"Journalism Needs a Spine Transplant" | Dan Rather, Sarah Koenig, and more | Google Zeitgeist
Some of the most influential voices in journalism today talk about the ever-evolving state of journalism and give their thoughts on what the future of journalism looks like to them. Featuring Dan Rather, Sarah Koenig, Marty Baron, Katharine Viner and Lydia Polgreen.
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Dan Rather is one of the world’s best known journalists with a famed and storied career that has spanned more than six decades. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and personally covered almost every important dateline of the last 60 years. From his first big assignment at a local news station covering Hurricane Carla, to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rather was there reporting the news to America and the world. On the scene in Dallas, he was key in breaking the news of President John F. Kennedy’s death, and uncovered key developments as a White House correspondent during the widespread criminal conspiracy known as Watergate. He was outside Martin Luther King, Junior’s jail cell in Birmingham and at the anchor desk for countless hours on 9/11 and the days that followed. He reported from the Berlin Wall when it fell, spent a year covering the jungle combat zones of Vietnam, and was forced off the air at Tiananmen Square when the Chinese government’s crackdown began. And yet Rather’s range was such that in addition to covering world changing events, he quickly gained a reputation as a gifted, versatile, and nuanced storyteller whose reports rung with empathy and even humor when warranted.
Sarah Koenig is the host and co-creator of the award-winning podcast Serial. Launched in 2014, Serial is credited with bringing mainstream attention to the podcast format and has been downloaded more than 175 million times, making it the most listened-to podcast in the history of the form. Among other honors, Serial won the 2014 Peabody Award, the first time the award has been given to a podcast. In 2004 Sarah Koenig became a producer at the radio show This American Life.
Marty Baron is executive editor of The Washington Post, overseeing more than 700 journalists. News organizations under his leadership have won 12 Pulitzer Prizes, including five at The Post, six at The Boston Globe and one at The Miami Herald. In Boston, he launched the Pulitzer-winning investigation of the Catholic Church’s cover up of clergy sexual abuse. He also held top posts at The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Katharine Viner is editor-in-chief of the Guardian, a position she has held since June 2015. She joined the Guardian as a writer in 1997. She was appointed deputy editor of the Guardian in 2008; launched the award-winning Guardian Australia in 2013; and was also editor of Guardian US, based in New York.
Lydia Polgreen is Editor in Chief of HuffPost. She was named to that post in December 2016 after spending nearly 15 years at the New York Times, where she led an initiative to expand its audience outside the United States, with an initial focus on Latin America. Previously, Lydia was Deputy International Editor, the South Africa bureau chief, a correspondent for the New Delhi bureau and chief of the West Africa bureau. Before joining The Times, Lydia was a reporter in Florida and New York state. She began her career as assistant editor and business manager for The Washington (D.C.) Monthly.
Michael Rezendes is an American journalist. He is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative work for The Boston Globe. Since joining the Globe he has covered presidential, state and local politics, and was a weekly essayist, roving national correspondent, city hall bureau chief, and the deputy editor for national news.
