Juan González (journalist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Juan González
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González in 2011
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| Born | October 15, 1947 |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
| Career | |
| Show | Democracy Now! |
| Station(s) | Over 1000 |
| Network | Pacifica Radio |
| Style | Investigative journalism |
Juan González (born October 15, 1947) is a well-known American journalist. He is a broadcast journalist and an investigative reporter. This means he reports news on TV or radio and digs deep to find important facts. He also wrote columns for the New York Daily News for many years. Today, he often co-hosts the radio and TV show Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Juan González was born on October 15, 1947, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, Juan González, was a veteran who served in the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry during World War II. Juan grew up in East Harlem and Brooklyn, New York.
He was the editor of his high school newspaper, the Lane Reporter. After high school, he went to Columbia College. He graduated from Columbia in 1968.
While at Columbia College, Juan was very active in the movement against the Vietnam War. He helped lead protests that closed down the college in the spring of 1968. He was also a founding member of the New York City branch of the Young Lords. This group worked to help Puerto Rican communities.
In 1981, he became president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. This group focused on helping Latino people register to vote.
Journalism Career
Juan González started his journalism career in 1978 at the Philadelphia Daily News. He quickly moved from being a clerk to a full-time reporter.
In 1987, he joined the New York Daily News. There, he was given his own column. While working for the New York Daily News, Juan won his first George Polk Award in 1998. This award is given for excellent investigative reporting. Investigative reporting means finding and reporting important facts that might be hidden.
Juan González is a former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He created a special program called the Parity Project. This program helped news organizations hire and keep Hispanic reporters and managers. In 2008, he was added to the organization's Hall of Fame.
Hispanic Business Magazine named him one of America's most influential Hispanic people. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences. For two years, he was a visiting professor at Brooklyn College/CUNY.
Juan González has written a lot about the health effects of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He reported on air hazards at Ground Zero in his columns for the New York Daily News. He was the first reporter in New York City to write about these health issues.
In 2010, he received the Justice in Action Award. In 2011, he won his second George Polk Award. This was for a series of columns that uncovered problems with a city project. His reporting led to charges against several companies.
Juan González has said that his work is driven by "a sense about the unjust treatment of people." This means he cares deeply about fairness.
In 2015, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists added Juan González to its New York Journalism Hall of Fame. Since 2018, he has been a professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
Books by Juan González
Juan González has written several books:
- Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse (2002) talks about health hazards at Ground Zero.
- Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (2009, 2011, 2022) is about the history of Latino people in America.
- Roll Down Your Window: Stories of a Forgotten America
- Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America’s Tale of Two Cities (2017)
He also co-wrote News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media (2011) with Joseph Torres. This book shares the history of American media. It focuses on media outlets owned by people of color and how they faced challenges.
Film
- Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America is a film based on his book of the same name.
See also
- Giuliani Time
- New Yorkers in journalism
Images for kids
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González in 2011
