This Just In...

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge OF Free Speech

Skokie, Illinois in the mid-to-late 1970s was a northwest Chicago suburb where nothing much ever seemed to happen. It was fairly typical in most regards with small frame homes in neat little rows on well kept streets.  Good jobs, good schools, and by some stretch of thought, fairly vanilla.

Then the neo-Nazis announced they were coming to town.

Skokie, Illinois to Frank Collin and his neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America was “Jew Town.”  In fact, some estimates suggest one-in-six of all Skokie citizens were Holocaust camp survivors or related to survivors. They were raising families in a suburb that suddenly found itself catapulted into national headlines and a free speech constitutional debate that it never sought.

Skokie is one of those American stories that rage on during its time, then it begins to slip quietly deeper into the news background and ultimately, it threatens to disappear altogether.  Monday evening the Skokie story and several other thought-provoking glimpses into free speech in America will be showcased to a national HBO audience.

“Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech” is the newest documentary from Oscar nominee Liz Garbus, the creator of nearly twenty films and recipient of many international and national documentary awards.  “Shouting Fire” premieres at 9pm ET Monday.  The Oscar nomination was received for her 1998 film, “The Farm, Angola, USA”.

“Shouting Fire” is unique on several levels.  At 74 minutes, there is significant time for Garbus to explore free speech history at great length, and discuss the challenges posed to free speech in a post 9/11 world.   That “Congress shall make no law” that abridges free speech is explained from historical viewpoints by numerous scholars, and in real terms by people whose lives were, in some cases, nearly ruined when they were singled out

There are nationally prominent stories about a University of Colorado professor who was fired for his controversial writings and a Lebanese-American public school principal in New York who lost her job after news media reports portrayed her as a terrorist sympathizer in a post 9/11 world.

There also are somewhat less prominent stories.  An elderly couple was among some 1,800 who were detained and arrested for marching in New York’s streets during the 2004 Republican convention.  A California high school youth was suspended from school and questioned by police after he wore a shirt to school that said, “Homosexuality is Shameful.”

Throughout the documentary viewers will hear from some of the biggest names in legal land.  The prominent First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, former Clinton special prosecutor Kenneth Starr and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard H. Posner, along with onetime Marxist sympathizer turned conservative David Horowitz figure prominently.

But none is more prominent, and none makes a greater overall contribution to “Shouting Fire” than does Liz Garbus’ own father, Martin Garbus.  His own story is the fabric of legal legends, not the television lawyers show kind but the real kind. 

During a turbulent and high profile career Garbus has been at the center of some of the land’s most important cases, including the Pentagon Papers.  His clients list, an eclectic group, in part reads like a Who’s Who of Recent World History … including Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel and Andrei Sakharov, Nancy Reagan, Alger Hiss, Al Pacino, Sean Connery and hundreds more.

Thirty-two years ago, Garbus represented the National Socialist Party of America in Skokie.

There is a particularly powerful moment in “Shouting Fire” when Liz Garbus asks her father about the conflict he must have felt being a Jewish attorney who was defending the right of neo-Nazis to march in protest in a largely Jewish community.  His response is powerful as Martin tells his daughter he hated representing neo-Nazis as much as he loved defending free speech.

 Several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, were involved in Skokie case hearings.  A final ruling came from the Illinois Supreme Court when it upheld the right of the neo-Nazis to hold their march.  But there never was any march in Skokie, Illinois.  Three marches were held in other Chicago area suburbs; the closest to Skokie was in Lincolnwood, just a few miles away. 

“Shouting Fire” is by no means a slow journey through free speech law.  It is brisk, full of human emotion and stories are told by the participants.  Seventy-four minutes passes rapidly without any narrator and no script.  This is entirely a documentary told by people who lived the stories.  Those stories should cause anyone who watches to consider again the extents … and the limits … of what we today refer to as free speech.

 Written By Mike Klein, APC Board Member

Note:  Mike Klein is a former CNN Vice President and Georgia Public Broadcasting executive.  He was living near Skokie, Illinois when neo-Nazis announced they would march.

Michael Jackson…is there too much coverage?

The shocking and untimely passing of “king of pop” Michael Jackson yesterday has captured the world’s attention. But should the media be playing so much into it? The news has knocked Iran, healthcare, S.C. Gov. Sanford and even the death of 1970s icon Farrah Fawcett off of TV screens and Website homepages.

What do you think? Is MJ’s death worth the hype or should media organizations go back to “real” news?

Regardless, rest in peace, Michael Jackson. It’s OBVIOUS you will be missed.

