandal-toppled Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.
Other investigative articles from that era included:
- Confirmation that main Koreagate figure, Tongsun Park, was working for the Korean CIA.
- The cover-up that Nixon aide Robert J. Conkling — who was then working with Park — had been quietly convicted on 18 counts of rape, sodomy and assault with a deadly weapon and never sent to prison.
- Revelations (working with Anderson reporter Jim Grady) that a numbers-racket gambling ring was being operated in the House of Representatives with the collusion of the Congressional Police. A subsequent FBI probe was shut down by pressure from the Speaker of the House.
Dow Jones/Ottaway
Following his stint as an investigative freelancer, Perdue helped create the Washington D.C. Bureau for the Dow Jones-owned Ottaway Newspapers.
While in that position, Perdue continued investigative reporting with numerous articles including:
- Breaking the story of “The Townhouse Operation,” an illegal campaign slush fund.
- Revealing how the lax enforcement of railroad tanker cars, and collusion between regulators and industry resulted in a long series of tanker car explosions.
Investigative Reporting in Los Angeles
Later, as a faculty member at UCLA in the early 1980s, Perdue’s upper-division class in investigative reporting broke the story of a child pornography and abuse ring in Los Angeles.
While on the faculty at UCLA, Perdue won a Clarion Award for his investigative article on the radioactive health hazards of coal-fired power plants.
Online Investigative Reporting
After leaving UCLA and spending several years in the technology industry (see Ideaworx for more details) Perdue served as one of the first columnists for TheStreet.Com. While there, he won a “Laurel” from Columbia Journalism Review by exposing eBay’s online sale of guns. That column forced eBay to end the practice.
Summary of Other Journalism Experience
BUSINESS JOURNALISM: Articles in Forbes ASAP, Barron’s, Wall Street Journal Online, CBS Marketwatch, TheStreet.Com, California Business, California Magazine, LA Magazine, LA Times. Awarded Los Angeles Press Club Award for business journalism. Frequently Interviewed on CNBC, CNN Business. Founded Wine Business Publications, the largest circulation trade journals for the North American wine industry. Founded Wine Industry Insight, first premium-content wine industry digital publication.
TECHNOLOGY WRITING: Columnist, Wall Street Journal Online, Author: Supercharging Your PC and The High Technology Editorial Guide and Stylebook. Contributor to: PC World, InfoWorld, Publish!, TechWeek, DigitalAge, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Embedded Systems Journal; columnist for Computer Currents; editor of PC Management Letter.
SCIENCE WRITING: Articles in New Scientist. Author of The French Paradox, Beyond, the best-selling book on alcohol and health.
DAILY JOURNALISM: Washington bureau correspondent (covering the White House and Congress), Dow Jones/Ottaway Newspapers, States News Service and for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel; reporter, Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette, Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal; weekly columnist, Gannett News Service; Editorial page editor, Santa Monica Evening Outlook (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing).
JOURNALISM TEACHING: Lecturer, University of California at Los Angeles; Advisor to The UCLA Daily Bruin (student newspaper); instructor, Cornell University.
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