John Moody (journalist)

{{Short description|American journalist}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2018}}

John Moody is an American journalist. He served as the executive editor and the executive vice president of Fox News.{{Cite web|url=http://press.foxnews.com/2012/06/fox-news-elevates-two-executives/|title=Media Relations | Fox News}} He was previously the 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),[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/sep/07/news-corporation-newscore-wire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp launches global service to link all its outlets], Stephen Brook, The Guardian, September 7, 2010 as well as senior vice president, news editorial, for the Fox News Channel prior to that.

Early life, education and career

Moody was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moody is a 1975 graduate of Cornell University, where he worked for WVBR-FM. He then began working for United Press International, serving successively as the Moscow and Paris bureau chief.

Afterwards, Moody went to work for Time, serving as the Vatican correspondent and bureau chiefs for Rome,{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/as-vatican-leader-pope-benedict-never-had-a-chance|title=As Vatican leader Pope Benedict never had a chance|website=Fox News|date=March 9, 2015}} Latin America and finally New York. As the N.Y. 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.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In 1992, Moody received the Inter-American Press Association Bartholomew Mitre Award for his interview with Cali cartel kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

An anti-Fox News documentary, Outfoxed, accused Moody of circulating internal memos encouraging political bias in Fox's reporting.[http://wonkette.com/17613/fox-news-memos-the-whole-batch Fox News Memos: The Whole Batch], Wonkette, July 14, 2004[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41604-2004Jul10.html Tilting at the Right, Leaning to the Left], Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post, July 11, 2004

After three different Fox News shows in January 2007 repeated an Insight magazine story about Barack Obama attending 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."[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/us/politics/29media.html Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even if It’s False], David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times, January 27, 2007

On August 15, 2008, Moody wrote an editorial lambasting John Murtha for saying, "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area." As a native of west Pennsylvania, Moody said Murtha can "go to hell" and called him a "jagoff."{{Cite web |date=2008-10-19 |title=Moody to Murtha: What a Jagoff « FOX Forum « FOXNews.com |url=http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/15/moody-to-murtha-what-a-jagoff/ |access-date=2022-09-10 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081019205532/http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/15/moody-to-murtha-what-a-jagoff/ |archive-date=19 October 2008 |url-status=dead}}

On February 8, 2018, Moody wrote an editorial arguing that the U.S. Olympic Committee wants to change the Olympic Games' motto to "Darker, Gayer, Different." "No sport that we are aware of awards points — or medals — for skin color or sexual orientation," Moody said. Fox News pulled the column, stating that it did "not reflect the views or values of FOX News."{{Cite news|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/media/373175-fox-removes-darker-gayer-different-olympic-column/|title=Fox removes 'Darker, Gayer, Different' Olympics column|last=Rowland|first=Geoffrey|date=February 9, 2018|work=TheHill|access-date=February 9, 2018|language=en}} In March 2018, he retired from Fox News.{{Cite web|last=Stelter|first=Oliver Darcy and Brian|date=2018-03-01|title=Longtime Fox News exec who wrote controversial Olympics column out at network|url=https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/01/media/fox-news-john-moody/index.html|access-date=2020-07-13|website=CNNMoney}}

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 "restoring faith in media."{{cite news |last1=Schwartz |first1=Jason |title=Ousted NPR news chief, ex-Fox News execs team up on new site |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/18/ousted-npr-news-chief-ex-fox-news-execs-team-up-on-new-site-1068672 |accessdate=19 December 2018 |publisher=Politico |date=December 18, 2018}} An investigation by New York Times in November 2019 found that LaCorte was using "Russian tactics" to disseminate divisive content via websites he covertly controlled.{{cite news |last1=Perlroth |first1=Nicole |title=A Former Fox News Executive Divides Americans Using Russian Tactics |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/technology/LaCorte-edition-news.html |accessdate=22 November 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=21 November 2019}}

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}}
  • John Moody, Of Course They Knew, Of Course They ..., Brick Tower Press / J.T. Colby & Company (September 11, 2021), {{ISBN|978-1-88328-392-6}}

References

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