Journalist, author, filmmaker, executive and entrepreneur, Rory O’Connor has worked for years in a wide variety of media, from print to broadcast to cable to film to the Internet, in commercial, public and not-for-profit contexts. He is experienced in media management and administration as well as creative and executive production services, and excels in strategic planning and leadership, both in editorial and production, as well as in administrative areas such as development, budgeting, fundraising, and human resource management. With broad exposure in newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, documentary and feature filmmaking, and, most recently, online, O’Connor is a jack of most media trades and master of many, having reported, written, edited, directed and produced on local, regional, national and international levels.
During the last two decades, as co-founder of the independent media firm Globalvision, Inc., he has been a key figure in the production of dozens of documentary films and has also been the executive in charge of three weekly television series. Globalvision films and television programming have aired on leading broadcast and cable networks in more than one hundred countries – from ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and FOX domestically to the BBC, RAI, NHK, National Geographic and many others internationally.
O’Connor has also had ample experience and active involvement in the digital media field. He has been managing editor and columnist at the media watchdog site MediaChannel.org for a decade, as well as the founding Editorial Director of the social news network Newstrust.net. A longtime blogger and critic for sites such as the Huffington Post, AlterNet, and others, including his own Media Is A Plural blog, he has also appeared as an on-air commentator and ‘vlogger’ on international broadcast systems such as Al Jazeera and the CBC.
Follow Rory on Twitter, Facebook, the HuffingtonPost and Linked In.
Professional Experience –Television & Radio:
President and CEO, Globalvision, Inc.
Responsibilities included executive oversight and administration of all aspects of operations at a privately held independent media firm. In addition, I produced, directed and wrote hundreds of television programs, and was Executive Producer of two award-winning international television newsmagazines — South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television — as well as of Children First, a national series of half-hour programs for the ABC Network and its affiliates about issues facing America’s children, hosted by Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung and other well known national network personalities.
Director, Producer & Writer, PBS Frontline
Primary responsibility for the creation of three award-winning nationally broadcast documentary films
- Producer, CBS News
- Staff Producer at 48 Hours news magazine
- Segment Producer, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
- Produced business segments for national PBS nightly news program
- News Director, The Neighborhood Network News
- Created and ran Boston cable local nightly news program
- Program Producer, WGBH-TV
- Showrunner, The Ten O’clock News, local public television nightly news program
- Radio Commentator, WBCN-FM
- Contributed regular on-air political commentary to leading New England radio station
- Senior Producer, WVCB-TV;Played key role in the formation of “The Investigators,” the station’s first investigative news team; directed, wrote and produced documentary films, producer for local nightly newsmagazine Chronicle.
- Radio Commentator, WCAS-AM
- Contributed regular on-air political commentary to leading New England radio station
- Reporter, Producer, WGBH-TV
- Produced and reported on-air packages for The Ten O’clock News, local public television nightly news program
- Professional Experience – Online Media:
Co-founder, Managing Editor: MediaChannel.org
Responsibilities included oversight and administration of all aspects of a media-oriented web site and daily aggregator media watchdog site
Editorial Director, NewsTrust
Responsibilities included oversight of all editorial policies and practices of a social news network aimed at helping find and share quality journalism
Columnist, Alternet.org, MediaChannel.org
Wrote regular column on media issues for web sites and news aggregators
Blogger, Media Is A Plural, Huffington Post, others
Wrote regular blog posts on ‘nexus of media and politics’
Professional Experience – Print:
Prior to his careers in broadcast, cable and digital media, O’Connor was a print journalist for more than a decade, writing and editing for such newspapers and magazines as the Boston Globe, the Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and The Real Paper, where he served in a variety of senior editorial positions, including that of Managing Editor. His articles have appeared in many leading national periodicals, including The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Newsweek, Broadcasting & Cable, Television Week, Details, Musician, Parents, and many others. He is also the co-author of the award-winning non-fiction book Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America, and, most recently, author of Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio, published in 2008.
Media Columnist, AMNY
Wrote weekly media column for New York daily newspaper
Contributing Writer, Boston Magazine
Wrote feature articles and columns for leading monthly city magazine
Managing Editor The Real Paper
Responsibilities included oversight of all editorial personnel, policies and practices of weekly newspaper
Staff Writer, News Editor, Music Editor The Real Paper
Wrote feature articles and columns for weekly newspaper
Professional Experience – Non-Profit Administration
Board Chair, The Global Center
Responsibilities include oversight and administration of not-for-profit educational foundation, helping to raise and administer literally millions of dollars in support of journalistic innovation, experimentation and production. In addition, oversight of the Center’s fiscal sponsorship of dozens of media projects worldwide.
