Ken Silverstein is an American editor covering the Washington bureau for Harper's Magazine. In addition to contributing to the print edition of Harper's Magazine, Silverstein publishes a weblog entitled "Washington Babylon" on the magazine's website.

In 1993, Silverstein started CounterPunch, a political newsletter. Silverstein left the publication in 1996.

Silverstein worked for the Los Angeles Times as an investigative reporter, for The Associated Press in Brazil, and has written for Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, The Nation, Slate, and Salon.

Silverstein is a self-described "gadfly" in the newspaper business, and an opponent of what he considers "false 'balance'" in the news media.

He drew attention in 2007 for a report in which he went undercover as an investment group with business interests in Turkmenistan, raising questions about journalistic ethics. Silverstein said that he could not have exposed the willingness of the companies to work with a Stalinist dictatorship using conventional journalism methods.

Silverstein is noted for his attention to lobbyists and tracking how money influences power and policy in Washington.

He resides in Washington, D.C..

Bibliography

He is the author of a number of books, including:

• Washington Babylon, Verso Books, 1996 (co-authored with Alexander Cockburn)

• Private Warriors, Verso Books, 2000

• Washington on $10 Million A Day: How Lobbyists Plunder the Nation, Common Courage Press, 2002

• The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor, Random House, 2004

• Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship, Random House, 2008