Morton Mintz (born January 26, 1922)[1] is an American investigative journalist who in his early years (1946–1958) reported for 2 St. Louis, Missouri, newspapers, the Star-Times and the Globe-Democrat; and then, most notably The Washington Post (1958–1988).
At the Post, he broadened conventional definitions of "news" with people-oriented reporting on issues mainly involving the pharmaceutical, medical-device, tobacco, oil, auto and insurance industries.
Although the press greeted the advent of the original oral contraceptive uncritically, he revealed that in approving The Pill, in 1960, the FDA had launched the greatest uncontrolled medical experiment in human history.
Mintz also reported on numerous unsafe and/or ineffective medicines and medical devices, including cholesterol-lowering MER/29, which afflicted thousands with cataracts; Oraflex, a killer anti-arthritis drug withdrawn by the manufacturer only a few months after sales began, and the Dalkon Shield and Cu-7 IUDs.
In 1983, he reported on the refusal of the United States during World War II to bomb the rail lines to the gas ovens at Birkenau and the Auschwitz death camp itself.