Johnston, David 1948–

views updated

Johnston, David 1948–

(David C. Johnston, David Cay Boyle Johnston)

PERSONAL:

Born December 24, 1948, in San Francisco, CA; son of Leslie Jules (a chef) and Gretchen E. Johnston; married Sharon Smart Snider, July 8, 1966 (divorced, 1979); married Mary Regina Ryan (an executive), January 1, 1980 (divorced, 1981); married Jennifer Leonard (a foundation officer), May 1, 1982; children: (first marriage) Leslie Ann, Susan Kay, Mark Dennis, Amy Elizabeth and Andrew Scott (twins), Steven David. Education: Attended Cabrillo College, 1967; Foothill College, 1968-72; De Anza College, 1969-72; San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), 1972; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1973; and Michigan State University, 1973-75.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist. County News, Aptos, CA, reporter, 1966-68; Valley Press, Felton, CA, reporter, 1967-68; San Jose Mercury and News, San Jose, CA, reporter, 1968-73; Detroit Free Press, Detroit, MI, reporter with Lansing bureau, Lansing, MI, 1973-76; Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, reporter, 1976-88; Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, staff writer, 1988-95; New York Times, New York, NY, reporter, 1995—. University of Southern California, senior lecturer in journalism.

MEMBER:

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Edward J. Meeman Conservation Writing Award, 1974, for reporting on Michigan's air pollution regulation scandal; Detroit Press Club News Writing Award, 1974; George Polk Award in Journalism in local reporting category from Long Island University, 1982, for reporting on intelligence-gathering abuses of the Los Angeles Police Department; Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting, 2001, and finalist in 2003, for beat reporting; Investigative Book of the Year award, 2004, for Perfectly Legal.

WRITINGS:

Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1992.

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else, Portfolio (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Daniel Johnston) Introduction to Oil Company Financial Analysis, PennWell Corporation (Tulsa, OK), 2006.

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill), Portfolio (New York, NY), 2007.

EDITOR

Management Planning for Survival and Growth: Proceedings of a Symposium Sponsored by the Engineering Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Conjunction with the ASCE National Convention, San Francisco, California, October 1-2, 1984, American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, NY), 1984.

Managing Finances: Proceedings of a Symposium Sponsored by the Engineering Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Conjunction with the ASCE Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, May 14-18, 1984, American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, NY), 1984.

Managing Computers: Proceedings of a Symposium Sponsored by the Engineering Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Conjunction with the ASCE Convention in Detroit, Michigan, October 21-22, 1985, American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, NY), 1985.

Negotiation and Contract Management: Proceedings of the Symposium Sponsored by the Engineering Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Conjunction with the ASCE Convention in Denver, Colorado, April 29-30, 1985, American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, NY), 1985.

Planning Engineering and Construction Projects: Proceedings of a Symposium Sponsored by the Engineering Management Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Conjunction with the ASCE Convention in Seattle, Washington, April 8, 1986, American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, NY), 1986.

Contributor to periodicals, including Columbia Journalism Review, Washington Journalism Review, and California Journalism Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Johnston is an American journalist. Born in San Francisco, California, on December 24, 1948, he studied at a number of institutions, including Cabrillo College, Foothill College, De Anza College, San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), the University of Chicago, and finally, Michigan State University. Johnston began his career as a reporter in 1966, working for two years with County News in Aptos, California. During this time he also worked as a reporter at Valley Press in Felton, California. From 1968 to 1973, he served as a reporter at the San Jose Mercury and News. He then worked as a reporter in the Lansing bureau in Michigan for three years at the Detroit Free Press. From 1976 to 1988, he worked as a reporter with the Los Angeles Times. From 1988 to 1995, he served as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. At that point, he began working as a reporter with the New York Times. In addition to his career in reporting, he has served as a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Southern California.

Johnston published Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else in 2003. The book shows how the underfunding of the Internal Revenue Service has resulted in only four percent of medium-sized businesses being audited, forcing the government to make up the lost taxes by taking the money from working-class citizens.

Don Leatherman, writing in the Tennessee Bar Journal, found that Johnston's "descriptions are accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike," and concluded that, "in short, in Perfectly Legal, Johnston describes a tax system near the breaking point. The book is an important resource that educates us about the system and offers needed perspective to help us fix it." Eric Umansky, in a review of the book for Mother Jones, described it as "a whole new reason to find taxes depressing." After summarizing the points Johnston makes in the book, Nicholas Thompson, reviewing the book for Washington Monthly, commented that "these are all good fixes, though not transformative ones. But that's not necessarily a flaw with Perfectly Legal, which shows just how deep the problems with our tax system run. No one person can hope to fix them. Thank goodness there's at least one journalist willing to point them out."

