Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 7, 2003|Volume 32, Number 10

Event to explore ethics of
media coverage in wartime

A panel of journalists and military officials will discuss ethical issues surrounding media coverage of events in a time of war at an open forum on Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Luce Hall auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

The forum, which begins at 7:45 p.m., is a continuation of a symposium on the media and the war on terrorism held on the Yale campus last year. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Political Science.

"How do you maintain truth-telling in the face of security precautions?" is the fundamental question to be debated, according to Stanley Flink, a lecturer in the political science department who organized the panel discussion.

"Finding the balance between satisfying the public's need to know, and respecting the responsibility of intelligence agencies and the military to guard sensitive information, is an ongoing concern for journalists, one that is all the more critical in a war against terrorism," says Flink.

Participants in the forum are Townsend Hoopes, former undersecretary of the U.S. Air Force; James F. Hoge Jr., editor of Foreign Affairs magazine; Bernard E. Trainor, a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Marine Corps; and veteran journalist George C. Wilson.

Hoopes is a recognized authority on foreign policy and international security. He has had a long career in government service and as a partner in the international consulting firm Cresap, McCormick and Paget. He is the author of numerous works on international affairs and contemporary history, including "The Limits of Intervention" (on the Vietnam War); "The Devil and John Foster Dulles"; "Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal" (co-authored with Douglas Brinkley), which won the 1992 Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize; and "FDR and the Creation of the UN" (also co-authored with Brinkley). He is a senior fellow of Washington College.

Hoge '58 B.A., spent three decades in newspaper journalism, serving as Washington correspondent, editor-in-chief and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, and then publisher and president of the New York Daily News. Under his leadership, the former paper won six Pulitzer Prizes and the latter, one. He has been editor of Foreign Affairs since 1992. Hoge is co-editor of the books "The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World" and "How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War." He chairs the International Center for Journalists and is a director of the Foundation for a Civil Society and Human Rights Watch.

Trainor's highly decorated military career encompassed a wide variety of command and staff assignments, including tours in Korea and Vietnam. Prior to retiring from the Marine Corps in 1985, he was deputy chief of staff for plans, policies and operations and Marine Corps deputy to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He later joined The New York Times as a military correspondent, covering military matters at home and abroad. In 1990, he became director of the National Security Program at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is co-author of "The Generals' War," an acclaimed analysis of the Gulf War. He continues to do military analyses for television and newspapers.

Wilson has covered military affairs for over 40 years, reporting from Vietnam, the Middle East, Panama and Iraq, where he was "embedded" with the Marines during the war. He covered Congress and the Defense Department for The Washington Post and is a columnist for the National Journal magazine. Wilson went on a tour with the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John F. Kennedy for his best-selling book "Supercarrier" and followed a rifle company for a year for "Mud Soldiers." He is also author of "Army in Anguish" (with Haynes Johnson), "Flying the Edge: The Making of Navy Test Pilots" and "This War Really Matters: Inside the War for Defense Dollars."

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Event to explore ethics of media coverage in wartime

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Koerner Center to showcase emeritus faculty member's works

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Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes