Statement by Ralph Nader on the Passing of Morton Mintz at the age of 103

July 28, 2025

Morton Mintz was a consummate ‘beat journalist.’ His pioneering sense of newsworthiness, including reporting what citizen groups were doing, opened up one area of consumer, environmental, and workplace abuses after another for other reporters to follow. He was the drug industry’s consistent “hair shirt.” Many a high corporate executive looked with dread when a call came from Morton Mintz.

What also made Mintz special is that he fortified ethical journalistic norms as he moved around the busy newsroom discussing topics with his colleagues. Mintz had a quiet voice with formidable strength. He resisted quaking editors and ignored pressures from corporate lawyers representing the Post’s corporate advertisers. He extended his remarkable work ethic by co-authoring or authoring historic books on corporate power in America.

His family and friends may wish to establish a permanent Morton Mintz Journalism Award to extend his even more important legacy today.