Palast still in town *

CityBeat's Ed Rampell reports on BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast, who drew a crowd when he appeared last week at Immanuel Presbyterian Church and who gets the ACLU's 2004 Upton Sinclair Freedom of Expression Award this weekend -- and who was sued recently by Mario Cuomo.

Palast has emerged as a Grand Inquisitor of corporate wrongdoers and their political lackeys, from Baghdad to Sacramento to Washington. Britain’s Tribune Magazine called him: “The most important journalist of our time dominating journalism in two continents.” About 1,000 people turned up for his appearance at Immanuel Presbyterian church in L.A. last week. But ruffling feathers right and left has its price, earning Palast powerful enemies. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley, he was recently inducted as a “patron of the Philosophical Society” of Trinity College in Dublin, but Palast called it “one of the great and bitter ironies for me. I’m part of the European letters establishment, but in America, I’m the ‘kook,’ the ‘conspiracy nut,’ which is pretty disconcerting, because I want to be American.” Previous patrons include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and Salman Rushdie.

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Florida’s ex-Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, called Palast’s exposé of alleged electoral tampering during the 2000 election “twisted and maniacal.” Prime Minister Tony Blair denounced Palast in Parliament. And Palast says his reporting about Washington’s purported role in an attempted coup against Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has earned him death threats, while gold-mining associates of George Bush Sr. sued Palast over charges that African miners were buried alive during land disputes in Tanzania.

The nonpartisan Palast also pulls no punches when it comes to Democrats. Cuomo’s suit came on the heels of Palast’s allegations regarding a Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant court case. “I enjoy being sued by both parties, it gives me a sense of balance,” quipped Palast, although he added, “a very costly balance,” estimating legal fees for winning libel suits cost $1 million.

Also: The L.A. Independent reports that the terrorism hoax a week or so back cost Westside malls millions of dollars in lost sales, and Independent editor Tony Castro has a piece (American Cinderella: The Story of Jenny O) on a Westside real estate agent who survived the foster care system, and some truly lousy parents.

* Trackback: Palast an "inspiration to Valley guys everywhere."