Larry Bensky - Educator and Activist

Educator and Activist

In addition to his work as a journalist, Bensky has had a continuing role in the classroom. For twelve years he taught broadcast journalism classes at Stanford and courses in mass communication, journalism, broadcasting, and political science at California State University (CSU), East Bay in Hayward, California. He currently teaches media criticism and analysis at Berkeley City College and political science at CSU, East Bay.

Bensky has been a political activist since the 1960s, working with nuclear disarmament and anti-war groups in New York, Paris, and San Francisco during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. He co-designed and wrote numerous successful direct mail appeals for Modern progressive organizations, including Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the United Farm Workers. He is a devout pacifist and an outspoken opponent of capital punishment.