Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins an American reporter for the Village Voice. His profession specializes in investigative journalism. He started off at City Limits magazine as an editor and now currently works at a staff reporter for the Village Voice, the New York Observer and the Daily. “Robbins will teach a course entitled “Urban Investigative Reporting” where students will meet with New York newsmakers and news-breakers, and study works by some of the great investigative muckrakers. Students will also participate in researching and writing a lengthy article or series of articles focused on an aspect of city life.”

Press Release

A select group of Hunter College students will become muckraking journalists this spring under the tutelage of Village Voice investigative reporter Tom Robbins, who will serve as the Jack Newfield Professor.

Robbins is the second distinguished journalist to occupy the post, established to honor Newfield, a legendary reporter and Hunter graduate. Last year, students studying with Wayne Barrett revived Newfield’s “10 Worst Landlords” expose, which appeared in The Voice in July.

His students, Robbins said, will meet with both newsmakers and news-breakers who are helping to shape New York in the first decade of the 21st century. They will read and study works of some of the great investigative muckrakers, from Lincoln Steffens to Jack Newfield. They will also participate in researching and writing for publication a lengthy article or series of articles focused on an aspect of city life.

Robbins has been a reporter covering New York City issues for 30 years. He has been editor of City Limits magazine, and a staff reporter at the Village Voice, the New York Observer, and the Daily News. He has won top awards from the Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Associated Press, and the New York Press Club. He was also a Charles Revson Fellow for the City of New York at Columbia University in 1985-86. He worked with Jack Newfield at both the Voice and the Daily News, where they collaborated on numerous articles.

“Jack Newfield used his typewriter like a jackhammer, drilling down through the layers to expose wrongdoing by political bosses, greedy landlords, and corrupt officials,” Robbins said. “With writing that was always clear and forceful, Newfield believed that the job of journalists isn’t only to understand the world, but to try and change it when necessary. Whether tomorrow’s journalists are writing on-line or on paper, we need more of them who understand and share Jack Newfield’s passion for justice and the city he lived in.”

Undergraduate from Hunter’s Film & Media Studies department and its Urban Affairs department and graduate students from Urban Affairs and Integrated Media Arts will participate in the class.

Published By: Hunter College
Release By: Bernard Stein