Today’s Guest: Karen Dunlap, president, The Poynter Institute
What a crazy, crazy world.
When I invited today’s guest, Karen Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute, to be a guest on the show today, it was ostensibly to discuss Poynter’s upcoming collection of newspaper front pages titled President Obama: Election 2009.
And we’re still going to do that.
But then everything got turned upside-down.
Sunday night rumors of Tribune Company—owner of everything from the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and even the Chaicago Cubs—declaring bankruptcy became reality on Monday morning.
Then the august New York Times revealed it was exploring mortgaging its new headquarters tower in Manhattan to sustain itself through one of the worst newspaper advertising slumps in history.
Oh, and then this morning, Alaska residents discovered they no long had the most ridiculed governor in the nation as Americans learned how allegedly and nakedly corrupt was the governor of Illinois. Why is Gov. Rod Blagojevich relevant to a discussion of journalism topics? In all the other headlines, you might have missed reading the Blagojevich allegation of pressuring the owner of the Chicago Tribune “to fire a critical editorial writer.”
And it’s only Wednesday, folks!
Anyway, Karen Dunlap is a delightful woman who I’ve known for many years, back to the days when she was a college journalism professor. She is a trailblazer in journalism education circles and just a smart, savvy person to know.
Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, I have done freelance writing and editing assignment over the last several years, most of which you can find online at poynter.org.
Karen B. Dunlap Facebook
The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!