Board Member, The Working Group
Helped set policy and oversee non-profit educational foundation using media to combat intolerance
Educational Background & Honors
Sagan Fellow, The Shorenstein Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
External Fellow, The Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy, Rutgers University
B.A. English, Boston College
Graduated Magna Cum Laude, chosen as Scholar of the College
FILMOGRAPHY
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
2009: Executive Producer: “Barack Obama: People’s President,” Independent Documentary
2008: Executive Producer
“Viva Madiba,” Independent Documentary
2007: Executive Producer
“Frontrunner,” Independent Documentary
2006: Executive Producer
“911: Press for Truth,” Independent Documentary
2006: Executive-in-Charge-of-Production
“In Debt We Trust,” Independent Documentary
2004: Executive Producer
“WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception,” Independent Documentary
2003: Co-Director, Co-Producer, Writer
“The Hole in the Wall,” Independent Documentary
2001: Director, Producer, Writer
“Voices of the Poor,” Independent Documentary
2000: Executive-in-Charge-of-Production
“Hear Our Voices: The Poor on Poverty,” Global Links TV Documentary
2000: Executive Producer
“Falun Gong’s Challenge to China,” Independent Documentary
1999: Director, Writer
“Richard Speck: Born To Raise Hell,” Court TV Documentary
1999: Story Developer
“The Trial of the Chicago 8,” Court TV Documentary
1999: Executive Producer, Writer
“Globalization and Human Rights,” PBS Documentary
1998: Director, Producer, Writer
“China: Change and Challenge,” Global Links TV Documentary
1996: Producer
“Yellow Wasps: Anatomy Of a War Crime,” Independent Documentary
1994: Executive Producer, Writer
“Countdown to Freedom,” Independent Documentary
1993: Director, Producer, Writer
“The Arming of Saudi Arabia,” PBS Frontline Documentary
1992: Director, Producer, Writer
“BCCI: The Bank of Crooks and Criminals,” PBS Frontline Documentary
1992: Director, Producer, Writer
“The Resurrection of Reverend Moon,” PBS Frontline Documentary
1992: Executive Producer
“Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy,” Warner Bros. Documentary
1990: Executive Producer
“Nelson Mandela: Free At Last,” PBS Documentary
1990: Producer,Writer
“No Place Like Home,” WCVB-TV Documentary
1986: Producer, Writer
“Mafia On Trial,” WCVB-TV Documentary
1985: Writer, Producer
“No Safe Asylum,” WCVB-TV Documentary
Professional Awards & Honors
My broadcast, film and print work has received much professional recognition and honors over the years. Major awards include:
• The George Polk Special Award (1990) for South Africa Now Television Series — Rory O’Connor, Executive Producer;
• a Writer’s Guild Award (1992) for Outstanding Achievement Award in Documentary – Current Events For Frontline: The Bank of Crooks and Criminals — Rory O’Connor, Director, Writer, Producer;
• two Emmys (1986 & 1989) for documentary and television programming;
• a George Orwell Award (1982) honoring Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language for Nukespeak;
• a Gabriel Award (2003) “For creating programming that uplifts the human spirit;
• a South Asian Journalists Association Award (2003) for Outstanding Story about South Asia;
• The Videographer Award: Documentary (2003) for “The Hole in the Wall” Rory O’Connor and Gil Rossellini, Co-Directors;
•a Sigma Delta Chi Award and Medallion – Documentary/Television (2001) “In Recognition of “Distinguished Service to the American People” from Society of Professional Journalists for Falun Gong’s Challenge to China — Rory O’Connor, Executive Producer;
• an Amnesty International USA Media Spotlight Award (1996) for “Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television” — Rory O’Connor, Executive Producer;
• a CINE Golden Eagle Award (1996) for “Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime” — Rory O’Connor, Producer;
• a United Nations Correspondents Association Award for UN Coverage (1996) for Rights & Wrongs “Safe Haven”;
• two Apple Awards (1993) from the National Educational Film and Video Festival for The Bank of Crooks and Criminals — Rory O’Connor, Director, Writer, Producer, and for The Resurrection of Reverend Moon — Rory O’Connor, Director, Writer, Producer; and
• an award for Best Documentary, National Association of Black Journalists for Mandela in America — Rory O’Connor, Executive Producer, Writer;
• and many others…full list available on request
