Filippo Trevisan moderated a panel on the “State of the Nation for People with Disabilities” during the North American School of Internet Governance, which was held last week at AU and co-sponsored – among others – by the Internet Governance Lab and the Institute on Disability and Public Policy.
Filippo also organized an online workshop titled “Raise Your Voice! Inclusive Leadership and Communication for Advocacy” in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). This is part of a series of online events for the Youth Disability Advocacy and Research project for which Filippo is co-investigator.
John C. Watson was interviewed by New York Times reporter Lydia DePillis about domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, “the Unabomber,” who recently died of apparent suicide in a federal prison. Watson criticized as unethical the decision by The New York Times and Washington Post in 1995 to publish Kaczynski’s homicidal manifesto at the behest of federal law enforcement officials. Watson proposed other ethical options that would have avoided making journalists partners with government law enforcers, but would have led to Kaczynski’s arrest just as the unethical choice did.
Watson was also interviewed this week by The Daily Beast reporter Noah Kirsch about ethical issues implicit in an arrangement between a mayor and a rich donor. The mayor’s communication specialist, without disclosing any ties to the mayor or donor, would write articles that depicted the donor in a favorable light. Afterward, the donor made a substantial financial donation to the mayor. Watson identified ethical failures based on a lack of transparency and at least one harmful conflict of interest.
Earlier this week our long-term journalism colleague, Paul Albergo, was honored with the 2023 Distinguished Service Award by the DC Society of Professional Journalists. Even those of us in attendance -- Chris Lawrence, Chris Halsne, Terry Bryant and Amy Eisman -- were not aware of the groundbreaking changes he brought to the former BNA and now Bloomberg Industry Group in support of DEI and emerging journalists. Paul, now retired from Bloomberg, is a beloved adjunct faculty member who loves teaching and mentoring (and hiring) our students. His remarks were humble, honest and funny. Congrats to Paul!
Kurt Braddock provided comments related to the risk for violence in light of former President Trump's indictment. His comments to Clarin (an Argentinian outlet with the second-largest circulation in the Spanish-speaking world) voice concern about small-scale violence in support of the former President.
C-SPAN has developed a 14-part lesson plan of video clips, drawn from Joe Campbell's "last lecture" presentation that was taped at the end of Spring semester and aired several times last month on C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3.
Jane Hall was interviewed on Bloomberg Radio live about how the news media should cover Donald Trump arraignment.
Patricia Aufderheide participated in the DC/DOX panel, "AI for Docs (and Beyond!)," on June 16. She also hosted a conversation with the filmmakers of the acclaimed documentary Kim's Video.
With Aram Sinnreich and PhD student Thomas Struett, Patricia Aufderheide presented (virtually) a paper at the conference "Mastodon: Research Symposium," at Warwick University, UK. The paper is "Can This Platform Be Saved? What History Can Tell Us about the Coming Governance Issues on Mastodon."
