The Official Website of Reese Erlich

On Nov. 15, 2018, Reese Erlich was presented with a resolution honoring his work. Angela Yip presented the plaque on behalf of Senator Nancy Skinner.

MEMBER’S RESOLUTION HONORING REESE ERLICH

WHEREAS, Possessed of a broad repertoire of reportorial and writing skills and an international, cross-media career history spanning 50 years, Reese Erlich has earned well-merited respect as an investigative reporter, freelance journalist, foreign correspondent, news commentator, and author, and on November 15, 2018, he will discuss his recently published book, The Iran Agenda Today, together with his colleague and fellow reporter, Norman Solomon, during an event benefiting KPFA Radio 94.1FM, at which time he merits special public commendations; and

 

WHEREAS, Born and raised in Los Angeles, Reese Erlich enrolled in 1965 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he and six other activists, known as the Oakland Seven, organized Stop the Draft Week in October 1967 as an Oakland Induction Center-focused antiwar protest supported by thousands of demonstrators, which quickly revealed the magnitude of the extremely polarizing, bitter discord arising out of the Vietnam conflict and led to the Oakland Seven being tried for, and ultimately, acquitted of, criminal conspiracy, all of which presaged the kinds of events and topics Reese would examine in depth during his career as a broadcast and print reporter, and

 

WHEREAS, in 1968-69, Reese worked as a staff writer and research editor for San Francisco-based Ramparts, a national investigative reporting magazine, and also visited Cuba for the first time, an experience that led to numerous opportunities when he returned to the U.S. for providing commentary in radio interviews, published articles, and, ultimately, his book, Dateline Havana: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Future of Cuba (2009); and

 

WHEREAS, Over the course of his wide-ranging career, in addition to Cuba, Reese traveled to several other countries to experience firsthand, and gather information about, remarkably diverse events, people, and subject matters that figured prominently in his broadcast reporting in the U.S. for Christian Science Monitor Radio, National Public Radio, and KPFA 94.1FM, among others, and internationally with Radio Deutsche Welle, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and GlobalPost, as well as in his published reporting for Vanity Fair Online, MacWeek, San Francisco Magazine, California Monthly, Mother Jones, the Progressive, The Nation and AARP’s Viva magazine; and

 

WHEREAS, Blessed with seemingly boundless reportorial zeal, Reese also writes Foreign Correspondent, a nationally distributed column; has contributed to a dozen major public radio documentaries whose subjects range from jazz and the life of Louis Armstrong to Lessons from Hiroshima and Peace in the Holy Land; created the well-received television documentary Prison Labor/Prison Blues, and helped train more than a generation of reporters by teaching journalism at California State University, Hayward, San Francisco State University, and University of California Berkeley Extension; and

 

WHEREAS, Esteemed for his astute, wide-ranging broadcast and print reporting on the Middle East, in addition to Dateline Havana, Reese has also written, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You (2003), a best seller coauthored with Norman Solomon; The Iran Agenda, The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis (2007); Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire (2010); Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect (2014); and The Iran Agenda Today: The Real Story Inside Iran and What’s Wrong with U.S. Policy (2018); and

 

WHEREAS, The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Reese Erlich won a shared Peabody Award in 2006 for the radio documentary series Crossing East and an award for best radio explanatory journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California) in 2012 for his radio documentary Inside the Syrian Revolution, and was singularly honored by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for his investigative journalism with their declaration of Reese Erlich Day on September 14, 2010; now, therefore, be it

 

RESOLVED BY SENATOR NANCY SKINNER, That she takes great pleasure in commending Reese Erlich for his half-century of consequential contributions to broadcast and print reporting and the craft of journalism, and extends his sincere best wishes for the success of his future worthy endeavors.

 

Members Resolution No. 988

Dated this 15th day of November 2018

 

Honorable Nancy Skinner

9th Senatorial District