cross-referenced news and research resources about
Alexander Cockburn
Born and raised in Ireland, Alexander Cockburn has been an American journalist since 1973. He has established a reputation as one of the foremost reporters and commentators of the left by writing newspaper and magazine columns for the past decade.
Cockburn's areas of interest include the American political scene, economics, the environment, labor issues and international policy. The author of a bi-weekly column for The Nation called "Beat the Devil," Cockburn also writes a syndicated newspaper column, which is distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate and has appeared regularly in such papers as the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Examiner, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Detroit Free Press.
In 1987, Cockburn authored a highly successful collection of essays, some autobiographical, entitled "Corruptions of Empire" for which he was called "the most gifted polemicist now writing in English" by the Times Literary Supplement. Another reader of Cockburn's columns, Rep. Henry Gonzalez of Texas, referred to Cockburn as "one of the most perceptive and one of the most brilliant minds we have in America."
Cockburn also co-authored the acclaimed "The Fate of the Forest, Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon." He has appeared on numerous national television programs, including interviews with Ted Koppel and Phil Donohue. He also lectures regularly on environmental issues and global politics.
Educated in Ireland, England and Scotland, Cockburn graduated with honors from Oxford University in 1963. He now lives in Northern California and travels extensively.
|
 Alexander Cockburn
|
|
updated Thu. April 25, 2024
-
Dissident Voice
April 3, 2018
Are there real differences between the neo-liberal Democrats and the neo-conservative Republicans? Are there differences between Soros and the Koch brothers? Yes, but these differences are not, as Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Claire have said, “a dimes worth of difference”, especially comparedÃâà...
New Matilda
March 26, 2018
In the lead-up to the war in 2003, Alexander Cockburn, one of the editors, and a terrific writer, constantly used his column to trash the war and its boosters. In February 2003, he praised the “largest outcry in history” against the “imminent aggressors”, and dissected a “major chunk of agitprop” for the war byÃâà...
POLITICO Magazine
September 11, 2017
Alexander Cockburn attempted to peel this lethal fruit in May 1974, penning a Swiftian piece titled “Death Rampant! Readers Rejoice!” for the upstart journalism review [MORE]. Cockburn sourced our enthrallment to the inherent drama of disasters, especially disasters that give some warning of theirÃâà...
CounterPunch
June 6, 2016
I still miss Alexander Cockburn—his deep intelligence and broad erudition, his passionate engagement and devilish wit, but, most of all, I miss his bubbly, irrepressible optimism. Whenever, after still another horrible something had happened and every other leftist had put a pistol to his or her head, finger onÃâà...
The New Republic
August 1, 2014
Alexander Cockburn, who died in 2012, was an eccentric British journalist in the United States, famously insolent at The Village Voice during its years of glory in the 1970s and early 1980s and thereafter in other journals; and A Colossal Wreck is his posthumous book. The book came out late last year andÃâà...
New York Times
November 12, 2013
The radical Irish-American journalist Alexander Cockburn — he called himself Marxish, not Marxist — liked to bomb around America's blue highways in large, decrepit cars, preferably convertibles, faxing in and later emailing his rowdy political columns (for The Nation, The Village Voice and elsewhere)Ãâà...
The Guardian
October 11, 2013
Alexander Cockburn once explained to me the three basic requirements for success as a professional journalist: always read the publications for which you write; make a point of getting to know the people in the accounts department; and never publish anything once if it can be published twice or,Ãâà...
The Nation.
July 26, 2012
One of Alexander Cockburn's specialties was attacking people just after they had died (presumably to keep obituary writers honest, but also to thumb his nose at a sentimental convention of the establishment press). So as a tribute on hearing of his death, I thought I'd inventory his problematic qualities.
New York Times
July 22, 2012
Alexander Cockburn, the mordant left-wing journalist and author who though born in Scotland thrived in the political and cultural battlegrounds of the United States, died on Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany, where he had been receiving medical treatment, his family said. He was 71. The cause wasÃâà...
CounterPunch
July 21, 2012
Our friend and comrade Alexander Cockburn died last night in Germany, after a fierce two-year long battle against cancer. His daughter Daisy was at his bedside. Alex kept his illness a tightly guarded secret. Only a handful of us knew how terribly sick he truly was. He didn't want the disease to define him.
CounterPunch
December 16, 2011
I can't count the times, down the years, that after some new outrage friends would call me and ask, “What happened to Christopher Hitchens?” — the inquiry premised on some supposed change in Hitchens, often presumed to have started in the period he tried to put his close friend Blumenthal behind barsÃâà...
|
news and opinion
|
|
|
alexander cockburn
authors:
alexander cockburn
|
|