The People, the Presidency and the Press

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Presented by The Dallas Morning News in collaboration with the George Bush Presidential Center, LBJ Presidential Library, and host, the George W. Bush Presidential Center
George W. Bush Presidential Center

The inherent tension between presidents and the people who elect them has produced some of the last century's most important journalism, scholarship and art. The two-day Pulitzer Prize Centennial marquee event in Dallas this summer, "The People, the Presidency and the Press," will showcase, examine and discuss some of the best of that work.

The goal of the symposium is to enrich conversation around the values embodied by the Pulitzer Prizes, especially as they relate to the U.S. presidency, and to deepen the public discourse about the value of journalism and the humanities to our democracy. It will celebrate past achievements and seek to inspire new audiences as the Pulitzer Prizes embark on the next 100 years.

The Dallas event is a unique collaboration between the Pulitzer Board, The Dallas Morning News and the three presidential libraries in Texas, the George W. Bush, the George H.W. Bush and the Lyndon B. Johnson. It will be hosted June 2-3 by the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the SMU campus.

Among the topics to be discussed by Pulitzer Prize winners and administration officials:

  • Presidential Biographies: The Challenges Then and Now
  • The Presidency: Coverage in the Digital Age
  • The Right to Know versus the Responsibility to Protect
  • Presidents and Poverty: The Fight that Never Ends
  • The Politics of Polarization: Can Democracy Survive?

These panels will be complemented by excerpts from the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas performed and produced by the Dallas Theater Center.

  • Abe Lincoln in Illinois by Robert E. Sherwood, 1939
  • Of Thee I Sing by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin, 1932
  • Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2016

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographers Jon Meacham, Annette Gordon-Reed and Ron Chernow.
  • Journalists Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor of The Associated Press; The Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron; The Washington Post columnist Gene Robinson; former The New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson; former The Washington Post editor Len Downie; Bret Stephens, columnist and deputy editorial page editor, The Wall Street Journal; Olivier Knox, chief Washington correspondent for Yahoo.news
  • Administration officials Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Leon Panetta (schedule permitting), Kevin Sullivan, Mike McCurry and Gen. Michael Hayden.

  • Scholars Steve Coll of Columbia University, Danielle Allen of Harvard University and Nolan McCarty of Princeton University.

 

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