Dick Carlson

Richard Carlson, who won a Peabody Award for his investigative television reports about an automobile company’s brazen fraud — during which he also outed the company’s founder as a transgender woman — and who later ran Voice of America during the last years of the Cold War, died on March 24 2025 at his home in Boca Grande, Fla. He was 84. Richard W. Carlson was Vice Chairman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank engaged in the War on Terrorism. Carlson wrote a syndicated newspaper column and hosts the Danger Zone radio show on WMAL in Washington, DC. He was formerly the CEO of mBLAST, Inc., an Internet software provider which aggregates and disseminates data for business and industry worldwide. He was also a partner in Gately-Carlson, Inc. of Washington, DC, a consulting firm serving international trade and security clients. He was the former President and CEO of King World Television, a Division of King World Productions formed to locate investment, partnership and production opportunities in public television worldwide. Carlson had served as President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He was the US Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles from 1991-1992. From 1986-1991, he was Director of the Voice of America and Associate Director of the US Information Agency. He was also host of the weekly foreign affairs broadcast, On The Line, and had responsibility for Radio Mart broadcasts to Cuba and all US government TV broadcasts overseas, including the Worldnet TV network and the USIA Television and Film Service. Carlson spent more than 30 years in journalism and business. He received 18 major journalism awards, including three Emmys and the George Foster Peabody Award. He has served as a director and trustee of various corporations and foundations and spent seven years as a banker. He was married to the former Patricia Caroline Swanson until her death in 2023, An earlier marriage, to Lisa McNear, the mother of his sons, ended in divorce. Mr Carlson raised their Tucker and Buckley Carlson.