Ted Gup

Ted Gup
Born	(1950-09-14)September 14, 1950 Canton, Ohio

Ted Gup(born September 14, 1950) is the Eugene Lang Visiting Professor on Issues of Social Change at Swarthmore College. An author, journalist and professor, he is known for his work on government secrecy, free speech and journalistic ethics. He is the author of three books, includingThe Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA,which told the stories of previously unnamedCIA officers killed in the line of duty.His work has appeared in Slate, The Guardian, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, The New York Times, The Nation, NPR, GQ, and numerous other venues.

Gup has been a prolific writer regardingdoomsdayscenarios and facilities to provide forcontinuity of governmentand the preservation of important assets of civilization,including theMount Weatherfacility,as well as intelligence issues.

In the 1992Washington Post Magazinearticle "The Ultimate Congressional Hideaway,"Gup was the first to reveal publiclythe existence ofProject Greek Island,a large underground bunker atWest Virginia's famedGreenbrier Resortto house theCongress of the United Statesin case of a nuclear attack onWashington, D.C.,a revelation still considered controversial two decades after its publication.Those opposed to the revelation note that the exposure rendered the $14,000,000 ($123,382,792 by current standards) taxpayer-funded bunker useless and led to its decommissioning. Gup defended the story in a 2009 interview with Cleveland'sPlain Dealer,arguing that the Greenbrier bunker was obsolete in 1992. "We sat on the story for a couple of months making sure it wouldn't harm national security," Gup said. "The bunker mentality that preserved that place was itself a threat to national security. It's exactly why you want an active press."

Gup, a 1968 graduate ofWestern Reserve AcademyinHudson, Ohio,was a reporter forThe Washington PostandTime Magazineprior to his work in academia. He was the Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism atCase Western Reserve Universitybefore heading the journalism department atEmerson CollegeinBoston, Massachusettsand was aGuggenheim Fellowshiprecipient in 2003.He was also a 1980 recipient of theGeorge Polkaward in journalism offered byLong Island University.He shared the 1981Gerald Loeb Awardfor Large Newspapers,and received an Honorable Mention in the same category in 1984.

For his book,Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life,published byDoubledayhe received the 2007 Orwell Award. In this book he contended that the political culture was defined by a misguided desire for secrecy and was undermining the transparency of democratic institutions.

His 2010 book,A Secret Gift,much unlike anything else he had ever written, chronicles theChristmastime1933 anonymous charitable efforts of his RomanianOrthodox Jewishgrandfather,Sam Stone,to help families inCanton, Ohioaffected by theGreat Depression.

Gup lost his oldest son David, aged 21, on October 18, 2011.

In theMichaelmas termof 2015 he was a Fellow of theInstitute of Advanced StudyatDurham University,where he was affiliated to theSt. Cuthbert's SocietySCR.He returned to Durham as Writer in Residence at St Cuthbert's in 2017 and again in 2019.

Books

External videos
Booknotesinterview with Gup onThe Book of Honor,August 27, 2000,C-SPAN
Presentation by Gup onThe Book of Honor,July 16, 2001,C-SPAN
After Wordsinterview with Gup onNation of Secrets,June 16, 2007,C-SPAN
Presentation by Gup onNation of Secrets,June 10, 2007,C-SPAN
Presentation by Gup onA Secret Gift,November 9, 2010,C-SPAN
Presentation by Gup onA Secret Gift,December 5, 2010,C-SPAN

• The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA.
• Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life.2007
• A Secret Gift.2010

External links

• AppearancesonC-SPAN