Media Tue Oct 05 2010

Join Us for Remy Bumppo and Chicago Public Media's Journalism Panel: "Is the Truth Front Page News?"

By Ramsin Canon

On Monday, Oct. 11, I'll be joining the Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell, Chicago Reporter publisher Alden Loury, and Medill School professor Timothy McNulty for a panel moderated by WBEZ's Richard Steele on the topic "Is The Truth Front Page News?" hosted by Remy Bumppo Theater and Chicago Public Media.

The Theater is currently staging Tom Stoppard's play Night And Day.

The panel is open to the public. See press release below for details. Hope to see you there! As the "new media" representative, I will be wearing an ironic t-shirt and smudgy jeans and say "whatever" a lot.

REMY BUMPPO THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS "IS THE TRUTH FRONT PAGE NEWS?" JOURNALIST PANEL OCT. 11
Participants include Richard Steele, Ramsin Canon, Alden K. Loury,
Timothy J. McNulty and Mary Mitchell

CHICAGO--Remy Bumppo Theatre Company hosts a panel discussion entitled "Is the Truth Front Page News?" on Monday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Lending their expertise to the discussion are journalists Ramsin Canon, political editor and co-founder of Gaper's Block, Alden K. Loury, publisher of The Chicago Reporter, Mary Mitchell, columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times and Timothy J. McNulty co-director of Medill School of Journalism's National Security Initiative. The panel discussion will be moderated by Richard Steele, host of WBEZ's "Eight Forty-Eight." The "Is the Truth Front Page News?" panel event is free and open to the public, and reservations are recommended. The event will be recorded for WBEZ's Chicago Amplified archives. Seating is general admission, and doors open at 6:30 p.m. For reservations and more information visit www.remybumppo.org or call 773-244-8119.

Journalistic efforts have never been more important. In the wake of the Blagojevich trials, the BP oil spill and the upcoming election season, those journalists committed to going beyond the sound bite and the official word can shed light on our society like no one else. But in this age of shrinking media giants, growing niche outlets, and news breaking bloggers, where should consumers turn to get their news? A panel of prominent local journalists will share their opinions and experiences on what is involved in reporting a major news story, and the pros and cons of news organizations large and small. Performance excerpts from Remy Bumppo's production of Night and Day, highlighting the risks and responsibilities of foreign correspondents, will serve as a springboard to the panel conversation. An audience question and answer session and lobby reception round out the evening.

Participant Bios:
Richard Steele (moderator) is host Monday, Wednesday and Friday of WBEZ's award-winning weekday news magazine "Eight Forty-Eight." Since joining the staff of WBEZ in 1987, he has hosted a number of former programs on WBEZ, including "The Richard Steele Show," "A Richard Steele Friday," "Page Two" and "Performance Space."

Prior to joining WBEZ, Richard hosted many successful Chicago radio programs, including "The Morning Connection" on WVAZ 102.7 FM and "Late Night" a talk and music forum on
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WGCI 1390 AM. He has hosted popular shows on WBMX 102.7 and WVON 1450 AM, and became "The Real Steele" on WGRT (950 AM) AM, where he progressed to program director shortly after the station's transition to WJPC 950 AM.

Richard is vice president and board member of the local American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and a board member of the Chicago Association of Black Journalists. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Richard resides in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, Jera. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Ramsin Canon (panelist) is a founding member of GapersBlock.com and currently their political editor. Born in West Rogers Park and raised all along Devon Avenue, he has worked as a union organizer and political consultant in and around Chicago for nearly a decade. Ramsin is a co-founder of Make Magazine, a Chicago literary magazine, and serves as President of Make Literary Productions. He is an occasional contributor to WBEZ's "Eight Forty-Eight" news magazine.

