Speaker Series

Arianna Hiufffington

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Matt Taibbi

JEREMY SCAHILL

JOSH MARSHALL

RORY KENNEDY

In November, 2009, ARIANNA HUFFINGTON met with IC students for a lively Q & A session on the future of journalism.  The Huffington Post co-founder spoke of “a golden age for news consumers,” with bright prospects for young journalists despite an uncertain future for print newspapers.  She also did a public lecture as 2009 Park Distinguished Visitor on “The Modern Journalism Paradox: The Best of Times Amidst the Worst of Times.”  PCIM cosponsored her visit.  Huffington criticized mainstream journalism for largely missing the two big stories of the era: the Iraq invasion and the financial meltdown. She pointed toward a “hybrid future” where traditional media embrace the strengths of online media – “transparency, interactivity, and immediacy” – while new outlets adopt the best practices of old media: fairness, accuracy, high-impact investigative journalism. See Ithacan report.

In two public presentations and several smaller gatherings with IC students in September 2009, award-winning filmmakers
TIA LESSIN AND CARL DEAL screened and discussed their work – including Trouble the Water, the 2009 Oscar-nominated documentary feature about Hurricane Katrina. In moving, often funny discussions, they explored the “Agonies and Ecstasies of Independent Filmmaking,” and their body of work: features, shorts and TV segments on issues of racial justice, human rights, war and peace. They were producers on Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Tia and Carl also presented examples of censored work and screened tragic/comic excerpts from Moore’s TV show, The Awful Truth, as well as portions of a Bill Moyers’ segment on post-9/11 detention/deportation of Muslims, and Tia’s documentary short on garment sweatshops, Behind the Labels.
   

MATT TAIBBI is as hilarious a speaker as he is a writer. Speaking to a large crowd in Emerson in Feb. 2009 on “Independent Journalism Amidst Conformist Media,” Rolling Stone‘s politics writer detailed his career as a journalistic rule-breaker – while editing the eXile in Russia or covering U.S. politics. Taibbi urged students to find their own voice and challenge journalistic conventions. Having met with Park students much of the day, he began his remarks: “For me, it’s both sad and inspiring thing to see some of these bright, idealistic young people who want to go into the business of journalism. It’s inspiring because you all seem so committed to wanting to tell the truth, and tell important stories. And it’s sad because you’re about to enter a business that is sometimes only tangentially about telling the truth.” Taibbi won the 2008 National Magazine Award for commentary.

JEREMY SCAHILL addressed a packed Park Auditorium in December 2008 and identified a key attribute of an independent journalist: heart. He spoke of his evolution from activist for homeless people to volunteer at Democracy Now!, and ultimately to best-selling author and Polk-Award winner for Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. With Amy Goodman, he won his first Polk Award for the radio documentary, Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship. He’s been a regular contributor to Democracy Now!, The Nation and Real Time with Bill Maher.

JOSH MARSHALL keynoted the inaugural symposium of the Park Center for Independent Media in September 2008. Founder of the Talking Points Memo/TPM Muckraker blogs, he won the 2008 Polk Award in legal reporting for relentless coverage of the politically-motivated firings of U.S. Attorneys by the White House. That coverage led to Congressional hearings and the ultimate resignation of the Attorney General. Marshall spoke on “The Growth of Talking Points Memo and the Importance of Independent Media.” Click here for a condensed version of the speech.

 

RORY KENNEDY, award-winning documentary filmmaker, was our inaugural speaker in January 2008. Kennedy is the co-founder/president of Moxie Firecracker Films, Inc. Her impressive body of work tackles some of our most pressing social concerns--poverty, domestic abuse, drug addiction, human rights, AIDS and mental illness--and has garnered numerous awards and been featured on HBO, A&E, MTV, Lifetime, The Oxygen Network, Court TV, TLC and PBS.
See IC View's report on Kennedy's visit to Ithaca.

As a cosponsor, PCIM has helped present many other speakers to the Ithaca community, including Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar and independent filmmaker Fred Marx (“Hoop Dreams, “Boys to Men?”).