Four Pulitzer Prize Winners Speak to The Atlanta Press Club

A robust discussion about journalists using pen and ink to document the American civil rights experience highlighted an Atlanta Press Club luncheon on Tuesday July 23 when four Atlanta based Pulitzer Prize recipients addressed seventy-five luncheon guests at The Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta.  The panel of Pulitzer recipients included two current journalists at the Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Mike Luckovich and Cynthia Tucker, and two former AJC journalists, Doug Blackmon and Hank KlibanoffBlackmon was honored with the 2009 Pulitzer for general nonfiction for his book “Slavery by Another Name:  the Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.”  Blackmon attacked the basic assumption that slavery ended with the Civil War.  The New York Times wrote that Blackmon’s book “describes free men and women forced into industrial servitude, bound by chains, faced with subhuman living conditions and subject to physical torture.”  All this well into the 20th Century.  Alabama, for instance, leased convicts to private businesses.  Blackmon is currently the Wall Street Journal’s Atlanta bureau chief.

Klibanoff, along with co-author Gene Roberts was honored with a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for their book “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation,” an examination of the role of media in the dynamic struggle for racial justice and civil rights.  Klibanoff is currently managing editor of “Cold Case Truth and Justice Report.”  Previously he was Atlanta Journal & Constitution managing editor.  Roberts is a former New York Times managing editor.  They collaborated for twelve years to create the book.

About their book, the New York Times Sunday Book Review wrote, “… the power of the pen and the camera has been memorable (in documenting the civil rights struggle).  Until now, however, no one has offered an in-depth analysis of how and why the news media came to play such an important role in the struggle for racial justice.”  In their book, the authors explained that black protest grew from within the black press, but it took the mainstream white press to show the rest of the nation what was happening in the South.

Luckovich is a two-time winner who earned his first editorial cartooning Pulitzer Prize in 1995 and his second in 2006.  Luckovich discussed his famous cartoon “WHY?” which inside the single word and the question mark included the handwritten names of some 2,000 American servicemen and women who lost their lives in the war that began after 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States.  Luckovich is syndicated in some 150 papers nationally.

Tucker won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.  During her career as the AJC’s opinion section editor Tucker has been frequently critical of those in highly influential circles, including former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, who is now a convicted felon, and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, whose controversial actions and comments eventually resulted in her ballot box ouster from the U.S. House of Representatives. Tucker will soon move to Washington to begin new work as the AJC’s national political columnist.  Atlanta’s scene will lose a journalist who never feared any fact or any person, as she freely thought about and commented on any issue, regardless of its political or racial stripes.

The next Press Club members’ event is on Thursday, June 25 when HBO will present a special showing of the documentary film “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech.”  This is an invitation event for members of the Press Club and the Public Relations Society of America Georgia Chapter.  Time and location are 6:00 p.m. at the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street N.E., Atlanta.  The next Press Club luncheon will host Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank on Friday, August 28.  Details about both events are located elsewhere on the Atlanta Press Club website.

Additional information about the books written by Douglas Blackmon, and Hank Klibanoff with Gene Roberts, can be obtained from the New York Times Sunday Book Review website. Mike Luckovich also donated an original cartoon for silent auction.  Luncheon guest Gene Greissman submitted the winning bid.

Tuesday’s luncheon was sponsored by the Cox Media Group.

Written by Mike Klein, APC Board Member

Press Conference with GE Vice Chairman, John Rice

Memo to the White House:  The United States does not need a national health care system.  That make-no-mistake-about-it message from John Rice, General Electric vice chairman, highlighted his Atlanta Press Club news conference on Friday, June 19, at The Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta.  Health care was the primary topic during 45 minutes of prepared remarks and questions from journalists.  “I personally do not believe that a national health care system is necessary,” said Rice, who referenced his own experience living in Canada which has a mandatory national health care system.  He also predicted social media would play a role in health care policy currently being debated in Washington.

Rice told about 50 journalists that he prefers a combination of private and employer-based health care programs, and he said the most significant challenge today is to educate, inform and create incentives for consumers to better understand health care.  He pointed out that most consumers are more informed today about their wide screen television purchases than they are about their personal health care or how to navigate the health care system.

Official Washington.. the White House, the Senate and the House ..  have tried to enact meaningful health care reform for more than fifty years.  The current administration of President Barack Obama and Democratic Party leaders on Capitol Hill believe that meaningful reform will reach the President’s desk as legislation before the end of this year. 

