April 19, 2005

EVENT CANCELLED

The American News Media—Liberal or Conservative Bias?, a debate between political commentators Eric Alterman and Robert Novak, at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• The American News Media—Liberal or Conservative Bias?
• A debate between Eric Alterman and Robert Novak
• The 5th Annual Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate
• Wednesday, May 25
• 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public $10 / UCSB students $8
• Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Eric Alterman and Robert Novak will face off in the debate The American News Media—Liberal or Conservative Bias? on Wednesday, May 25 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Eric Alterman is a columnist for The Nation and author of What Liberal Media? and When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences. Robert Novak is a syndicated columnist, member of CNN’s Capital Gang and author of Completing the Revolution: A Vision of Victory in 2000. This event, the 5th Annual Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate, will be moderated by Professor Bruce Bimber, Director, UCSB Center for Information Technology and Society.

Recent events have only further fueled the argument over whether the American media suffer from a liberal or conservative bias. Critics on the right point to examples like Dan Rather’s use of memos that were later discredited to criticize President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard as an example of liberal bias. Critics on the left suggest that the way the entire mainstream press, from the right-of-center Fox News to the frequently labeled liberal New York Times, uncritically accepted the White House and Pentagon arguments for the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is an example of conservative bias. Exploring issues like these, Alterman and Novak will discuss the real or perceived tendency of journalists and news producers and editors within the mass media to approach both the presentation of particular stories, and the selection of which stories to cover, with an unbalanced perspective.

Termed “the most honest and incisive media critic writing today” by the National Catholic Reporter, and author of “the smartest and funniest political journal out there,” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, the “Altercation” weblogger for MSNBC.com, and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the “Think Again” column. Alterman is the author of the national bestsellers What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News and The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (co-authored with Mark Green). His newest book is When Presidents Lie: A History of Deception and its Consequences (September, 2004). His Sound & Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy, won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain’t No Sin to be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springsteen, won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary Award.

Alterman is also the author of Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy. A frequent lecturer and contributor to virtually every significant national publication in the US and many in Europe, in recent years, he has also been a columnist for: Worth, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and The Sunday Express (London). A senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at New School University, and former Adjunct Professor of Journalism at NYU and Columbia, Alterman received his B.A. in History and Government from Cornell, his M.A. in International Relations from Yale, and his Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stanford.

Robert D. Novak is the 2001 winner of the National Press Club’s “Fourth Estate” award for lifetime achievement in journalism. In 1963, Novak teamed up with the late Rowland Evans, Jr., then congressional correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, to write “Inside Report,” a political column published four times a week. In 1993, Evans retired from the column. Novak continues to write the column three times a week. Carried by over 300 outlets, it is one of the longest running syndicated columns in the nation. “Inside Report” has always been based on hard reporting. For over a quarter of a century, Novak and Evans not only criss-crossed the nation regularly covering politics, but also traveled abroad to report wars, revolutions and international conferences around the globe.

Novak has covered major global events and interviewed prominent leaders in every part of the world. His 1978 trip to China included an exclusive interview with Deng Tsiao-Peng that helped open the way for normalization of U.S.-Chinese relations.

Novak’s first book was Agony of the GOP: 1964. In collaboration with Rowland Evans, he has written Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power, Nixon in the White House and The Reagan Revolution. In November 1999, Novak’s latest book Completing the Revolution: A Vision for Victory in 2000, was published. He is a commentator for Cable News Network, where he hosts the Novak Zone interview program and appears on and serves as co-executive producer of the political roundtable Capital Gang. He also appears occasionally on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Novak has a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois and, in 1997, received the University’s distinguished alumnus award. Novak has also received honorary doctorates from Kenyon College and the University of Illinois. Novak was a Radford Visiting Professor of Journalism at Baylor University in 1987.

The Arthur N. Rupe Foundation contributed a major grant to UCSB establishing a series of debates that bring great minds from a variety of fields and disciplines to the university and the Santa Barbara community. The Arthur N. Rupe Great Debate Series explores contemporary societal issues of national and international significance through the presentation of eminent figures who hold divergent viewpoints.

“Let us bring the greatest minds of our time together at UCSB,” explains Arthur N. Rupe, “and provide a forum to discuss and debate the nation’s and world’s vital questions. Let us seek out from around the globe eminent scholars in diverse fields, and challenge them and each other. Let them discuss relevant issues, grapple with the facts, and create inspiring dialogue.”

Courtesy of Borders, books by Eric Alterman and Robert Novak will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

This event is presented by the Office of the Provost of the College of Letters & Science and is made possible by an endowment from the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation. It is co-presented by the Santa Barbara News-Press, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Young America’s Foundation, the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, and the Department of Political Science.

Tickets for the event are $10 for the general public and $8 for UCSB students, who must show valid ID when purchasing tickets and at the door. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.