March 26, 2008

Washington Post syndicated columnist and Best-Selling Author, E.J. Dionne, Jr., to Give Lecture

WORCESTER, Mass. – E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post syndicated columnist, bestselling author, and NPR commentator, will deliver the annual Condé Nast Lecture on Media, Ethics and Values on Monday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library (located in Smith Hall) at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Can the Old Media and the New Media Make Peace and Strengthen Democracy?”
 
New media forms, including opinionated blogs, talk radio and cable news shows, are answering a great need that traditional journalism was not answering. While they do not exist to inform, they play the vital roles of engaging citizens in the obligations of politics and providing a forum for voters’ voices to be heard. Yet it is essential to preserve the financial base that supports independent journalism and the work of journalists who, often at great risk, keep free citizens informed. In his talk, Dionne will address the changing nature of the media and how both traditional and new media forms play a critical role in our democracy.

Dionne earned his B.A. from Harvard University and received his Ph.D. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, CNN and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” His Washington Post column is published in more than 100 newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.

Prior to the Washington Post, the Fall River, Mass. native spent 14 years with The New York Times, reporting on state and local government, national politics, and from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut. The Los Angeles Times praised his coverage of the Vatican as the best in two decades.

His best-selling book, Why Americans Hate Politics (Simon & Schuster, 1991) earned him the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee. Dionne has recently completed a book titled Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2008). He is also the author of They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate The Next Political Era (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge (Simon & Schuster, 2004), editor of Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America (Brookings Institution Press, 1998) and was co-editor with John J. DiIulio Jr. of What’s God Got To Do With the American Experiment? (Brookings Institution Press, 2000).

Dionne was the recipient the American Political Science Association’s annual Carey McWilliams Award, which honors a major journalistic contribution to the understanding of politics. He was named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal and among the capital city’s top 50 journalists by the Washingtonian magazine.

Dionne’s lecture is made possible by a gift from Condé Nast Publications, coordinated by the company’s former president and CEO Steve Florio, parent of graduates from the classes of 2000 and 2003.  Previous speakers in the series include David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times; David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker; Matthew Rose, reporter for the Wall Street Journal; Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation; and Peter Steinfels, columnist for The New York Times.

Condé Nast publishes numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Condé Nast Publications mission stresses its commitment “to journalistic integrity, influential reporting and superior design.”

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.

Check out Dionne’s most recent articles

For additional information contact Cristal Perriello at 508.793.2419