Born: December 18 1954, Parlin, New Jersey, United States
Died: December 29 2023 (aged 69), Sayreville, New Jersey, United States
Occupation: Freelance journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, radio host
Kristina Borjesson was an American freelance journalist known for her investigative reporting and criticism of mainstream media practices. She edited the award‑winning anthology Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (2002), contributing a chapter on the investigation of the TWA Flight 800 crash【r.jina.ai/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristina_Borjesson】. The book received the Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism and an Independent Publishers Award in the Current Events category, and was selected as a “Books to Remember” by the New York Public Library.
Borjesson authored Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11, Top Journalists Speak Out (2005), which compiled interviews with prominent journalists discussing media coverage of the lead‑up to and conduct of the Iraq War. This work also earned an Independent Publishers Award in the Current Events category.
In July 2013, she wrote, produced, and directed the feature‑length investigative documentary TWA Flight 800, aired on the Epix premium cable channel. The film revisited the 1996 mid‑air explosion of a Boeing 747 off Long Island, presenting forensic evidence and testimony from former investigators who argued that the official inquiry had been compromised.
Earlier in her career, Borjesson earned an Emmy Award for investigative reporting and a Murrow Award as field producer/reporter for CBS Reports’ documentary “Legacy of Shame,” which updated the iconic “Harvest of Shame” exposé on migrant farmworkers. She also produced and co‑wrote the CBS Reports biography The Last Revolutionary, focusing on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and received an Emmy nomination for this work. For CNN’s NewsStand program, she produced investigative pieces on the business practices of Hollywood agents and managers.
Borjesson hosted “The Whistleblower Newsroom,” a one‑hour radio show broadcast on the Progressive Radio Network, providing a platform for whistleblowers and media critics. In 2013 she published her first work of fiction, The Reptile Club Librarian, as an Amazon Kindle e‑book.
Awards and honors
- Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism (for Into the Buzzsaw)
- Independent Publishers Awards (Current Events category) – two wins for Into the Buzzsaw and Feet to the Fire
- Emmy Award for investigative reporting (CBS Reports)
- Murrow Award (CBS Reports)
Kristina Borjesson’s career spanned journalism, publishing, documentary filmmaking, and radio broadcasting, with a consistent focus on exposing governmental and corporate misconduct and critiquing media complacency. She passed away on December 29 2023 in Sayreville, New Jersey【r.jina.ai/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristina_Borjesson】.