Biography
About Rory O'Connor
Media executive, award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and author. Co-founder and president of Globalvision; show runner of seven television series.
Rory O'Connor is an experienced media executive and award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and author. He has been the show runner in charge of seven different television series, produced nationally broadcast news reports for CBS and PBS, and been a key figure in the creation of dozens of documentary films. His programming has aired on leading networks in more than one hundred countries — from ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and FOX in the United States to the BBC, RAI, NHK, and National Geographic abroad. He is also Board Chair and Senior Research Fellow of the affiliated non-profit educational foundation The Global Center.
As co-founder of Globalvision, Inc., he managed two internationally distributed weekly newsmagazines — South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television (seen in 17 and 62 countries, respectively) — and the domestically syndicated series ABC Children First. Prior to that, he managed WGBH-TV's nightly program The Ten O'Clock News and was the creator and news director of the nightly Neighborhood Network News on Boston cable. He later created and launched Elections 2018: The Progressive Path Forward for the satellite network Free Speech TV, and then supervised production of the PBS weekly news and public affairs program The Laura Flanders Show.
O'Connor's broadcast, film, and print work has been recognized with a George Polk Award, a Writers Guild Award, a George Orwell Award, and two Emmys, among other honors. He is the author of three books on the media: Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio (AlterNet Books); Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima (Sierra Club Books / Penguin); and Friends, Followers and the Future: How Social Media Are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media (City Lights).
A graduate of Boston College, O'Connor was also a Sagan Fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and an External Fellow of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University.
Career history
Television, radio & broadcast
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Globalvision
President & CEO, Globalvision, Inc.
Executive oversight and administration of all aspects of operations at the privately held independent media firm. Produced, directed, and wrote hundreds of television programs. Executive Producer of two award-winning international newsmagazines — South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television — and 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 and other national network personalities.
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PBS
Supervising Producer & Senior Consulting Producer
Supervised production of the weekly news and public affairs program.
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Free Speech TV
Showrunner
Created and launched the program for the satellite network.
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PBS Frontline
Director, Producer & Writer
The Resurrection of Reverend Moon (1992); BCCI: The Bank of Crooks and Criminals (1992); and The Arming of Saudi Arabia (1993).
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CBS News
Producer
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PBS
Producer, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
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Boston cable
News Director, The Neighborhood Network News
Created and ran Boston cable's hyperlocal nightly news program.
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WGBH-TV
Program Producer & Showrunner, The Ten O'Clock News
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WCVB-TV
Senior Producer
Played a key role in the formation of the station's investigative news team; directed, wrote, and produced documentary films; producer for the local nightly newsmagazine Chronicle.
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WGBH-TV
Reporter & Producer
Reported and produced on-air packages for the nightly program.
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Boston radio
News Commentator
Career history
Print journalism
Prior to his work in broadcast and cable, O'Connor was a print journalist, writing and editing for newspapers and magazines including The Boston Globe, The Phoenix, Boston Magazine, and The Real Paper, where he served in a variety of senior editorial positions including Managing Editor. His articles have appeared in such leading national periodicals as The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Vogue, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Newsweek, and many others.
Honors
Professional awards & honors
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George Polk Special Award
For the South Africa Now television series — Executive Producer.
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Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary: Current Events
For Frontline: The Bank of Crooks and Criminals — Director, Writer, Producer.
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Emmy Awards
Two Emmy Awards for documentary and television programming.
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George Orwell Award
Honoring distinguished contribution to honesty and clarity in public language — for Nukespeak.
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Gabriel Award
“For creating programming that uplifts the human spirit.”
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South Asian Journalists Association Award
For outstanding story about South Asia.
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Videographer Award: Documentary
For The Hole in the Wall — Rory O'Connor and Gil Rossellini, Co-Directors.
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Sigma Delta Chi Award & Medallion — Documentary / Television
In recognition of “Distinguished Service to the American People” from the Society of Professional Journalists, for Falun Gong's Challenge to China — Executive Producer.
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Amnesty International USA Media Spotlight Award
For Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television — Executive Producer.
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CINE Golden Eagle Award
For Yellow Wasps: Anatomy of a War Crime — Producer.
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United Nations Correspondents Association Award
For UN coverage — Rights & Wrongs, “Safe Haven.”
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Apple Awards, National Educational Film and Video Festival
For The Bank of Crooks and Criminals — Director, Writer, Producer; and for The Resurrection of Reverend Moon — Director, Writer, Producer.
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Best Documentary, National Association of Black Journalists
For Mandela in America — Executive Producer, Writer.
A complete list is available on request.