Asked about the relatively new presence of social media , Rice said he believes it can have an impact.  “I’ve learned more about that in the last six months,” he said, adding that social media “will transform how we deliver and receive information.”  User-generated reports coming from inside Iran, he said, are an example of the power of social media.  General Electric is currently researching the popular site Facebook to determine whether that concept can be applied to how information flows in some GE businesses.

Rice oversees leadership technology infrastructure for General Electric.  His portion of GE’s mammoth worldwide business generates $46 billion in annual revenue, with large concentrations in health care information technology, aviation, high speed rail and renewable energy, among its divisions.  GE currently employees some 5,000 Georgians and several of its largest businesses are headquartered in Georgia.

Health Imagination, GE’s newest health care initiative, mirrors Eco Imagination, the company’s high profile environmental initiative.  “Health is maybe even more important,” Rice said. “Health is on everybody’s mind.”  He listed three primary components of successful health care policy: Affordability, accessibility and better outcomes. He said some 50 million Americans and some two billion worldwide are under served in health care.

General Electric spends $2.5 billion annually on health care for its 300,000 worldwide employees, Rice said, adding that a corporate investment of that size “raises the bar in how we participate in this raging debate.  We and other companies can do more in how we address this.”  Rice said the research challenge for complex diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s research will be to get more companies involved and attract more financial capital.  Something that he thinks is a perfect fit for General Electric.  “We are very capable of generating a long-term view.  We’re used to doing it,” he said, pointing out that it takes General Electric ten years to develop a next generation jet engine.

Rice predicted that the health care picture will begin to change with more portable, lower cost equipment that is more strategically placed to serve the needs of most people, and that the challenge is a worldwide challenge, not just a United States question.  Affordable health care in China, he said is every bit as important as affordable care in Wyoming.  Portable ultrasounds are one example, he said, of technology that can help improve health care at costs that consumers and health care practitioners can afford.

Although Rice moved to Atlanta nine years ago to manage an international business, he quickly deeply ingrained in Georgia’s many communities.  He devotes significant time to Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce initiatives.  Rice serves on the Emory University and The Walker School boards of trustees.  And, he has been a major advocate for education improvement in Georgia, taking his case to the State Capitol, and investing his company’s dollars into City of Atlanta public schools.  General Electric has invested some $22 million dollars in Atlanta public schools.  Rice several times praised Atlanta schools superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall during his education remarks.

The next Atlanta Press Club luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday June 23 for a panel discussion among four Atlanta-based Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Blackmon, Hank Klibanoff, Mike Luckovich and Cynthia Tucker.  The event begins at noon at The Commerce Club, 34 Broad Street, near the intersection of Marietta and Broad Streets.  Tuesday’s luncheon is sponsored by the Cox Media Group.

Written by:  Mike Klein, APC Board Member

Atlanta Press Club Awards Journalists of the Year

Carrie Teegardin, Atlanta Journal-Constition reporter who was nominated by a source, was named the overall Journalist of the Year during the Press Club’s award ceremony this evening at The Commerce Club. Teegardin also won in the “large print” category.

Winners in the other categories are:

Joe Rauch, Atlanta Business Chronicle (”small print”); Richard Belcher, WSB-TV (local TV news); Wes Sarginson, WXIA-TV (local TV feature); Odette Yousef, Public Broadcasting Atlanta (radio); Joeff Davis, Creative Loafing (photojournalism); and Maureen Downey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (opinion).

We plan to post the winners’ work in the near future. Congratulations to all the Journalists of the Year!

The Future of Your Local News told by the News Directors

Terms like “flipper” and “hybrid” were discussed. But the scene was not the Georgia Aquarium or a car dealer. Rather, an Atlanta Press Club luncheon was the site as news directors of the four major local network affiliates formed a panel to discuss how their industry is being affected by economic and digital factors.

“Flipper” is TV jargon for a worker who gets user-generated video online, a rapidly growing sector made popular by YouTube and CNN’s iReport. And “hybrid” is a worker who shoots, edits and writes for his/her own videos. Both are gaining popularity as local TV stations have to cope with a slow economy and more viewers and ad dollars going online. (And you thought newspapers were the only ones with these problems.)

The panelists were Ellen Crooke of WXIA-11, Budd McEntee of WAGA-5, Marian Pittman of WSB-2, and Steve Schwaid of CBS Atlanta News.

But Monica Pearson, the iconic news anchor for WSB who was among the crowd, gave a bit of perspective to all this. “What’s old is new again,” she told the panel. She recalled how she used to shoot and edit her own videos in Louisville, Ky. “It’s a return to the old days.”

