An award-winning broadcaster whose new book explores media coverage of the Monica Lewinsky story will speak to students and the public as part of Journalism Week 2002, sponsored by the WVU Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
Marvin Kalb, who over a 30-year career served as the chief diplomatic correspondent for CBS News and NBC News and as moderator of Meet the Press, will speak Thursday, March 14, at 7 p.m. in Room 458 of the Business and Economics Building. The event is open to the public.
“Marvin Kalb is a name synonymous with excellence in journalism. He is the epitome of practical scholar and the reflective practitioner. His analysis of the great national narrative and its impact is essential reading and listening,”said SOJ Dean Christine Martin.
Kalbs speech,”Covering the War Against Terrorism: A Detour from Scandal,”is being sponsored by the Gruine Robinson Lectureship Series for Journalism. In October 2001, Kalb released his latest book One Scandalous Story, which chronicles press coverage of the Monica Lewinski story.
On Sept. 11, 2001, journalisms preoccupation with scandal and the froth of Washington politics abruptly changed, Kalb said. After ignoring foreign affairs for more than a decade, shelving any discussion of the terrorist threat, Kalb says the U.S. media jumped into its coverage of the war against terrorism.
During Thursday nights presentation, Kalb will examine whether media has changed for good or just for the time being.
Kalb is now a lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and serves as the executive director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvards Washington, D.C., office.
At the Kennedy School, he hosted the PBS series Candidates88, and has appeared regularly on PBS s Newshour and other television and radio programs.
Kalb received numerous awards for excellence in diplomatic reporting. A graduate of the City College of New York, he has an M.A. from Harvard and was zeroing in on his doctorate in Russian history when he suddenly left Cambridge in 1956 for a Moscow assignment with the State Department.
His The Nixon Memo was published in 1994. He also is the author of two best-selling novels.
Kalb belongs to many organizations, including the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University and the Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs.
He has received such honors as the First Amendment Award from the Ford Hall Forum in 1999, two Peabody Prizes and the Edward R. Murrow Award, Overseas Press Club of America, NBC White Paper, for”The Man Who Shot the Pope”in 1982.