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Author Kim Barker says Afghan people yearn for war to end
The people of Afghanistan are exhausted by the constant state of warfare in the country and yearn for its conclusion, regardless of who is winning, the author of a new book told an audience at the National Press Club on March 24. Kim Barker called her book Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan “a darkly funny story.” In the book, she recounts her experiences as a Chicago Tribune correspondent and as a woman in the countries from 2002 to 2009. Using the Kabul Zoo as a metaphor for wars from the Soviet invasion to the present, she noted that the zoo barely survived. Most of…
Type: News
Social media provides new challenges, opportunities for broadcast media, Diane Sawyer tells Club
Television newscasts can co-exist – and thrive – in the Internet age if the networks use the Internet’s resources to create a compelling newscast, Diane Sawyer, ABC World News anchor, told host Marvin Kalb on March 22. “I don’t see it as a competition with the Internet,” Sawyer said on the latest edition of the Club’s “The Kalb Report.” “We have to be out there creating a unique and important conversation, answering questions in unique and important ways so that you want to come to us.” Speaking to a capacity crowd in the ballroom that spilled into the Holeman Lounge, Sawyer said that social…
Type: News
Defected Libyan ambassadors pledge effort to oust Gaddafi
Libyans from across North America pledged their support of the movement against Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi at a March 11 event that brought at least 18 news organizations -- including Press TV of Tehran -- to the National Press Club ballroom. Both defecting Libyan ambassadors -- Abdel Rahman Shalgam from the United Nations and Washington-based Ali Aujali -- were also there. The ambassadors made clear their support for the Libyan Republic's Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC), which is representing the protesters. They now represent the Council in the United States. "We are not…
Type: News
Conyers urges legislation to prevent gun violence in wake of Giffords shooting
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, is calling on Congress to take action on gun control in the wake of the January shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. At a March 14 Newsmaker, Conyers advocated checks on gun buyers, standing up to the National Rifle Association and a reenactment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004. "Gun violence takes more lives than the two wars," the Detroit lawmaker, second longest serving in the House, said. "I had thought at last we reached the point to come to some improvement in (…
Type: News
Shearer: News "template" obscured true Katrina story of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' failure
Locking itself into a news coverage “template,” the mainstream media focused solely on the emotional aspect of damage caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and deliberately avoided the major culprit of the disaster — flooding enabled by flawed U.S. Army Corps of Engineer design and construction, comedian-filmmaker Harry Shearer charged during a National Press Club luncheon on March 14. Shearer, most famously known as the voice of several characters of the popular animated television show, "The Simpsons," is releasing a 90-minute documentary of the disaster, "The Big Uneasy." The…
Type: News
Tucson massacre catalyzes effort to help mentally ill
A quarter of U.S. adults are mentally ill or have addictions but fewer than half get treatment, Linda Rosenberg, president of the Washington D.C.-based National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare(NCCBH), said at a March 10 Newsmaker. Her remarks came as the Council stepped up in the wake of the January Tuscon disaster its effort to help people recognize and aid victims of mental illness. "A tragic event or a famous person gets our attention, but the real faces of mental illness are far more ordinary," she said. A troubled youth, Jarred Loughner, was accused of killing six people and…
Type: News
Journalism icon David Broder dies; received Fourth Estate Award in 1988
Pulitizer-prize-winning journalist and National Press Club member David Broder died on March 9 at 81 from diabetes complications. For more than 40 years, Broder was a reporter and columnist for the Washington Post, winning journalism’s top award in 1973 for his coverage of the Watergate scandal. Renowned in the capital and beyond the Beltway for his incisive analyses, he defined the rubric for political reporting and commentary. “He covered every presidential convention since 1956 and was widely regarded as the political journalist with the best-informed contacts, from the lowliest precinct…
Type: News
NPR chief defends funding, rebuffs bias accusations
Editor's note: Two days after speaking at a March 7 National Press Club luncheon, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller resigned in the wake of the release of a videotape showing another NPR executive at a Feb. 22 meeting criticizing the Tea Party as "racist" and asserting that NPR would be better off without federal funding. Following is the coverage of Schiller's appearance at the Club. The risk that Congress will eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting is greater than ever, Vivian Schiller, NPR president and chief executive officer, told a National Press Club luncheon on March 7. “…
Type: News
Social media played critical role in Egypt's revolution, NPC panel says
Egypt's plugged in, vibrant youth helped rally the protestors that lead to the eventual ouster of dictator Hosni Mubarak, a panel of experts said Monday at a National Press Club event sponsored by the club's International Correspondents Committee in partnership with the International Center for Journalists. "There are 60 million Arabic-speaking Internet users in the region, and Internet use is growing," said Jeffrey Ghannam, an independent media consultant, veteran journalist and author of the new Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) report on social media in the Arab world.…
Type: News
Huckabee Weighing 2012 Presidential Bid
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday running for president in 2012 was "very much an option." Although President Obama would be a tough competitor, changes in the electoral map mean that the president “can be beaten,” Huckabee told reporters at a Feb 24 Newsmaker event at the National Press Club. To gauge support for his candidacy, Huckabee is touring with his new book, A Simple Government: Twelve Things We Really Need from Washington (and a Trillion That We Don’t!). In it, Huckabee, a Fox News commentator, describes the family is the basic unit of government. He advocates for…
Type: News