Several of the panelists agreed that the so-called hybrid TV journalist is gaining influence. Pittman noted that WSB, Atlanta’s dominant station, is becoming more of a hybrid newsroom. “With multiple deadlines and the Web, people have to do different things.” Schwaid said he is “astounded” how well hybrids have worked at his station.

So-called citizen media is having less of an impact. “There’s not that much out there,” said Schwaid. WXIA’s Crooke noted that some of their best video has been user-generated. “Will it replace journalism? Absolutely not,” she added. WXIA has been perhaps the most innovative of the Atlanta stations recently, putting some of its news meetings online. For a video of Crooke discussing some of the station’s efforts, click here.

The Internet’s influence is unmistakable. Pittman said WSB has noted a pattern of “use and watch … how can we preserve our core brand?” Said Schwaid, “We embrace the Web. I don’t think it’ll take over. There is still a thirst for local news. (Television) is still relevant.”

With Pearson and longtime co-anchor John Pruitt among those in attendance, it was interesting that some of the talk turned to the future of anchors in the digital era. “We will always have anchors,” said WAGA’s McEntee. “It’s important to the definition of local TV news.” However, WSB’s Pittman noted that “the financial model has changed. We have to decide the value to the community and the brand.”

McEntee sidestepped a question about anchors’ salaries, saying that it was “too important to them and their families.” Quipped Pittman, “Chicken!”

Written by Steve Burns

Visit Steve on his blog, Human Clipping Service, http://humanclippingservice.wordpress.com/

Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sears at the APC

The 2010 race for Georgia Governor will go forward without retiring Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears.  There has been much conjecture about her long-term plans and aspirations, but the Sears made it clear that running for Governor is not on her To-Do list when she addressed an Atlanta Press Club luncheon on Tuesday June 2 at The Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta. 

Sears will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the month.  Her immediate plans include joining the new Atlanta office of Chicago - based Schiff Hardin, teaching at the University of Georgia law school in Athens, and an aggressive social agenda when she also joins the New York - based Institute for American Values.  Much of that work will wait until later this summer and fall, after some international travel.

Sears was just 36 years old when Governor Zell Miller elevated her to the State Supreme Court 17 years ago, as the first African American woman to join the Court where her predominantly all-white male colleagues averaged 63 years old.  Seventeen years later, she is stepping aside.   “It was really not my aim to stay on the Court the rest of my life,” Sears told about 75 guests. 

“I frankly have stayed longer than I ever intended to stay.  There’s always a reason to stay longer and longer.  The second reason (for leaving now) is I always wanted to serve as a non-partisan judge,” Sears said, pointing out she won 62% of the vote in her last election, that total coming from voters of all political stripes and all demographics.  “I am not a politician,” she said.

Nevertheless, there were several questions about whether she would focus on Georgia’s top elected seat .. the Governor’s office .. and in particular, whether she believes current Governor Sonny Perdue has the authority to trim the Supreme Court’s budget, a subject of much current debate.  On the first subject she said, Not now, but in years ahead, “I never rule anything out totally.”   Sears has been politely critical of political partisanship in judicial elections, including her own, and those of other current Supreme Court justices.

The second issue .. whether Governor Perdue can trim the Supreme Court’s budget .. is a current topic because the governor has ordered all state agencies to take a 25% reduction in funds they will receive in June, due to statewide revenue shortfalls.  Sears said, “We don’t believe we are exempt.  I sent a letter to the governor saying we are more than willing to cooperate.”  But she believes there is a constitutional question whether the executive branch can reduce an already enacted judicial budget.  “I do believe that under our system the question can be answered,” she said.

Under Georgia law, the governor must forward the Supreme Court budget to the Legislature without revision.  Upon legislative approval, the governor can veto the entire budget, but the governor cannot make modifications.  The question on the table, is whether the Court’s budget can be modified by the Executive Branch this late in the game.  The state’s fiscal year ends on June 30.

Sears praised President Barack Obama’s selection of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.  “She is eminently qualified.  I love her story,” Sears said.  “She is brilliant.”   Responding to a question, Sears said any successful Supreme Court justice must retain a high intellect, be fair, read a lot, write well and have a certain power of persuasion.  Particularly, power of persuasion.

“You have to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em and know when to walk away,” she said.  “If you are too doctrinaire, if you cannot pull together, you will just sit on the sidelines and write dissents and you will never have any real power.”

