Reminder note to media covering this event: A reception starting at 6 p.m. in the Woodward Center offers opportunities for brief interviews with the panelists. Additional background on the panel is included in this version of the release. Please call 413-454-8125 to confirm your attendance, if possible, or if we can help you with special arrangements before or during the event.
November 9, 2008
WESTFIELD, Mass.— Some of the country’s most respected political analysts will gather at Westfield State College to explain the results of the presidential election from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, in the college’s Woodward Center. The event is part of the Westfield State College Foundation Speaker Series, which is free and open to the public.
The featured speaker will be Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, presidential historian, and NBC news analyst. She is known as both an expert on the White House and the first woman journalist to enter the Red Sox locker room.
A panel to react to Goodwin and review the election will include:
- Rick Kaplan, producer of the CBS Evening News, winner of 47 Emmy awards and former president of CNN and MSNBC
- Bill Marimow, Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former vice president of National Public Radio.
- Terry McAuliffe, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and national chair for Hilary Clinton for President.
- Emily Rooney, host and executive editor of Greater Boston, WGBH's local issues and public affairs program.
A public reception for the speakers will start at 6 p.m. in the Woodward Center. Parking is available in nearby college parking lots.
“It would be hard to find a more knowledgeable combination of political analysts to discuss the election,” said Westfield State College President Evan S. Dobelle. “Doris Kearns Goodwin’s perspective, as one of this country’s best presidential historians, should be extremely insightful. It is also a rare opportunity to talk personally with Terry McAuliffe, who is at the center of the action in presidential campaigns, and with top-level journalists such as Bill Marimow, Rick Kaplan and Emily Rooney.”
Goodwin worked as an assistant to President Lyndon Johnson during his last year in the White House, and later assisted Johnson on the preparation of his memoirs.
Her writings include Lyndon Johnson and The American Dream, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II (a bestseller that earned the Pulitzer Prize), Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
Goodwin was the winner of the Charles Frankel Prize given by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Sara Josepha Hale Medal, awarded to an author living in New England who is pre-eminent in literature or the arts.
She has been a consultant and interviewed extensively for PBS documentaries on LBJ, the Kennedy family, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and Ken Burn’ The History of Baseball.
She also has taught about the American presidency at Harvard University, where she earned her Ph.D. She currently lives in Concord, Mass., with her husband, Richard Goodwin, and advisor and speechwriter for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and to Sen. Robert Kennedy.
In addition to her books, Goodwin has written many articles on politics and baseball for national publications. She lectures around the world.
Additional background on panelists
Rick Kaplan, a multiple award-winning news producer and executive whose career in broadcast journalism spans more than 35 years, is the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
Most recently, Kaplan was president of MSNBC (2004-06), during which time the ratings for virtually every hour of the program day experienced double-digit growth. He developed new programs and worked to improve existing ones. He also produced major news events, including Election Night 2004.
He was a senior vice president for ABC News (2003-04), responsible for the division’s hard news programs - including World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline and This Week, among others - as well as the division's political unit. Kaplan also oversaw the design and construction of ABC's new newsroom and primary studio. Before moving into that position, he coordinated ABC News' control room production and news coverage of the Iraq War.
Terry McAuliffe is a longtime Democratic leader, successful business executive and best-selling author. McAuliffe has been deeply active in the Democratic Party for more than 25 years.
McAuliffe has served in several senior political roles, beginning as finance chairman of the Carter-Mondale reelection committee, national finance chairman of the Gephardt for President Committee, and national finance chairman and national co-chairman of the Clinton-Gore reelection.
From 2001 to 2005, McAuliffe served as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Under his tenure and for the first time in Democratic Party history, the DNC was debt free and succeeded in raising more funds than the RNC. The DNC raised over $535 million, shattering all previous records. Most recently, McAuliffe served as chairman of the Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign.
McAuliffe has\ authored a New York Times and Washington Post best seller titled What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists and Other Wild Animals. The book offers a candid and humorous view of the inner workings of the American political landscape.
Bill Marimow became editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in November 2006. Prior to rejoining The Inquirer, he worked at National Public Radio, serving as managing editor, vice president for news, and ombudsman. He was editor of The Baltimore Sun for four years, beginning in 2000, and managing editor for six years before that. During his years at The Sun, the newspaper received Pulitzer Prizes for feature writing, investigative reporting and beat reporting.
As a reporter, Marimow and a partner wrote the stories that received the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished public service in 1978. Those stories revealed how Philadelphia police detectives were beating suspects and witnesses in order to secure confessions. In 1985, Marimow received a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for stories describing how a small group of K-9 officers in Philadelphia were ordering their police dogs to attack innocent, unarmed men and women.
At NPR, he was part of a team that produced an investigative story in 2004 on how guards in New Jersey state prisons were assaulting detainees and using their dogs to attack them. The story received a Robert F. Kennedy award for radio reporting and an award for Investigative Reporters & Editors for the best investigative reporting in radio in the nation.
Emily Rooney has been host and executive editor of Greater Boston, local issues and public affairs program on WGBH, since its debut in January 1997.
Rooney came to WGBH from the Fox Network in New York, where she oversaw political coverage, including the 1996 presidential primaries, national conventions, and presidential election. When she joined Fox in 1994, she was senior producer of Fox news productions, developing news programming for Fox and producing specials. Prior to Fox, Rooney was executive producer of ABC 's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
Rooney worked at WCVB-TV in Boston for 15 years, from 1979–93, as news director since 1990 and as assistant news director before that. Throughout her career, Rooney has been a frequent participant in journalism roundtables, sought after for her views on ethics and standards in broadcast journalism and advocacy of media accountability.
She is the daughter of commentator Andy Rooney of CBS News.
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