Ken Auletta, The New Yorker columnist and award-winning author, will presentWho Rules the Media?during WVU ’s Festival of Ideas on Tuesday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mountainlair Ballroom. This is the final presentation in the 2004 Festival Series.

Auletta has written theAnnals of Communicationscolumn for The New Yorker for more than 12 years. He has chronicled major events and profiled the powerful people shaping the television, cable, Hollywood studio, newspaper, publishing and technology industries. He has profiled such leading figures of the Information Age, including Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, John Malone and Michael Eisner.

The Columbia Journalism Review declared,No other reporter has covered the new communications business as thoroughly as Ken Auletta,and ranked him as America’s premier media commentator.

Auletta has written nine books, including the national bestsellers Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way; Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman; The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway; and World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies . His latest book, Backstory: Inside the Business of News , is a collection of his New Yorker stories that explore the journalism industry, its dominant figures and institutions.

Former CBS television president Frank Stanton called Auletta’s bestseller Three Blind Mice”the best book ever written on network television.”And The Wall Street Journal called Greed and Glory on Wall Street”a riveting chronicle of the lust for money, power and reputation. Invaluable.”

Auletta has won numerous journalism awards including the National Magazine Award and the distinction as one of the twentieth century’s top 100 business journalists.

Before launching his writing career in 1974 as a political correspondent for the New York Post, Auletta received a mater’s degree in political science from Syracuse University , served as a Peace Corps trainer and teacher, and was the executive editor of the weekly Manhattan Tribune.

He has also been a host and political commentator for many TV programs including Frontline . He has been a regular guest on PBS ‘The News Hour with Jim Lehrer , the Charlie Rose Show , and Nightline . His articles have appeared in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , Esquire and the New Republic .

This presentation is free and open to the public. Seating is limited on a first-come, first-served basis.

Festival of Ideas is produced by WVU Arts&Entertainment. For more information, call 293-SHOW or visithttp://www.events.wvu.edu.