February 22, 1973

A discussion on “The Media and the 1972 Elections: A Basis for Confidence?”—the first in a series of media lectures sponsored by the American Culture Committee on Poynter Fellows—featured five prominent journalists and a former congressman. Moderated by Elie Abel, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, the panel included: Shana Alexander ’45, contributing editor of Newsweek; Clifton Daniel, associate editor of The New York Times; Allard Lowenstein, former congresssman from New York and president of Americans for Democratic Action; Sanford Socolow, deputy director of CBS News; and Nicholas von Hoffman, journalist with The Washington Post.

The sponsors of the Poynter Program were Marion Knauss Poynter ’46 and her husband, Nelson Poynter, the publisher of The St. Petersburg Times and co-founder of The Congressional Quarterly. In 1975 they founded the Modern Media Institute, a school and center for the study of journalism in St. Petersburg. The institute became The Poynter Institute of Media Studies in 1984.