Quick Facts
Biography
Alan Friedman (born in New York, April 30, 1956) is an American journalist, author and former media executive.
Education
Friedman was educated at New York University (NYU) (B.A. Politics and History), the London School of Economics (International Relations) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (M.A. International Economics and Law).
Career
Friedman worked in the administration of President Jimmy Carter in the role of Presidential Management Intern. He began his professional career working for the staff of Hon. Bella Abzug (D-NY) and of Hon. Donald Fraser (D-MN).
From 1979 to 1993 he worked for the Financial Times of London, as a columnist on bonds, a banking correspondent and a foreign correspondent in Italy and the United States. His professional relationship with the International Herald Tribune and RAI made way, in 1999, to a joint venture for the co-production of the weekly programmes World Business/Pianeta Economia (Planet Economy), produced by FBC.
He was recognized as the journalist who led the report on the Iraqgate scandal in 1991 that connected the CIA with the supply of non-U.S. origin weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Friedman's television career began in the early 1980s with regular appearances on BBC Newsnight. In 1991 he participated, with Ted Koppel of the ABC Nightline programme, in the production of a series of broadcasts by ABC/Financial Times on the scandal of the weapons sale to Iraq.
He hosted the Alan Friedman Show, a peak talk show on the Sky TG24 news channel in Italy. It was dedicated to national and international economics and politics. From 1994 to 2003 Friedman was global economics correspondent of the IHT.
From 2003 to 2005 he was global economy columnist for the Wall Street Journal Europe. He was executive editor of World Business, a weekly global business programme produced by FBC Media and broadcast on CNBC. Friedman founded and was chairman of FBC. The programme was cancelled in August 2011 after it was revealed that FBC acted as a public relations firm for the government of Malaysia and carried puff pieces in the shows it produced. FBC Media went into administration on 24 October 2011.
In February 2014, his new book Ammazziamo il Gattopardo (Let's Murder the Leopard) was serialised with an excerpt in The Financial Times of London.
He received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2014 and, on September 6, 2014, he was awarded the Premio Cesare Pavese, an Italian literary award, for his book Ammazziamo il Gattopardo.
On December 2, Friedman received the Premio Pannunzio 2014, an Italian journalism award, with this motivation read on behalf of the Jury: “He represents a fine example of journalism in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, a journalism where facts are separated from opinions, with independent judgement in describing Italian politics, and this is very much to his credit. Friedman succeeds in putting the present into historical perspective, with objectivity and impartiality”.
In June 2015 it was announced in the Italian media that Friedman would write the first authorized biography of the former Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. In a video message in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Berlusconi explained that for many years journalists had asked him to write his biography but he had always declined. He finally decided to work with Friedman because he trusts him. Berlusconi also added: "As Steve Jobs said to his biographer: I will tell you my story. You will write what you like".
Friedman's biography of Berlusconi is being published in 19 languages and in 32 countries in the United States, Europe and Asia. First publication was in October 2015 in the United States by Hachette Books (Berlusconi: The Epic Story of the Billionaire Who Took Over Italy), in the UK (My Way: Berlusconi in his own words) and in Italy by Rizzoli (My Way: BERLUSCONI si racconta a FRIEDMAN), in France by Michel-Lafon (Berlusconi se raconte a Friedman), in the Netherlands (BERLUSCONI) and subsequently in Finland, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Turkey, and other countries.
Books
- Tutto in famiglia, (Longanesi, 1988) ISBN 88-304-0834-4.
- Ce la farà il capitalismo italiano?, (Longanesi, 1989) ISBN 88-304-0916-2.
- AGNELLI and the Network of Italian Power (Harrap, New American Library, Longanesi and Planeta, 1988). ISBN 0-453-00690-6.
- La madre di tutti gli affari, in collaboration with Emanuela Minnai (Longanesi, 1993). ISBN 88-304-1167-1.
- Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq (Bantam, Longanesi, Faber and Faber, 1993). ISBN 0-553-09650-8.
- Il bivio. L'Italia a metà strada tra crisi e transizione, (Longanesi, 1996). ISBN 88-304-1346-1.
- Ammazziamo il gattopardo (Rizzoli, 2014). ISBN 88-170-7216-8
- Berlusconi: The Epic Story of the Billionaire Who Took Over Italy (Hachette Books, 2015). ISBN 978-0316301992