Karl Grossman has pioneered the combination of investigative reporting and environmental journalism in many different forms of media for more than 50 years and continues to do so today.
Grossman got his start in 1962 when he was in college. He did an internship at the Cleveland Press in Ohio, where he was a copy boy and was inspired by the reporters who worked there. Grossman began to fall in love with what the reporters did and decided to follow in their footsteps. “My parents didn’t have any influence in what I wanted to do at all. My dad actually wanted me to be a high school teacher in Queens, New York,” he said.
Grossman has since worked in television and print journalism. He’s hosted the national television program Enviro Close-Up and has also narrated and hosted award-winning documentaries about environmental and energy issues. Grossman has written six books as well as magazine, newspaper, and internet articles over the years. He hosted and was a writer for TV documentaries produced by New York-based EnviroVideo, including the award-winning Chernobyl: A Million Casualties, Three Mile Island Revisited, Nukes in Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens and The Push to Revive Nuclear Power.
Grossman lives by the philosophy “Give the people the light and they will find their own way.” He explained that once you have the tools you can make anything happen as long as you do the work. This has been his guiding principle ever since he began interning at the Cleveland Press. Starting with the tools he was given as an intern, he worked his way up to become the chief investigative reporter for WVVH-TV on Long Island and also became a nightly news anchor for WSNL-TV and hosted “Long Island World” on WLIW-TV.
To this day, Grossman continues to contribute to publications such as CounterPunch, OpEdNews, Enformable, Nation of Change and The Huffington Post. He had a weekly column that discussed the environment which appeared in The Southampton Press. Grossman has written for The East Hampton Press, The Sag Harbor Express, The Shelter Island Reporter, South Shore Press and numerous other outlets on Long Island. He is a full-time professor of journalism at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury and has given presentations at colleges and universities across the United States and abroad, the United Nations of New York, the British Parliament, the Russian Congress and more.
Grossman has received awards for investigative reporting including the George Polk, Generoso Pope, James Aronson and John Peter Zenger awards. He has also received multiple citations from the Press Club of Long Island, New York Press Association, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Society of Professional Journalists, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, New York Civil Liberties Union, Citizens Energy Council, Friends of Earth and Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting. The television documentaries he contributed to have received gold and silver awards at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival among other honors.
Not only an expert in his field, Grossman has also become a pillar in his school community according to his colleagues.”I have known Karl since I’ve worked here. He is an outstanding professor and many of the students enjoy his class. He is one of the most reputable professors and always guides people in the right direction,” said secretary Annu Brewer. Grossman continues to do work in his field and pushes his students to do as well as he has done or better. After decades in the business, he still feels as though there is nothing more satisfying than uncovering the truth through investigation and hardcore facts. “I love what I’ve done. I think it’s great and I think my father was wrong to suggest that I become a history teacher,” he said.
