Gary Cohn (born March 9, 1952[1]) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
He won the 1998
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting,[2] with Will Englund, while at The Baltimore Sun, and has been a Pulitzer finalist on two other occasions.[3][4] Cohen has won numerous additional journalism awards, including the 1997
George Polk Award, and the Investigative Reporting & Editors (IRE) gold medal.[5][6]
In October 2020, Cohn was awarded a McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism, with Eric Pape, a fellow professor at the
Annenberg School of Journalism. The prize was awarded so they could "look into the fast-growing
anti-vaccine movement and its implications for people and science in the age of
Covid-19."[9]
in 1975, after a year of law school at the University of California, Cohn went to work as an investigator at the Southern Research Council.[1] He also began working as a reporter for the columnist,
Jack Anderson, who had been a target for assassination by senior staff of
Richard Nixon administration.[1][13] Cohn left in 1980 to work as a reporter for
The Wall Street Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader specializing in investigative reporting.[1]
Cohn worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1986–1993 before leaving to work under
John Carroll of the Baltimore Sun, at a time when the Inquirer was struggling to keep from losing its staff.[1][14] While at the Sun, Cohn and fellow journalist, Will Englund, won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting under Carroll, having been given 18 months to travel and investigate the environmental dangers and hazardous conditions that shipbreakers faced in the mostly unregulated industry.[2][15]
Cohn worked under Carroll again, from 2003–2007, at the Los Angeles Times, as an investigative reporter.[16] He reported for a short time, in sports, before leaving to work as a Senior Writer for Bloomberg Markets, (2007-2008) where he won the Bartlett and Steele award with Darrell Preston.[17][18][19]
Cohn is also a contributor to Mesothelioma.com, in an effort to bring attention to the asbestos industry concerning
asbestos related illnesses.[20]
Awards
Cohn has won more than 30 prizes for journalism.[1] Some of his awards are listed below.
1995 The Eric & Amy Burger Award from the Overseas Press Club for "Battalion 316," with Ginger Thompson, The Baltimore Sun, for reporting on the
Honduran army unit responsible for political assassinations and torture and exposing the
CIA involvement in support and training of the Honduran army in the 1980s[21]
1997 The George Polk Award for Environmental Reporting for "Shipbreakers," with Will Englund and Perry Thorsvik, The Baltimore Sun, for reporting on the hazardous conditions that
shipbreakers faced due to lack of training and the effects on the environment.[5]
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984