B.A., Boston College; Fellow, Rutgers University; Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Rory O'Connor is a journalist, author, educator, and documentary filmmaker. He is co-founder and president of the Globalvision Corporation, and board chair of the Global Center, an affiliated non-profit foundation. His films and television programs have aired on PBS,[1]BBC, NHK, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and numerous other networks. He has been involved in the production of more than two dozen documentaries, and his broadcast, film and print work has been honored with a George Polk Award, a Writer's Guild Award for Outstanding Documentary, an Orwell Award[2] and two Emmys. He has written several books and blogs for the Huffington Post,[3]AlterNet,[4] Al Jazeera[5] and other news sources.
Career
During a ten-year stint in print, culminating as Managing Editor of the Boston-area weekly alternative newspaper The Real Paper, O'Connor began working in broadcast journalism as a reporter and producer at WGBH-TV in Boston.[6] He later worked as a producer and investigator at WCVB-TV, Boston; a Program Producer at WGBH; Executive Producer at Boston's Neighborhood Network News; segment producer at the PBS NewsHour; and Producer at CBS News, before co-founding the independent international media firm Globalvision.[7]
O'Connor and Danny Schechter founded Globalvision, a New York City-based TV and film production company.[8] The company created the series South Africa Now. According to O'Connor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) declined to distribute the program because of its anti-apartheid advocacy. However, Globalvision circumnavigated PBS and went directly to individual public television stations where it was carried in over 150 markets. Crew for South Africa Now were banned from South Africa itself, which made production more difficult.[9]
Schechter and O'Connor later co-produced Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, which aired on American public TV stations and in over 60 countries from 1992 to 1996.[10]
Awards and honors
In 1990, South Africa Now, a public television newsmagazine produced by Globalvision under O'Connor’s presidency, won the George Polk Award for broadcast journalism.[11][12][13]
Friends, Followers and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media (City Lights, 2012). ISBN0-87286-556-8
"Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima" (Sierra Club, Second Edition, 2011). ISBN978-0140066845
2011: Producer, Executive Producer
“The Harvest (La Cosecha),” Independent Documentary produced with ShineGlobal
2010: Director, Writer, Co-Producer
“The Battle of Durban II: Israel, Palestine and the United Nations,” Independent Documentary produced with Second Generation Films
2010: Executive Producer
“Plunder: The Crime of Our Time,” Independent Documentary