A highly celebrated liberal journalist has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct spanning years.
Al Giordano runs The School of Authentic Journalism–part of the famed and respected Narco News network which was founded in the early 1990s. Narco News is known within journalistic circles as a generally unimpeachable source of information on the U.S. War on Drugs–with a particular focus on Latin American stories, figures and perspectives.
Today, in a Facebook post, Giordano and his colleague Greg Berger were called out for their behavior by journalist Martha Pskowski. She wrote, in part:
Al and Greg have systematically harassed/manipulated/intimidated young women who attended the School. In my case, I remember Greg making a move on me while we were dancing one night at the School, which I brushed off. (Participants are encouraged to drink heavily, which makes this behavior much easier to get away with) … My comments aren’t about me, or some personal grudge. I would have moved on from that regrettable experience long ago, if I didn’t keep encountering women who had negative experiences with Al and Greg. It’s systematic and unacceptable behavior for any men, but especially for two white men in Mexico who call themselves leftist organizers.In the pattern I see now, they make sexual advances on women decades younger than them, or ask them to do free labor, and if the women decline, Al and Greg then “excommunicate” them from the School or publicly trash talk them.
Pskowski penned her post after making the accusations public on Sunday night via Twitter. In response to her initial tweets, Giordano allegedly contacted Pskowski and explained to her that she was being duped by a “counterinsurgency campaign.” Or, as she wrote later in the Facebook post, “I made these sentiments public last night on Twitter, and Al has already accused me of being a CIA agent, so, well, that shows how open to discussion he is.”
According to multiple women who worked with Giordano at his school, Pskowski’s claims are nothing new.
Since making her claims public, multiple other female journalists have come forward with their own stories about Giordano and his apparently untoward approach to teaching journalism. Those tweets are reproduced in full below.
In a later Twitter update, after retweeting multiple others’ experiences with Giordano, Pskowski wrote, “This is par for the course with the School of Authentic Journalism. Beyond what happened to me, @AlGiordano has ostracized many successful women journalists, in some cases after being rejected by them romantically. That fragile white, male ego.”
Law&Crime reached out to Giordano and Berger for comment on this story, but no response was forthcoming at the time of publication.
Later this evening, Pskowski posted part of an email exchange alleged to be with Giordano.
In the email, the person identified as Giordano writes:
If you would like to speak please provide a phone number or other way to speak with you. We have never harassed you or anyone. Your public commentary seems bizarre to me. Please correct me if you think I am wrong about this. I’m not going to carry on a conversation about bizarre, evidently invented, claims via email. I really don’t understand your motives for inventing them. There is money here in Latin America to do counter-insurgency. I sure hope that is not what is behind this! But if you would like to talk more directly, since you shared four days with us one year, and seem to be an expert on us, I – or Heather (in English) are more than happy to hear what you have to say…
For Pskowski’s original Facebook post in full, click here.
Editor’s note: this post was updated after initial publication.
[image via screengrab/Narco News]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher