Join us for a panel discussion with top journalists

A panel discussion
Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 7:00pm
Suggested donation: $10
Registration required, Zoom link sent via email

A conversation with new and veteran journalists on the evolving nature of journalism. Part storytelling, part conversation on how the culture of “fake news” has affected journalism today, panelists will discuss how they see the path to moving forward with a new administration vowing truth and transparency, and a distrustful population who recently painted “murder the media” on the United States Capitol walls. A peek behind the curtain of the choices journalists make daily and how it differs, or doesn’t, from the choices veteran journalists had to make. Rex Smith, editor-at-large at the Times Union of Albany, will act as moderator for the evening.

Presented by Adirondack Center for Writing and Adirondack Explorer. 

Panelists

Tom Curley retired in 2012 as president and chief executive officer of the Associated Press. He joined AP in 2003 after working 31 years at Gannett. He is Chairman of the Adirondack Explorer Board of Directors. He also serves on the board of the Adirondack Council and is a member of the press committee of the International Olympic Committee.  Part-time resident of Tupper Lake. He is an avid canoeist, hiker and bicyclist.

Adam Federman, a Saranac Lake native and Adirondack Explorer board member, is a journalist whose work has appeared in Politico Magazine, The Washington Post, Wired, Adirondack Explorer and other publications. He is a reporting fellow with Type Investigations and the author of Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray. 

Charlotte Hall, is the retired editor of the Orlando Sentinel and former managing editor of Newsday. She is former chair and a current board member with the Adirondack Explorer. She served as chair of the Board of Trustees of Kalamazoo College and as treasurer of the board of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, now part of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit publication. Former president of the American Society of News Editors and the society’s foundation. Three-time Pulitzer juror.

Brandon Loomis, is editor of the Adirondack Explorer. Brandon joined the Adirondack Explorer in July 2018. Prior to that he was a Senior Environmental Reporter for The Arizona Republic (2012-2018) and Public Lands/Environment/Energy Reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune from 2007-2012. He also worked as a reporter at the Anchorage Daily News and as City Editor at the Juneau Empire. Brandon is an award-winning environmental reporter, including on a Pulitzer Prize winning team.

Brian Mann grew up in Alaska, where he fell in love with public radio. In 1999, Brian moved to the Adirondacks and helped launch North Country Public Radio’s news bureau at Paul Smiths College. Brian lives in the Adirondacks, is a reporter for NPR, and writes regularly for regional magazines, including Adirondack Life and the Adirondack Explorer.

Rex Smith, is the Editor-at-large at the Times Union of Albany after retiring as the newspaper’s editor and vice president last spring. He is a former national correspondent and bureau chief for Newsday, and previously edited community newspapers in Troy, N.Y., and Rensselaer, Ind. Rex hosts a nationally syndicated weekly program, “The Media Project,” on Northeast Public Radio. He is a member of the Adirondack Explorer board and is currently chair of the New York News Publishers Association and vice-president of the state Fair Trial/Free Press Conference, vice-chair of the Columbia Journalism Alumni Board. He has been a national leader in efforts to build a news literacy curriculum in high schools and colleges.

Bridget Williams, is Chief Commercial Officer and Senior Vice President Digital Publishing for Hearst Newspapers. Before joining Hearst, Williams served as the chief operating officer of Food52. She has also held positions at Business Insider as senior vice president for business and audience development, and as digital advertising director at The New York Times. She is a member of the Adirondack Explorer Board of Directors.

Robert Worth is a journalist with the New York Times Magazine, specializing in the Middle East. Previously he spent 14 years as a reporter for the New York Times, including postings as a foreign correspondent based in Baghdad and Beirut. He served as the Times Beirut Bureau Chief 2007-2011. Wrote a book about the Arab uprisings of 2011 and their legacy, “A Rage for Order,” published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in 2016. Born and raised in Manhattan, Robert has spent summers since childhood in a family house in Keene Valley, hiking the High Peaks and fly-fishing in the Ausable River. He is a member of the Adirondack Explorer Board of Directors.