Alden K. Loury (panelist) is the editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter. He joined the magazine in 1999 as a reporter and won local and national awards for his work examining the effectiveness of community policing and projects documenting racial disparities in drug sentencing, jury selection and jury verdicts. As senior editor from 2002 to 2007, Loury led more than 50 investigative projects examining the impact of race and poverty in lottery ticket sales, retail leakage in black neighborhoods, residential development surrounding the sites of demolished public housing and home mortgage lending, among others. He became editor and publisher in 2008.

Prior to joining the Reporter, Loury covered government and social services for three years at The News-Gazette in Champaign. He also spent a year as a radio anchor and reporter for WDWS-AM in Champaign. Loury is a 1997 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A Chicago native, Loury grew up in the LeClaire Courts public housing development and the South Side's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

Timothy J. McNulty (panelist) is a veteran journalist whose career in national and foreign news coverage includes roles as both a war correspondent and White House correspondent. As the national and later foreign editor of the Chicago Tribune, he helped direct the newspaper's coverage of the September 11 tragedy, the American strike into Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq.

McNulty has traveled to all 50 states and reported from more than 65 countries. Following the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with China, he was one of the first eight American journalists allowed to live in Beijing. Later, as the Middle East correspondent, he worked in Beirut and Jerusalem during a time of great conflict in the region.

Before returning to Chicago, McNulty was national affairs correspondent covering social issues and special reporting projects in the Tribune's Washington Bureau. He was White House correspondent in President Ronald Reagan's last year in office and for the full term of President George H.W. Bush. McNulty won the White House Correspondents Association award for journalistic excellence for a series on the impact of satellite television on presidential decision-making and diplomacy.

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McNulty is on the faculty at Northwestern University and lectures on national security topics and foreign correspondence. He also teaches literary non-fiction writing in the Graham School at the University of Chicago.

Mary Mitchell (panelist) is an editorial board member and columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. She joined the Chicago Sun-Times as an education writer in 1991, and has covered City Hall and the U.S. Federal Courts. As a columnist, Mitchell writes about a variety of topics, but her work often rallies African-American readers to empower their communities by promoting education and by protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, including children and the elderly.

As a news reporter, Mitchell exposed the sexual abuse of women in Illinois prisons. Those articles prompted the Illinois General Assembly to strengthen laws prohibiting prison guards from engaging in sex with inmates. Most recently, Mitchell wrote a series of columns that challenged the questionable practices of Utah adoption agencies. Those columns were credited with leading to the return of an African-American baby to her birth mother. Additionally, Illinois legislators strengthened the state's adoption laws to better protect birth mothers and their children from adoption fraud.

Mitchell earned a B.A. in Journalism at Columbia College Chicago. She is a recipient of numerous journalism awards, including the prestigious Award of Excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists; the Studs Terkel Award from the Community Media Workshop; the Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headliner Club; the Phenomenal Woman Award-Media from the Expo for Today's Black Woman; and the Humanitarian Award from the 100 Black Men of Chicago. In 2004, Crain's Chicago Business honored Mitchell as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the city.

Mitchell is also a frequent guest panelist on WTTW's "Week In Review," and has appeared on national news programs, including, "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "Meet the Press."

About Night and Day
Set in a fictional African country that feels like a 1950s Hollywood romantic adventure, competing British war correspondents descend on the household of an expatriate and his wife, attempting to crack open a story on the country's erupting civil war. Stoppard, with his usual comic seriousness, both attacks the triviality of the free press for exposing the personal lives of public figures to sell papers, and elevates its importance in uncovering political truth. Night and Day runs Sept. 22 through Oct. 31 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. For tickets and more information visit www.remybumppo.org or call the box office at 773-404-7336 (773-40-GREEN).

Remy Bumppo's "Is the Truth Front Page News?" journalist panel and production of Night and Day are supported in part by WBEZ 91.5 FM and Tribune Media Group.

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REMY BUMPPO THEATRE COMPANY delights and engages audiences with the emotional and ethical complexities of society through the provocative power of great theatrical language.