Morton Mintz, a dogged investigative reporter for The Washington Post, died on July 28, 2025, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 103.
As noted in a Nieman Foundation article on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2022, Mintz reported extensively for the Post on corporate crime and misconduct, with a special focus on the automotive, tobacco, and drug industries. He broke the story about the birth defects associated with the sedative thalidomide in 1962 and continued to report extensively on unsafe and ineffective medicines and medical devices, including the harmful Dalkon Shield IUD.
During his three decades at the Post, he also covered the Supreme Court, campaign financing, and wasteful Pentagon weapons systems. He additionally was an active member of the Newspaper Guild.
One of Mintz’s most noteworthy investigations followed General Motors’ attempts to discredit consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose 1965 book, “Unsafe at Any Speed” claimed that serious design flaws in the Chevrolet Corvair made it dangerous to drive.
In addition to his numerous articles for Nieman Reports, Mintz was a senior advisor and frequent contributor to the Nieman Foundation’s Watchdog Project.
Writing from his home in Washington, D.C., in 2022, he reflected on his life saying: “I have been a very lucky guy in so many ways, certainly in my career. I loved being a reporter, starting at The Michigan Daily when I was a student at the University of Michigan. My Nieman Fellowship played a wonderful role by giving me months of the intellectual stimulation that Harvard provided. And, if I may say this, my 69-year marriage could not have been a happier one.”
In a prescient 2008 Nieman Reports piece “Intimidation and Convictions of Journalists,” a book review of “Dark Days in the Newsroom” by Edward Alwood, Mintz looked at ways the U.S. government has intimidated and obstructed journalists over time, noting: “For even more years, a different kind of threat has been escalating among the growing hordes of know-nothing, talk-show bullies who make despicable, ludicrous and false accusations, including charges of disloyalty and even treason.”
A lifelong passion for journalism
Mintz was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1922 and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1943. He then enlisted in the Navy, where he served as a communications officer and later commanding officer on a transport ship that participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.
Mintz started working as a reporter at the St. Louis Star-Times in 1946. In 1951, he moved to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, where he was a reporter and assistant city editor before joining The Washington Post in 1958. He additionally contributed articles to other national publications and lectured about journalism and his work at universities across the country.
In a Washington Post article published when Mintz retired from the paper in 1988, Post columnist Colman McCarthy, wrote: “If every news organization had a core of reporters like Mintz — a tireless striver for accuracy and fierce skeptic of party lines — the public might not keep issuing low rankings of the media… At The Post, Mintz irreverently believed that reporting the news wasn’t enough. Searching it out — in places the pack had no scent or taste for — was often the higher ideal. He uncovered so much news that the morning Post often carried two, three or four Mintz bylined stories. He could have been a one-man wire service.”
Mintz is the author of four books and co-author of six more and served as chair of the Fund for Investigative Journalism from 1990 to 1993. His first book, “The Therapeutic Nightmare,” a critical look at the FDA, the American Medical Association and pharmaceutical manufacturers, grew out of his Nieman Fellowship.
His many honors include the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism (won in 1976 for his Washington Post series “The Medicine Business” about why pharmaceutical disasters continue to occur), the Heywood Broun Award and the Raymond Clapper and George Polk Memorial Awards. He additionally twice received the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Award for Public Service as well as the Guild’s Distinguished Writing Award. His book “America, Inc.: Who Owns and Operates the United States,” co-authored with Jerry S. Cohen, won the Sidney Hillman Award.
Mintz was chairman of his Nieman class, the last cohort to study under pioneering curator Louis Lyons and the group that created the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.
Mintz’s wife of 68 years, Anita Franz, died in 2015. In addition to his son, Daniel, survivors include two daughters, Margaret and Roberta Mintz; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Elizabeth Mintz, died in 1979.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism or the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
Additional information:
- A video interview with Morton Mintz conducted by the Investigative Reporting Workshop
- A 2012 interview with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
- Legacy obituary
- Wikipedia page for Morton Mintz
Books by Morton Mintz
- “The Therapeutic Nightmare: A report on prescription drugs, the men who make them, and the agency that controls them” (1965)
- “By Prescription Only” (1967)
- “The Pill: An Alarming Report” (1969/1970)
- “At Any Cost: Corporate Greed, Women, and the Dalkon Shield” (1985)
Books co-authored by Morton Mintz:
- “America, Inc.: Who Owns and Operates the United States” (1971), with Jerry S. Cohen
- “Power, Inc.: Public and Private Rulers and How to Make Them Accountable” (1976), with Jerry S. Cohen
- “In the Name of Profit: Profiles in Corporate Irresponsibility” (1972). Mintz was a contributing writer with Robert L. Heilbroner as editor.
- “More Bucks, Less Bang: How the Pentagon Buys Ineffective Weapons” (1983) with the Washington: Fund for Constitutional Government & Project on Military Procurement
- “Quotations from President Ron” (1987), with Margaret Mintz
- “President Ron's Appointment Book” (1988), with Anita Mintz
