Contributor

Murray Waas

writer and journalist

Murray Waas is a writer and an investigative reporter. Most recently, Waas has reported on national security affairs and law enforcement matters.

Most recently, Murray Waas has been the senior investigative reporter for International Business Times.
At IBT, Wass has covered financial crimes and Wall Street.

Just prior, Murray Waas was the investigations editor for VICE. And , Waas has worked as an investigative reporter for Reuters. Murray Waas has written for Reuters about health care, Wall Street , financial crimes, and congressional ehtics.

Murray Waas also covered the 2012 presidential campaign for the Boston Globe, writing several investigative stories about Mitt Romney's tenure as governor of Massachusetts.

Previously, Murray Waas has been a national correspondent and contributing editor the National Journal and also has contributed reporting for ABC News' investigative unit.

For the National Journal, Murray Waas has reported the misue of prewar intelligence by then-President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to make the case to go to war; the criminal investigation relating to the disclosure as to who in the Bush White House leaked identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame; and the firings of nine U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration.

Murray Waas was in 1993 a winner of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School's Goldsmith Prize. In awarding the Goldsmith Prize to Murray Waas, the judges cited Waas' "series on U.S. government policy toward Iraq".

That same year Waas was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category of national reporting. The Pulitzer Board cited Murray Waas and reporter Douglas Frantz for “documenting the clandestine effort of the U.S. government to supply money and weapons to Iraq in the 1980′s and up to the weeks before the Gulf War.” The Pulitzer nominations were the first for Murray Waas, and the second for Douglas Frantz.

In 2010, Waas was a winner of the Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Business Reporting from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, for his reporting on the health insurance industry.

In making the award to Waas, the Barlett & Steele judges said: “Reuters and Murray Waas contrasted the upfront public stance of a health care company and its CEO to the reality behind the scenes, revealing the insidiousness of gate keeping by software. Murray Waas' investigation led to government pressure and an industry-wide change in the practice of dropping health care coverage for patients after they became sick.”

That same year, Waas was a winner of the Society of Business Editors and Writers' or SABEW prize for investigative reporting.


And he has also been a fellow with the Alicia Patterson Foundation, for whom he investigated substandard and life threatening living conditions of institutionalized Americans.

New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen wrote about Murray Waas' work in April, 2006:

"It should be obvious from the work who the Woodward of Now is.... The guy's name is Murray Waas; he's an independent journalist... [who] has been in the game since he was 18...

"By Woodward Now I mean that Murray Waas is the reporter who is actually doing what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding, tracking, breaking into reportable parts—and then publishing—the biggest story in town. Waas is also putting those parts together for us."

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about Waas the following month:

"After a quarter-century in the journalistic shadows, Murray Waas is getting his day in the sun.

"The freelance investigative reporter has racked up a series of scoops. He's been cited by the New York Times columnists Frank Rich and Paul Krugman. And New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen calls Waas the new Bob Woodward.

But Murray Waas -- whose blog is called Whatever, Already -- doesn't toot his own horn much and only reluctantly granted an interview. "My theory is, avoid the limelight, do what's important and leave your mark. . . . If my journalism has had impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses than greenrooms," he says.

(Additional information about Waas can be found in this profile of him in U.S. News & World Report, and this commentary about his work in Nieman Reports.

Murray Waas' journalism career began as teenage reporter for the late columnist Jack Anderson. In his twenties, Waas was an investigative correspondent for the Village Voice, where he wrote the cover story for the weekly newspaper more than a dozen times.

Murray Waas has also during his career written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, (see here and here.) the Los Angeles Times (see here and here), the Boston Globe (see this other story in the Globe by Waas), the Washington Post, ABC News, the American Prospect, the New York Observer (see this story and this one as well) the New Republic, Harper's, McClatchy newspapers, and Talking Points Memo.

His work has been reviewed by the Online Journalism Review, (see also this OJR article on Murray Waas), the American Journalism Review, and the Columbia Journalism Review(and this CJR article about Murray Waas.)

Most recenly, GQ Magazine named Murray Waas as one of four of "The Best Reporters You Don't Know About," saying:

Years of groundbreaking watchdog journalism have resulted in this nickname: the new Bob Woodward. Murray Waas' pieces on the Plame leaks and the U.S. attorney firings inadvertently provided candidates with more ammunition against the current Bush administration than any campaign strategist could hope for."

Waas currently blogs at his personal website and resides in Washington D.C.
His former blog can be found here.

Collections of Murray Waas' articles from previous years can be found here,here, here,here, and at sourcewatch.org

In the spring of 2007, Waas was the co-editor with Jeff Lomonaco, of the United States v. I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby.

Additional background on Murray Waascan be found here, here, here, here and here.

An portfolio of Murray Waas' work can be found here. Other collections of Murray Waas' work can be also be found here and here.

Murray Waas can be contacted through his Facebook account, through his Linkedin account, or at Murraywaas@gmail.com.