Miraldi, Robert

PERSONAL:

Education: State University of New York at Oneonta, B.A., 1972; Boston University, M.S., 1974; New York University, Ph.D., 1985.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Stoneridge, NY. Office—State University of New York, New Paltz, CSB 48, 75 S. Manheim Blvd., New Paltz, NY 12561. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Staten Island Advance, reporter, 1974-80; New York State Assembly, public relations counsel, 1980-82; Poughkeepsie Journal, columnist, 1992—; State University of New York, New Paltz, associate professor of journalism, 1983—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright scholar, Royal University at Utrecht, Netherlands, 1991; John Peter Zenger Award, New York State Bar Association, best commentary on legal issues in New York, 1993 and 1994; Scripps-Howard National Journalism Award, Edward Willis Scripps Award for the First Amendment, runner-up finalist, 1994, 1996; Intellectual Freedom Award, honorable mention, New York State Library Association, 1996; first prize for distinguished column writing, New York Newspaper Publishers Association, 1998, second prize, 1999; Frank Luther Mott Award, Kappa Tau Alpha, 2003, for The Pen Is Mightier.

WRITINGS:

Muckraking and Objectivity: Journalism's Colliding Traditions, Greenwood Press (New York, NY), 1990.

The Pen Is Mightier: The Muckraking Life of Charles Edward Russell, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

EDITOR

The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2000.

Roger Kahn, Beyond the Boys of Summer: The Very Best of Roger Kahn, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of articles to newspapers and journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert Miraldi is a college professor of journalism, media law, and public relations. His particular passion is the defense of free speech; for eight years he wrote a Poughkeepsie Journal column titled "First Freedom" that tackled First Amendment issues. As a novice journalist in the 1970s, Miraldi got a taste for a crusading arm of investigative journalism known as "muckraking." He would go on to study muckraking as a doctoral student and eventual faculty researcher, writing two books on the subject: Muckraking and Objectivity: Journalism's Colliding Traditions and The Pen Is Mightier: The Muckraking Life of Charles Edward Russell.

The Pen Is Mightier is the result of twelve years of research and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study the papers of Charles Russell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the turn of the twentieth century. The book, described Library Journal reviewer Scott Hightower, "studies Russell's professional achievements at great length, placing them in historical context and shedding light on his subject's largely ignored legacy." Miraldi earned recognition from the national honor society Kappa Tau Alpha by winning the 2003 Frank Luther Mott Award for best research-based book about journalism.

Miraldi also contributed as editor on two projects: The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders, and Beyond the Boys of Summer: The Very Best of Roger Kahn. His introduction to The Muckrakers was lauded by critics such as James Boylan, who wrote for the Columbia Journalism Review that the book is "much enhanced by the contributions of the editor," adding that Miraldi "offers fresh insights on old-time muckracking." News-paper Research Journal contributor Frank Fee described the book as "informative" and "provocative," further commenting that Miraldi's collection "contributes to knowledge and appreciation of the crusading journalists of the Progressive Era" and "offers encouragement for further research as well for, as Miraldi says, ‘more is yet to be uncovered and learned.’" Beyond the Boys of Summer is a compilation of writings spanning fifty years from noted sports reporter and columnist Roger Kahn.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Columbia Journalism Review, January, 2001, James Boylan, review of The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders, p. 79.

Library Journal, March 1, 2003, Scott Hightower, review of The Pen Is Mightier: The Muckraking Life of Charles Edward Russell, p. 98.

Newspaper Research Journal, fall, 2000, Frank Fee, review of The Muckrakers, p. 115.

ONLINE

State University of New York at New Paltz Web site,http://www.newpaltz.edu/ (September 20, 2000), "Professor's Book Stresses Journalists' Commitment."