Douglas Frantz


Douglas Frantz is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative journalist and author, currently serving as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since November 2015.
He resigned as Los Angeles Times Managing Editor in 2007 after blocking the publication of an article about the Armenian Genocide; Frantz said his resignation was not related to the ensuing controversy.

Career

Frantz graduated from DePauw University in 1971. He was an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times.
Frantz served as the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times, and the managing editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2005 to 2007. Frantz was chief investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the former Managing Director of Kroll’s Business Intelligence Washington office.
From 2013 to 2015, Frantz served as the State Department's Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.

Armenian Genocide controversy

As the Los Angeles Times Managing Editor, Frantz blocked a story on the Armenian Genocide in April 2007 written by Mark Arax, a veteran Times journalist of Armenian descent. Frantz argued that Arax previously had expressed an opinion on the topic and therefore was biased on the subject, apparently referring to a letter co-signed by Arax that endorsed the LA Times policy of referring to the event as "Armenian Genocide". Arax, who has published similar articles before, lodged a discrimination complaint and threatened a federal lawsuit. Frantz was accused of having a bias obtained while being stationed in Istanbul, Turkey. Frantz resigned from the paper on July 6.

Awards

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