Robert Bidinotto

Robert James Bidinotto (born 1949) is an American novelist, journalist, editor, and lecturer. He is best known for his critiques of leniency within the criminal justice system, and for criticisms of the environmentalist movement and philosophy. Bidinotto is influenced by the philosophy and writings of Ayn Rand; further, from July 2005 until October 2008, he was editor-in-chief of The New Individualist, the monthly magazine published by The Atlas Society. In 2011, he turned his focus to writing crime fiction.

Background

In the mid-1980s, Bidinotto was a contributing editor for the Objectivist political newsletter On Principle; then, in 1987, for its brief-lived successor, Oasis magazine. Also during the mid-1980s, he self-published several papers and lectures on libertarianism, styles of thinking, and problems of practicing the philosophy of individualism within the context of ideological organizations.

During the late 1980s and until 1995, Bidinotto was a staff writer for Reader's Digest, for which he authored high-profile pieces dealing with failings in the United States criminal justice system. The most well-known of these was "Getting Away with Murder" (July 1988), which, during the 1988 presidential campaign, helped make murderer William R. ("Willie") Horton and prison furloughs among the decisive issues in the defeat of candidate Michael Dukakis. He also wrote in the magazine about environmental issues, such as the Alar scare and global warming.

Subsequently, he worked for several years for The Objectivist Center in a number of writing, speaking, and fundraising capacities, and later for The Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C., where he edited two monthly periodicals: Organization Trends and Foundation Watch.