NPC Update-1 Podcast

The National Press Club’s 22nd annual photo exhibit is on display in the Club’s lobby and virtually at https://technewslit.com/npc/photoex2021/index.html. In this edition of Update-1, broadcast/podcast co-vice chair Adam Konowe spoke with photo team co-chair Alan Kotok about the exhibit in a time of ongoing pandemic and social unrest. Konowe also interviewed two photographers whose work is part of this year’s exhibit. Arizona-based new member Ben Sarao submitted four panoramic nature images, while the work of long-standing member Aretha Williams from Washington D.C. mostly benefitted from painstaking retouching, colorizing and other editing techniques.

Russian independent journalists have faced increased government pressure ahead of the country's parliamentary election this Sunday. In some cases that has meant Russian police raiding their homes and seizing cellphones, laptops and tablets. This is widely seen as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to cement his rule before the 2024 presidential election. In this edition of Update-1, Broadcast Podcast Committee member Irv Chapman talks with Michael Smeltzer, a Russian analyst at Freedom House, about the state of press freedom in Russia. They discuss how Putin quickly gained control of the broadcast media within a few years after becoming president and what the impact has been of the Russian government designating some news organizations and journalists as "foreign agents" leading up to this month's election. 

How reliable was the intelligence the U.S. received as it planned its withdrawal from Afghanistan? And what is the future of Afghanistan after the U.S. and its allies pull out? Those are some of the issues covered in this edition of Update-1.

Increasing audiences for network news, cable television news, online radio and podcasts, a revenue decline for all-news radio stations and a circulation decline for newspapers. Those are just a few of the findings in this year's State of the Media report by the Pew Research Center. In this edition of Update-1, NPC Board of Governors member Debra Silimeo talks to Katerina Eva Matsa, the associate director of journalism research at Pew, about the key findings in the 2021 report.  Among the issues they discuss are the role that TV plays in news coverage, the change that occurred in newspaper revenue and an employment shift within the journalism industry.

"People want and need our journalism more than ever." That's how the President and CEO of News Media Alliance, David Chavern, describes the current state of the newspaper industry. The NMA previously was the Newspaper Association of America. It's the news industry's largest trade organization, representing about 2,000 publishers in the United States. In an Update-1 interview with Broadcast Podcast member Gemma Puglisi, Chavern talks about the record number of readers last year as local news became vitally important during the coronavirus pandemic. He also discusses how digital editions are allowing newspapers to reach subscribers well beyond their geographic boundaries, and explains the challenges of monetization and distribution. 

The International Federation of Journalists says 65 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide last year while doing their jobs. The killings occurred in 16 different countries during targeted attacks, bomb attacks and crossfire incidents. In this edition of Update-1, Broadcast Podcast team member Lincoln Smith talks with IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger about the ongoing global challenges to press freedom. Bellanger discusses the deaths and imprisonment of journalists in Asia, Africa and Europe, summarizes the IFJ mission, and compares and contrasts the current-day freedom of the press with that of 50 years ago.

For the first time in National Press Club history, the leadership team is all-female, with President Lisa Nicole Matthews, Vice President Jen Judson, Secretary Gillian Rich, Treasurer Eileen O'Reilly, and Membership Secretary Emily Wilkins at the helm. In this episode of Update-1, NPC Broadcast Podcast Team member Shannon Fisher speaks with USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, a longtime NPC member who has served as president of the White House Correspondents Association and the Gridiron Club. This conversation marks the milestone of the National Press Club’s historic 2021 leadership team by examining the impact of female leadership in the field of journalism.

The National Press Club has always stood for press freedom, and this edition of Update-1 features a couple of journalists who have been honored by the club in the past but are struggling for their freedom. Maria Ressa and Austin Tice were among the journalists remembered during events on World Press Freedom Day. Ressa, the founder of the digital news site Rappler, delivered a powerful statement about the need for press freedom, while Tice's 11-year old niece talked about some of the memories she has of her uncle, who has been held in Syria for more than 8 years. Both Ressa and Tice have received the club's Freedom on the Press Award, named after former NPC President John Aubuchon.

On Monday, May 3, The National Press Club will host a virtual event for World Press Freedom Day highlighting the cases of three journalists in need: Austin Tice, Maria Ressa and Emilio Gutierrez-Soto, all past recipients of the Club’s John Aubuchon Award for press freedom. In this episode of Update-1, Press Freedom Team chair John Donnelly speaks to Broadcast/Podcast Team co-vice chair Adam Konowe about the upcoming event and the plight of these and other journalists. He also addresses the state of press freedom more broadly, including specific incidents at home and abroad that demonstrate the danger posed not merely to journalists, but to truth and civic society at large.

Southern Poverty Law Center President and CEO Margaret Huang says the U.S. is facing a crisis of "far-right extremism and deep threats to our democracy." This episode of Update-1 features part of NPC President Lisa Matthews' recent interview with Huang at a Headliners event. The issues they discuss include the increase in domestic terror attacks, why there has been a surge in white nationalist groups and how parents should talk to their children about rejecting hate.

In January, Lisa Matthews, an Associated Press assignment manager for video, was inaugurated as the 114th president of the National Press Club. In this edition of Update-1, Matthews talks with Broadcast/Podcast co-vice chair Adam Konowe about the Club’s pandemic-driven challenges and opportunities during the past year, as well as what’s to come. She also addresses the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion as the Club’s third black president and one of only 14 women to hold the position in more than a century.

The number of journalists killed on the job has been on the rise as reprisal murders more than doubled last year worldwide. In this edition of Update-1, Broadcast Podcast team member Tom Young talks to NPC member and Committee to Protect Journalists' advocacy director Dr. Courtney Radsch about the most dangerous countries for journalists, and why 80 percent of the people responsible for their murders never face charges. Dr. Radsch also discusses the alarming rate at which journalists have been jailed in retaliation for their work.

Veteran aviation editor, pilot and flight instructor Joy Finnegan has seen and experienced a lot, from the cockpit to the editor’s chair. But, arguably, nothing in her extensive training could have totally prepared her for the events of the past 18 months. In this edition of Update-1, she speaks with NPC Broadcast/Podcast Co-vice Chair Adam Konowe about the challenges of editing three print and digital trade media titles, covering travel-related events from the Boeing 737 MAX grounding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the prospect for the aviation industry to recover as vaccines become more plentiful.

Millions of people heard the late Larry King hosting either his national call-in radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System or his nightly interview show on CNN. But what was it like working with him? This edition of the Update-1 podcast features Pat Piper, King's producer for 10 years at Mutual, speaking to the Broadcast Podcast Committee earlier this month. In an interview with committee chairman Mark Hamrick, Piper discusses what King was like off the air and talks about his memories of taking the show on the road before live audiences all across the country. Piper also was a ghostwriter on four of King's books. King died last month at the age of 87.

The advocacy director for the Committee to Protect Journalist, Dr. Courtney Radsch, believes the Biden administration has the opportunity to restore U.S. press freedom leadership after what she says has been an abdication of that role over the past several years. In this edition of Update-1, she talks to Broadcast Podcast team member Tom Young about what steps CPJ would like President Biden to take. Dr. Radsch says they include the president delivering a major speech recognizing the role journalists play in providing the public with accurate information "at a time when it has never been more important." CPJ also wants the U.S. to make press freedom a foreign policy priority and appoint a press freedom envoy.