Bob Greenberger
In 2017, Moment and the Greenberger family established the Robert S. Greenberger Journalism Award. It honors Bob Greenberger, the highly respected former Wall Street Journal reporter known for his rigorous coverage of labor, economics, foreign affairs and the Supreme Court and his deep love of reporting and writing. Bob was also a contributor to Moment, where he helped found Moment’s Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative, a project that supports young reporters covering anti-Semitism and other forms of deep-seated prejudice around the world.
The Greenberger award recognizes journalists who “fearlessly contribute to principled, independent journalism; who pursue the truth and are undaunted in their efforts to tell the stories that need to be told; and who ensure that all sides of an issue are reported in a fair and civil manner.” The first recipient was CNN’s Jake Tapper in 2017; investigative reporter and Dark Money author Jane Mayer received the award in 2018.
Greenberger family with Jake Tapper
In accepting his award, Tapper said “I want to make observations about all the stories we are reading about sexual harassment and sexual assault in my industry, in journalism. It’s been a very cleansing and reckoning time in journalism and in America with these stories, good but painful times.”
He spoke of “men of means and power who not only treated women as prey but in all too many cases robbed these women of their dreams. We may never know how many women left journalism because these men treated them that way, and that has been heartbreaking.” Watch his full remarks.
Jane Mayer photos
Mayer made a strong case for her fellow journalists: “Despite the challenging climate created by President Trump’s disdain, journalists have rarely worked harder or done better or more vital work. These are trying times. But the truth is very much alive, and the press is one of the only institutions right now that is actually functioning in this country as it should.” Read her full remarks.
Robert S. Greenberger was born in Queens, New York. After graduation from Brandeis University he was thrust by his father’s untimely death into his family’s business—a job he didn’t want. One night as he was watching an interview with Peter Osnos, then a reporter for The Washington Post and a friend from Brandeis, he decided that was what he wanted to do. So with a wife, three young sons, and against his mother’s wishes, he promptly sold the business and applied to Columbia Journalism School.
Two years after graduation he joined The Wall Street Journal and was soon on the State Department beat covering the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Salvadoran Civil Wars. He traveled the world with four secretaries of state beginning with James Baker and ending with Madeline Albright. He covered the fall of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War and the innumerable efforts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. After two decades covering the State Department, he capped his Journal career covering the Supreme Court, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000. Most importantly, he has always been a funny, warm, intelligent and outgoing person who dearly loves his family and is dearly loved.