In 2007, Johnston published Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). The book shows how the wealthiest Americans and corporations receive more money from the government than those on welfare through a number of programs and arrangements that essentially become the burden of working-class taxpayers. In an interview for Reason, Brian Doherty pointed out that the book does not follow a facts-only approach and questioned the author's apparent opposition to wealthy people. To this query, Johnston remarked that "there is definitely a moral tone to the book. I cite Adam Smith, Andrew Mellon, and the Bible on the proposition that one of the most morally offensive things is to take from those with less to enrich those already rich. I have no objection to people getting wealthy. Just get wealthy off hard work and enterprise, not getting government to pass rules no one knows about that reach into my pocket."

Kel Munger, writing in the Sacramento News & Review, stated that "in addition to expecting businesses to support themselves, Johnston makes a strong case for ending the cushy relationship between big business and politicians. He [has] some very intriguing propositions for how this might work, but it will take a lot of voters to make it happen," and suggested that "one way to make sure it does is to read this book before … vot-[ing]." A contributor to Midwest Book Review "highly recommended" the book to "anyone who wants to be shocked at [the American] government's spending habits." Nick Baumann, reviewing the book for Mother Jones, claimed that "it will take more than a call for self-restraint to derail this gravy train." Steve Weinberg, in a review of Free Lunch for the Legal Times, stated that Johnston's "books are not written dispassionately. A yeoman researcher, Johnston wants his hard-won findings to inflame readers. He wants the super-rich who benefit from the inequities as well as the government officials complicit in that enrichment to become enraged at him. Simultaneously, Johnston wants the 95 percent of taxpayers who are not rich to become enraged at those who bend and break the rules to perpetuate unfairness throughout American society."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, February 1, 2004, Robert S. McIntyre, "Tax Cheaters and Their Enablers," review of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else, p. 17.

Financial Times, January 6, 2004, "Tax Troubles: Is the System Rigged against the Poor?," author interview; January 19, 2004, "The Great Tax Rip-off by Howard Gleckman," review of Perfectly Legal; February 2, 2004, Amity Shlaes, "Perfectly Confusing," review of Perfectly Legal, p. 22.

Forbes, February 12, 2004, Mark Lewis, author interview.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 13, 2004, Cecil Johnson, review of Perfectly Legal.

Legal Times, February 22, 2008, Steve Weinberg, review of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill).

Miami Herald, January 28, 2004, Richard Pachter, review of Perfectly Legal.

Michigan Law Review, May 1, 2005, Leandra Lederman, review of Perfectly Legal, p. 1423.

Midwest Book Review, May 1, 2008, review of Free Lunch.

Mother Jones, March 1, 2004, Eric Umansky, review of Perfectly Legal, p. 84; April 11, 2006, Jonathan Stein, author interview; January 1, 2008, Nick Baumann, review of Free Lunch, p. 77.

New York Times Book Review, February 1, 2004, James K. Galbraith, review of Free Lunch, p. 22; February 3, 2008, Jonathan Chait, "Other People's Money," review of Free Lunch, p. 13.

Reason, March 1, 2008, Brian Doherty, author interview, p. 58.

Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 9, 2004, Bettijane Levine, "When It Comes to Taxes, the Wealthy Are Different, Reporter Says; Laws Aid Rich, Abuse Others, Book Argues," review of Perfectly Legal, p. 1.

Sacramento News & Review, January 31, 2008, Kel Munger, review of Free Lunch.

Tallahassee Democrat, February 25, 2005, Bill Cotterell, "Talk Turns to Retirement and Taxes at Tiger Bay," review of Perfectly Legal.

Tennessee Bar Journal, June, 2005, Don Leatherman, review of Perfectly Legal, p. 23.

Virginia Tax Review, January 1, 2005, Joel S. Newman, review of Perfectly Legal, p. 733.

Washington Monthly, April 1, 2004, Nicholas Thompson, review of Perfectly Legal, p. 55; December 1, 2007, Charles Peters, review of Free Lunch, p. 10.