#HigherEducation #CarlBernstein to share experience in investigative journalism as IU Poynter Chair

Thanks Carl for always putting a smile on Peachy's face when she sees you walking down the street and thanks Robert Caravaggi for great Swifty's memories

UP WITH CARL BERNSTEIN SAYS WHOM YOU KNOW!!!

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Fifty years after breaking the Watergate story, setting the standard for modern investigative reporting, Carl Bernstein will serve as the 2024-25 Indiana University Poynter Chair and Visiting Roy W. Howard Journalist-in-Residence.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Carl Bernstein will serve as the 2024-25 Indiana University Poynter Chair and Visiting Roy W. Howard Journalist-in-Residence. Photo courtesy of Sam Levitan Photography

The best-selling author will visit campus for public discussions throughout the year, beginning with a panel discussion, “Journalism in a Polarized Election Landscape,” at 6 p.m. Oct. 8 in Presidents Hall inside Franklin Hall on the IU Bloomington campus. Students will have opportunities to meet Bernstein during classes and at public engagements on each of his four visits.

In November, Bernstein will return for a public conversation about the election outcome and its implications for journalism and for the public. Details about that visit and events during the spring semester will be released later.

“Particularly at this dynamic moment for public-facing media and institutions, we are truly fortunate for this special, yearlong opportunity to interact with one of America’s most legendary journalists and public figures,” said Rahul Shrivastav, executive vice president and provost at IU Bloomington. “I am excited for how this set of unique learning experiences, framed around the upcoming national elections, will bring insights on today’s communities and institutions and the ethical responsibilities we share.”

Community members will have opportunities to learn directly from Bernstein about his career spanning six decades, including the period from 1972 to 1974, when he and fellow journalist Bob Woodward reported on the Watergate scandal at The Washington Post. President Richard Nixon resigned in light of the reporting that he and his administration were directly involved in a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters as part of a vast White House campaign of political espionage and sabotage to undermine the 1972 presidential election.

Bernstein’s appointment marks a return to the roots of the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions, created as a reaction to changes in Americans’ perceptions of government after the Watergate scandal. The center was established through a gift from IU alumnus Nelson Poynter, longtime editor of the St. Petersburg Times and chair of the board at Times Publishing Company.

The Poynter Center is dedicated to investigating the crossroads between ethics, the media and public institutions. It strives to take an interdisciplinary approach to research, teaching and critical inquiry, and to serve as a place where students, faculty and the community can explore the issues of today while looking toward the future.

Dean of The Media School at IU Bloomington, David Tolchinsky, left, speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Carl Bernstein during the Granfalloon Festival on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Photo by James Brosher, Indiana University

“We are honored to invite one of America’s preeminent investigative journalists to share insights with our students who represent the future of journalism,” said David Tolchinsky, dean of The Media School at IU Bloomington. “Bernstein was in his 20s when he and Woodward investigated a high-stakes political scandal, and his story will inspire students while demonstrating the important relationship between ethics, the media and our American institutions.”

The past Poynter chairs are also award-winning journalists: scholar, author and legal journalist Linda Greenhouse; foreign policy journalist and former New York Times editorial board member Carol Giacomo; and New York Times foreign correspondent Roger Cohen.

The center is led by a board chaired by foreign correspondent Elaine Monaghan, a professor of practice at The Media School and Reuters journalist. Indermohan Virk is executive director of both the Poynter Center and the Patten Lecture Series at IU Bloomington.