SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Nov. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Augustana University and the Center for Western
Studies today announced Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein as keynote
speakers for the 23rd Boe Forum on Public Affairs keynote speakers to be held Tuesday, March 19, 2019.
In the early 1970s, Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate
story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of
President Richard Nixon and setting
the standard for modern investigative reporting, for which they and
The Post were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Throughout their
respective award-winning careers, both journalists have authored
numerous books, and have provided commentary and reporting on
government and politics.
The 2019 Boe Forum will address "Power, the Press and the
Presidency." The First Amendment to the Constitution states
that no one may restrict the freedom of speech or of the press. In
the era of news, fake news and the role of journalism in democracy,
the topic of objective news reporting in American society has been
at the forefront of many academic and political discussions.
"Together and separately in their professional lives, Woodward
and Bernstein have subjected every administration since the 1970s
to rigorous analysis for the benefit of the American people," said
Dr. Harry Thompson, executive
director of the Center for Western Studies at Augustana University. Thompson added that all
presidential and political administrations experience an
oppositional relationship with the press. "This tension is an indication of a
healthy democracy and the community-university Board of Directors
for the Center for Western Studies acknowledges this and have
chosen to invite iconic and non-partisan investigative journalists
Woodward and Bernstein."
Augustana University President
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin echoed
Thompson's remarks. "During their careers, Woodward and Bernstein
have demonstrated unprecedented civic responsibility through
investigative journalism," Herseth
Sandlin said. "Both reporters have shaped the landscape of
journalism - from uncovering Watergate, for which they earned a
Pulitzer Prize, to their ongoing reporting of politics,
presidential administrations, and government. Their insight and
perspective on journalism and democracy in the world today will no
doubt be both highly engaging and thought-provoking."
Since its inception in 1995, the Boe Forum on Public Affairs has
sought to provide access to individuals who can address events,
issues or problems of worldwide or national concern and of broad
public interest. Further details regarding the event, as well as
information on free tickets, will be announced in early 2019.
About Bob Woodward
Former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wished he'd recruited Woodward into
the CIA, "He has an extraordinary
ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts
to him . . . his ability to get people to talk about stuff they
shouldn't be talking about is just extraordinary and may be
unique."
Therein lays the genius of Bob
Woodward - a journalistic icon who gained international
attention when he and Carl Bernstein
broke the deeply disturbing news of the Watergate scandal. The book
they wrote - All the President's Men - won a Pulitzer
Prize.
Watergate's theme of secret government is a common thread
throughout Woodward's career that has spawned 19 books - all
national bestsellers - 13 of them #1 - more than any other
contemporary nonfiction author. His 19th book, FEAR:
Trump in the White House, sold more than 1.1 million copies in
its first week in September 2018 -
breaking the 94-year first-week sales record of its publisher Simon
& Schuster. No one else in political investigative journalism
has the clout, respect, and reputation of Woodward. He has a way of
getting insiders to open up in ways that reveal an intimate yet
sweeping portrayal of Washington
and the political infighting, how we fight wars, the price of
politics, how presidents lead, the homeland security efforts, and
so much more. His work is meticulous and draws on internal memos,
classified documents, meeting notes and hundreds of hours of
interviews with most of the key players, including the
president.
As a speaker, Woodward pulls the curtain back on Washington and its leaders to captivate
audiences with stories that are sometimes surprising, at times
shocking, and always fascinating. He blends stories that are both
up to the minute and from the past (to provide historical context).
Woodward speaks as he writes - crisp and concise - and helps people
get behind the spin to understand what's really going on in the
halls of power in an age of 24-hour news, social media, and snarky
politics.
Professionally, Bob Woodward is
currently associate editor for The Washington Post where
he's worked since 1971. He has won nearly every American journalism
award, and the Post won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for his work
with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate
scandal. In addition, Woodward was the main reporter for the
Post's articles on the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks that won the
National Affairs Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
Bob Schieffer of CBS News
said "Woodward has established
himself as the best reporter of our time. He may be the best
reporter of all time." Jill Abramson, the former editor of
The New York Times, wrote in her
review of Fear for The Washington Post, "Woodward is
truth's gold standard." The Weekly Standard called Woodward
"the best pure reporter of his generation, perhaps ever." In 2003,
Al Hunt of The Wall Street
Journal called Woodward "the most celebrated journalist of our
age." In listing the all-time 100 best non-fiction books,
Time magazine has called All the President's Men, by
Bernstein and Woodward, "Perhaps the most influential piece of
journalism in history."
Woodward has co-authored or authored 13 #1 national best-selling
non-fiction books. They are: All the President's Men (1974)
and The Final Days (1976), both Watergate books, co-authored
with Bernstein. The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court
(1979) co-authored with Scott
Armstrong, Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John
Belushi (1984), Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-87
(1987), The Commanders (1991), The Agenda: Inside the
Clinton White House (1994), Shadow: Five Presidents and the
Legacy of Watergate (1999), Bush at War (2002), Plan
of Attack (2004), State of Denial: Bush at War Part III
(2006), Obama's Wars (2010), and Fear: Trump in the White
House (2018). Woodward's other national bestselling books:
The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat (2005),
The Choice (1996), Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the
American Boom (2000), The War Within: A Secret White House
History 2006-2008 (2008), The Price of Politics (2012),
and The Last of the President's Men (2015). Newsweek
magazine has excerpted six of Woodward's books in headline-making
cover stories; "60 Minutes" has done pieces on seven of his books;
three of his books have been made into feature films.
