Tim Russert, Washington bureau chief of NBC News, will deliver the 25th anniversary Red Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame on April 14 (Monday).
Russert’s lecture, “When Politicians Meet the Press,” will begin at 8p.m. in Washington Hall. Tickets are required for the talk, and they are available without charge at the LaFortune Student Center ticket office.
Moderator of “Meet the Press” since 1991 and the network’s chief political analyst, Russert also serves as senior vice president of NBC News and as anchor of “The Tim Russert Show,” a weekly program on MSNBC. He joined NBC in 1984.
Russert received an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame in 2002, when he also delivered the commencement address. He’s the author of two best-selling books: “Big Russ and Me” (2004) and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” (2006).
Named the most influential Washington journalist in magazine rankings, Russert is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Emmy, and he’s a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. He holds 43 honorary doctorates from American colleges and universities.
The Red Smith Lecture in Journalism was established in 1983 to honor the sportswriter and 1927 Notre Dame graduate Walter W. “Red” Smith, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1976. At the time of his death in 1982, Smith was a columnist for The New York Times.
The Smith Lectureship seeks to foster good writing and to recognize high journalistic standards. It is administered by the John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy at Notre Dame. Previous Red Smith Lecturers include James Reston, James J. Kilpatrick, Art Buchwald, Charles Kuralt, Judy Woodruff, Ted Koppel, Jim Lehrer and Frank McCourt.
The series is made possible by a gift from John and Susan McMeel and Universal Press Syndicate. A South Bend native and 1957 Notre Dame graduate, John McMeel is chairman of Andrews McMeel Universal, the parent company of Universal Press Syndicate. He’s a member of both the advisory council for Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and the advisory committee of the Gallivan Program.
Universal Press Syndicate, based in Kansas City, will publish Russert’s lecture and distribute it to journalists, educators and students.
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Contact:* Robert Schmuhl, Gallivan Program in Journalism, 574-631-5128, rschmuhl@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 09, 2008.