Robert Hodierne
Robert@Hodierne.com
 

Be sure to visit www.vietnamphotography.com

 

Summary In 40 years as a journalist, I have worked as a writer, editor and photographer for newspapers, wire services, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. I have also taught journalism at the university level. Among other awards, I was a member of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize. I have also been a Pulitzer juror. For three years I quit working and sailed a 32-foot boat through the South Pacific and on to Japan.
 

2008-

Associate professor of journalism, department chair

In the fall of 2008 I began teaching journalism with a special emphasis on documentary journalism.

2008-

 

Documentaries

I produced a two-hour documentary for PBS about the experience of a Marine platoon during its tour in an austere and dangerous outpost in Afghanistan. You can see more information here.

I was the senior producer of "Wounded Warriors," a documentary about medical care for service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The documentary aired on the Military Channel. I was the executive producer of "The Making of a Marine Officer," which aired on Gannett television stations across the country.

In addition to video documentaries I have worked on radio documentaries for the BBC, including "The My Lai Tapes," which took the top radio award from the London Foreign Press Association in 2008.

2001-2008:

Senior managing editor

I was the number two manager in a 100-person newsroom that produces the weekly newspapers Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, Air Force Times, Defense News and Federal Times plus the monthly Armed Forces Journal and its sister magazines, C4ISR Journal and Training and Simulation Journal and their associated Web sites. The papers are owned by Gannett. Among my duties, I planned our coverage of the invasion of Iraq and then, from a bureau in Qatar, I ran the coverage of our 13 journalists embedded in Iraq. In early 2004 I did a six-week tour in Iraq and went back again for a month in 2005 writing stories about the war. I was instrumental in leading the company into television, first with the documentary "The Making of a Marine Officer" and then with the creation of "This Week in Defense News with Vago Muradian," a weekly, Sunday morning talk show.

2000:


Executive Editor
I was responsible for the look, feel and content of this e-business site, whose purpose was to be helpful to the small-business community. I supervised the design and construction of the site. As part of senior management I was involved in strategic planning and budget creation. I began in January when the company had 18 employees. When I left the company in October it had 50 employees.
 
1993-1999:


National editor and deputy bureau chief
I supervised a staff of 10 national reporters and oversaw the work of the news, photo and graphics desks for this Washington-based newspaper wire service. I shared administrative responsibilities with the bureau chief for the entire staff, which numbered about 40. NNS provided a source of national news that was an alternative to traditional wire services. Newhouse reporters covered beats such as cyberspace and technology; race; gender; children and family; and work and money. While I held that position, the news service won a Pulitzer Prize for photography and twice was a finalist for Pulitzers in reporting categories on stories that I assigned and edited. I was a Pulitzer juror in 1998 and 1999.
 
1990-1992 Lived and worked in Japan. I taught English, wrote, and edited medical journal articles.
 
1987-1990

Sailed a 32-foot boat through the Pacific, ending up in Japan.

 


1983-1986:

San Francisco
Associate news director in charge of coverage
I was in charge of the assignment desk, four bureaus (including those in Washington and Sacramento), a nine-person investigative team, the field producers and the 25-person reporting staff. The people I supervised were members of three different unions. KRON hired me to help implement a strategy of treating news and its viewers with respect. One local TV critic described us as the "New York Times of local TV news." While that certainly overstated things, during the time I held that job our coverage won more local Emmies than the other stations in the market combined.
 
1981-1983:

City editor
I joined the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury as an assistant metro editor in charge of special projects, primarily investigative work. I was promoted to city editor, a job supervising 80 reporters and editors, all of whom were Newspaper Guild members.
 
1977-1981:

Washington bureau
I was part of a team that generated a series about Brown Lung disease that in 1981 won most major journalism prizes including the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service and a Robert Kennedy Award.
 
1975-1977:

Charlotte, N.C.
I specialized in investigative reporting. Among other things, I discovered a secret $23-million slush fund kept by Billy Graham and I caught U.S. Rep. John Jenrette selling underwater land. Graham reformed his financial reporting, becoming the most open of all evangelists, a change he publicly credited to my reporting. Jenrette was subsequently caught up in a bribery scandal and served time in prison.
 
1973-1975:

Wilmington, Del.
I began as a general assignment reporter and was promoted to metro editor, a job that involved supervising 50 reporters and editors. I left when the owners, the Du Pont family, fired the four top editors, including me. A story I had written on favorable tax treatment given the Du Pont family was often cited as one reason for the firings.
 
1971-1973:

General assignment reporter.
 
1968-1970:

Reporter, assistant Saigon bureau chief

 

In 1968 I enlisted in the Army. I was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Stars and Stripes, where I wrote stories and took pictures.

images/readstoriesroll

1966-1967:
I was the youngest, fully accredited foreign journalist to cover the war. My photographs appeared in all major U.S. and European magazines. The 1968 Popular Photography Annual includes a portfolio of my work. My photos have appeared in the Time-Life series of Vietnam books.



Freelance photographer, Vietnam

Previous teaching experience For three years (1983-86) I taught one journalism course a semester at the University of California, Berkeley. For seven years I presented a series of lectures on investigative reporting at the University of Massachusetts. I have conducted seminars on ethics and reporting for professional organizations including Sigma Delta Chi and the Radio and Television News Directors Association. I delivered a Rosenfield Lecture at Grinnell College in 2007.
 
Books In 2000 I edited "Drive-By Journalism: The Assault on Your Need to Know" by Arthur E. Rowse (Common Courage Press).
 
Freelance writing

I have written articles for the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, American Journalism Review and Reader's Digest and done a series of essays and award-winning documentaries for BBC radio.

I was invited to present a paper by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi at their January 2005 conference, "Arab Media in the Information Age."

 

Education B.A., political science, Grinnell (Iowa) College, 1968. Received distinguished alumni award 2008.
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