David Bender, President 

When John F. Kennedy, Jr. launched his political and cultural magazine, George, in 1995, he chose David Bender as its first West Coast contributing editor. Citing Mr. Bender's years of experience in politics, government, media and entertainment, Kennedy said, "As long as I've known David Bender, he has been involved in public issues. I think what he's been able to do, rather uniquely, is kind of meld a lot of different worlds and channel them into public issues, whether it be Washington, New York or Los Angeles - particularly within the entertainment industry.  I can't really think of anyone who has done it longer or as well as he."

Mr. Bender's five-decade career as a political activist began at the age of twelve when he took a "leave of absence" from the seventh grade to become a full-time volunteer in the presidential campaign of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Four years later, as a high school reporter, Mr. Bender covered the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. He was literally a "boy on the bus," traveling in the company of such journalistic legends as Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid.  

Later, he became a key aide to the legendary liberal activist Allard K. Lowenstein, the former New York congressman who was a pivotal figure in both the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement.  He would go on to serve on the national field staffs of California Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown’s 1976 presidential campaign and on Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign.

David Bender began his formal career in film and television in 1986, when he was chosen as unit publicist on Dominick & Eugene, Orion Pictures’ feature film co-starring Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta. Subsequently, he served as chief of staff and liaison to the entertainment community under Roy Furman, Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during President Clinton’s first term. In his tenure with Mr. Furman, they produced events including the participation of Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

At George Magazine, David Bender contributed to John Kennedy’s interviews with, among others, Warren Beatty and Oliver Stone, as well as to pieces on film and television, including a list of the Top Ten Political Films of All Time.

In 2000, joining with musician David Crosby, Mr. Bender co-authored and co-produced a book and four-hour documentary series, Stand And Be Counted, that recounted the history of artist activism on social and political issues and featured over forty original interviews ranging from Pete Seeger and Joan Baez to Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana. 

Mr. Bender joined Air America Radio in 2004 as its first political director, appearing frequently as a guest and co-host on Rachel Maddow’s show (who dubbed him her “political guru”), before becoming host of his own long-running program, Politically Direct with David Bender, where he interviewed numerous directors, actors and writers such as Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Sidney Lumet, Harry Belafonte and Whoopi Goldberg. 

David Bender was the research editor for I Am Spartacus, actor/producer Kirk Douglas’ 2012 account of making the film that broke the Hollywood blacklist.

In 2009, David Bender conceived VISIBLE, a documentary series chronicling the history and global impact of LGBTQ+ images originating on American television. Academy Award-nominated film producer David Permut and Mr. Bender were Principal Producers of this critically acclaimed series series that was released on Apple+ in 2019.

Mr. Bender co-authored THE DEAN, the autobiography of the nation’s longest serving member of Congress, the late John D. Dingell, Jr. of Michigan.

In 2019, David Bender directly reentered the political arena through a hugely successful effort to create an original, live-streamed theatrical reading of excerpts from the Mueller Report. “THE INVESTIGATION: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts,” was a one-night-only reading of a new play written directly from the Report by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan and staged in New York City’s Riverside Church before an invitation-only audience. Starring Annette Bening, John Lithgow, Kevin Kline, Joel Grey, Michael Shannon, Alfre Woodard and Zachary Quinto, THE INVESTIGATION was streamed by over 4.3 million viewers in just eight weeks. 

Currently, Mr. Bender is executive producing, along with Sir Elton John and David Furnish, a documentary series in development that will chronicle the history and impact of LGBTQ+ music artists.