John Moody (journalist)

John Moody is an American journalist. He served as the Executive Editor and Executive Vice President of Fox News.[1] He was previously Chief Executive Officer of NewsCore, the former internal wire service of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the then-parent company of 20th Century Fox and Fox News),[2] and Senior Vice President, News Editorial for the Fox News Channel before that.

Early life, education and career

Moody was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1975, he graduated from Cornell University, where he worked for WVBR-FM, and began working for United Press International, serving successively as the Moscow and Paris bureau chief.

Afterwards, he went to work for Time, serving as the Vatican correspondent and Rome bureau chief,[3] from 1986 as the Latin American bureau chief, and finally as the New York bureau chief. As NY bureau chief, Moody was against the 1996 Time/Warner buyout of Turner Broadcasting. He instructed his staff "not to co-operate" with CNN which he saw as a competitor to Time.

In 1992, Moody received the Inter-American Press Association Bartholomew Mitre Award for his interview with Cali cartel kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.

Makers of the anti-Fox News documentary Outfoxed accused Moody of circulating internal memos encouraging political bias in Fox's reporting.[4][5]

In January 2007, after three different Fox News shows repeated the Insight magazine story about Barack Obama having attended a radical madrassa school as a child, Moody said Fox "commentators had erred by citing the Clinton-Obama report. The hosts violated one of our general rules, which is know what you are talking about. They reported information from a publication whose accuracy we didn't know.[6]

On August 15, 2008, Moody wrote an editorial lambasting John Murtha for saying, "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area." Moody, a native of west Pennsylvania, said Murtha can "go to hell" and called him a "jagoff."

On February 8, 2018, Moody wrote an editorial arguing that the U.S. Olympic Committee wants to change the games' motto to "Darker, Gayer, Different." Following up with "No sport that we are aware of awards points — or medals — for skin color or sexual orientation," Moody wrote. Fox News pulled the column stating that the "column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News."[7] In March 2018, he retired from Fox News.[8]

In 2018, former Fox News executive Ken LaCorte recruited Moody and former NPR editorial director Michael Oreskes to launch LaCorte News, "a digital news startup with the stated goal of restoring faith in media."[9] A November 2019 New York Times investigation found that LaCorte was using "Russian tactics" to disseminate divisive content via websites he covertly controlled.[10]

Personal life

Moody lives in New Jersey with his wife Alexandra and his two children.

Works
  • John Moody and Ropger Boyes, The Priest Who Had to Die, Gollancz (June 1, 1986), ISBN 978-0-575-03830-1
  • John Moody, Moscow Magician: A Thriller, St. Martin's Press (January 14, 1991), ISBN 978-0-312-05473-1
  • John Moody, Kiss It Good-Bye: The Mystery, The Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, Shadow Mountain (March 3, 2010), ISBN 978-1-60641-149-0

References
  2. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp launches global service to link all its outlets, Stephen Brook, The Guardian, September 7, 2010
  4. Fox News Memos: The Whole Batch, Wonkette, July 14, 2004
  5. Tilting at the Right, Leaning to the Left, Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, July 11, 2004
  6. Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even if It’s False, David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times, January 27, 2007
  7. Rowland, Geoffrey (February 9, 2018). "Fox removes 'Darker, Gayer, Different' Olympics column". TheHill. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  8. Stelter, Oliver Darcy and Brian (March 1, 2018). "Longtime Fox News exec who wrote controversial Olympics column out at network". CNNMoney. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  9. Schwartz, Jason (December 18, 2018). "Ousted NPR news chief, ex-Fox News execs team up on new site". Politico. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  10. Perlroth, Nicole (November 21, 2019). "A Former Fox News Executive Divides Americans Using Russian Tactics". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
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