In November 2017, the online
learning portal MasterClass released "Bob Woodward Teaches
Investigative Journalism." In it Woodward reveals the lessons he's
learned during his 45-year career, teaching students what truth
means, how to uncover it, and how to build a story with it.
Woodward was born March 26, 1943
in Illinois. He graduated from
Yale University in 1965 and served five
years as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy before beginning
his journalism career at the Montgomery County Sentinel
(Maryland), where he was a
reporter for one year before joining the Post.
About Carl Bernstein
Few journalists in America's history have had the impact on
their era and their craft as Carl
Bernstein. For forty years, from All the President's
Men to A Woman-In-Charge: The Life of Hillary Clinton, Bernstein's books,
reporting, and commentary have revealed the inner-workings of
government, politics, and the hidden stories of Washington and its leaders.
In the early 1970s, Bernstein and Bob
Woodward broke the Watergate story for The Washington
Post , leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for
modern investigative reporting, for which they and The Post
were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Since then, Bernstein has continued to build on the theme he and
Woodward first explored in the Nixon years - the use and abuse of
power: political, media, financial, cultural and spiritual power.
Renowned as a prose stylist, he has also written a classic
biography of Pope John Paul II, served as the founding editor of
the first major political website, and been a rock critic.
The author of five best-selling books, Bernstein is currently
also at work on several multimedia projects, including a memoir
about growing up at a Washington
newspaper, The Evening Star, during the Kennedy era; and a
dramatic TV series about the United States Congress for HBO. He is
also an on-air contributor for CNN and a contributing editor of
Vanity Fair magazine.
His most recent book was the national bestseller A Woman In
Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham
Clinton, acclaimed as the definitive biography of its
subject, published by Knopf.
With Woodward, Bernstein wrote All the President's Men
(also a movie starring Robert
Redford and Dustin Hoffman),
about their coverage of the Watergate story; and The Final
Days, about the denouement of the Nixon presidency. His next
book, a masterful memoir of his family's experience in the McCarthy
era, is titled Loyalties: A Son's Memoir. He is also the
co-author of the definitive papal biography, His Holiness:
John Paul II and the History of Our
Time, which detailed the Pope's pivotal and often clandestine
role in the fall of communism.
In 1977-78, Bernstein spent a year investigating the CIA's
secret relationship with the American press during the Cold War.
The resulting 25,000-word article for Rolling Stone,
entitled "The CIA and the Media," was the first to examine a
subject long suppressed by both American newspapers and the
intelligence community.
Since his famous essay, "The Triumph of Idiot Culture," a 1992
cover story for The New Republic about increasing
sensationalism, gossip and manufactured controversy as staples of
the American press, he has proved a prescient critic of his own
profession.
A lesser-known part of Bernstein's journalistic career is his
tenure as a rock-critic at The Washington Post while a metro
reporter before Watergate; he continues to write (very)
occasionally about rock and classical music.
Bernstein was born and raised in Washington, DC and began his journalism career
at age 16 as a copyboy for The Washington Evening Star,
becoming a reporter at 19.
He lives in New York with his
wife and is the father of two sons, one a journalist and the other
a rock musician.
About the Boe Forum
Through the Boe Forum on Public Affairs, the Center for Western
Studies has hosted many of the world's most influential leaders.
Past Boe Forum speakers are:
- 66thS. Secretary of
State Condoleeza Rice (2018)
- Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (2017)
- Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia (2016, in memoriam)
- Microsoft Executive Robbie Bach
(2014)
- Governor of Utah and U.S.
Ambassador to China and Singapore
Jon Huntsman (2013)
- Director of Google Ideas Jared
Cohen (2012)
- N. Human Rights High Commissioner Mary
Robinson (2011)
- S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright (2010)
- President of Pakistan Pervez
Musharraf (2009)
- Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor
(2008)
- President and First Lady of Mexico Vicente Fox and Marta Fox (2007)
- Vice President Al Gore
(2007)
- Presidential Envoy to Iraq L. Paul
Bremer (2006)
- Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani (2004)
- Susan Dentzer together with
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (2003)
- Jordan's Queen Noor (2001)
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999)
- First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush (1998)
- Prime Minister of Great Britain John
Major (1998)
- President of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev
(1996)
- President George H. W. Bush
(1995)
- Colin Powell (1995)
About Augustana
University
Founded in 1860, Augustana
University in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, is a selective, comprehensive university affiliated
with the Lutheran Church. With more than 100 majors, minors and
pre-professional programs for undergraduates, along with graduate
degree and continuing education programs, Augustana is committed to enriching lives and
fostering development by combining a foundation in the liberal arts
with professional skill and advanced study.
Nationally recognized for academic excellence, graduate outcomes
and affordability by U.S. News & World Report,
Forbes and the Princeton Review, Augustana serves more than 2,100 students from 29
states and 36 countries. Most are part of our residential community
and call our 100-acre campus home. Our graduate and continuing
education programs serve students online and during times that are
convenient for adult learners.
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