Young Members' "Piano Talk" features Brian Karem, Tuesday

The next National Press Club Young Members' "Piano Talk" will feature Brian Karem this Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m.

Karem is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. For the past 12 years he has served as the executive editor of The Sentinel Newspapers in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties, Maryland.

He is currently the White House correspondent for Playboy magazine, and is also a political analyst for CNN.

A former producer and television correspondent for "America’s Most Wanted," Karem has traveled the world, covering wars, international terrorism, natural disasters and other major events of the last 35 years. This includes the Gulf War, the refugee crisis in France, and the nation’s hunt for infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Karem was the first Western journalist allowed inside Escobar’s prison outside of Bogota, Columbia following Escobar’s escape.

He is one of the founding members of the “First Jailbird’s Club” a group of about 12 reporters in the country who’ve gone to jail to defend a confidential source.

Other career highlights include:

 Covered the first Gulf War, traveling with the 41st Combat Support Hospital from San Antonio and produced award-winning television documentaries “Good to Go” and “Texans at War”

 Investigated chemical compounds in pesticides, including the chemicals inside Dursban, a formerly widely used pesticide which resulted in national coverage, a ban on the product and an Emmy nomination for best investigative reporting

 As the managing editor of the Montgomery County Sentinel has presided over resurgence in the 158-year-old newspaper. His column “Editor’s Notebook,” has won several major journalism awards. Has increased the online presence of the newspaper by more than 500 percent in the last two years.

 Frequent guest on a variety of CNN news shows, but has also been a guest on “Hard Ball,” “Meet the Press,” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”

 Jailed four times in 1990-91 for his ethical stance in trying to defend his First Amendment freedom by refusing to divulge a confidential source. Case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Karem v. Priest is now a textbook case in defending sources.

Karem is a recipient of the prestigious National Press Club Freedom of the Press Award, the Pieringer Award for Valor and Journalist Excellence and other journalism awards.