Sears counts opening the Court’s processes and accountability to the public among her successes as Chief Justice, including making Justices less afraid of reporters.  “Older reporters will remember that if you tried to get something out of a Justice, you were told, ‘The opinion speaks for itself,’” she said.  Today the Supreme Court has a full time public information officer, justices regularly participate with the public in many different kinds of venues and there has been an effort to improve transparency.  “If you call the Court now, somebody will tell you something,” she said.

Sears championed family, marriage and children’s’ initiatives during her Supreme Court tenure, work that will continue after she leaves the bench.  Her immediate summer plans include travel with her husband, Haskell Ward, before returning to Atlanta later this summer.  “Life is short and there are many things I want to do,” she said, reminding one questioner that until June 30 she’s still Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Schiff Hardin, her new employer, sponsored the luncheon. 

Written by:
Mike Klein
APC Board Member

Retiring Bill Shipp’s Last Column Runs Today

After more than 50 years as one of the most influential journalists to cover politics in Georgia, Bill Shipp has written his last column, AJC reporter Jim Galloway reports.

Shipp joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1953, and quickly had as many adversaries as friends in the Georgia statehouse. Galloway writes that while lieutenant governor, Zell Miller once threatened to “whip the writer’s posterior” (though he most likely did not use that exact terminology). And the day after Sonny Perdue was elected governor in 2002, he barred his staff from speaking to left-leaning Shipp.

After leaving the AJC in 1987, Shipp began publishing a popular and influential political newsletter, Bill Shipp’s Georgia, which he sold in 2000. He’s continued his twice-a-week columns, carried in 60 state newspapers, until today.

John King, CNN’s Chief National Correspondent Speaks to APC

John King brought a written speech for today’s luncheon, but didn’t use it. He told the APC that after chatting with new his acquaintances during lunch he had decided he would talk for a little while and then just take questions. Why you ask? Because he would rather answer what we wanted to know rather than talk about what “a Washington correspondent thinks you want to hear.” King’s personality appeared to be down to earth even before this statement. When CNN said they had a car to take him to the Commerce Club, he declined, and said he would just walk the few blocks.

Before receiving questions, he discussed different facets of the past 2008 presidential election. “We will never see another election like this one,” King said, referring to how many demographics became involved and contributed to this election. “Politics is math,” King said, trying to convey that the more votes you get means you are the winner. Women, African-Americans, and Latinos were making an impact like they never had in past elections, and realizing this fact is what assisted in what made Obama so successful.

King also discussed the “Obama Brand,” and how it contributed to his success in the campaign. His example of this was if a bill goes through congress with the Obama Brand, then it receives about 50% approval, however; if it is just a bill without correlation to Obama this approval decreases about 20%. Obama and his operation knew how to work their branding. They knew they had a young audience, and how to appeal to them by using communication channels such as the internet (via YouTube and e-mails), cell phones and text messaging, the television, etc.

With politics as his main discussion, it was no surprise that many of the questions at the end of the lecture were politically inclined as well. He answered his audience’s questions with no hurry, and made sure he answered what they wanted to know.

Table Sponsors for this event included: CNN, European Union Center of Excellence at Ga Tech, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, State Farm Insurance, and Troutman Sanders, LLP. Approximately 100 people attended this event.

Posted by CaitlinWatts, Atlanta Press Club Intern

The Most Dangerous Problem Facing the World is Iran

“The most dangerous problem facing the world is Iran,” United States Senator Johnny Isakson told an Atlanta Press Club luncheon audience on Monday in downtown Atlanta, adding, “Failure to act will result in a disaster.”  The Georgia junior senator said Iran’s nuclear ambitions are “the biggest threat all of us will face in the future.”

Senator Isakson’s comments about Iran came after his prepared remarks were devoted entirely to the nine-month U.S. and global financial collapse that he described as “draconian, severe and it is time to examine how we got where we are so we never go there again.”

Isakson said last fall’s $85 billion federal bailout of insurance giant AIG was “absolutely necessary to keep the (worldwide financial system) dominoes from falling around the world.”

The senator focused his economic remarks around what he described as a “five year climb back to the new normal.” He said Americans must save and reduce borrowing.  “The great economy of the United States of America will be as great again as it has always been.”  

Isakson supports creating a Financial Markets Commission, similar to the 9-11 Commission, with no political members and full subpoena powers.

Isakson discussed one primarily local issue, the Georgia – Alabama – Florida water wars, which he described as “perpetual lawyer relief.”  The case is currently before a Jacksonville, Florida federal judge who will decide whether Atlanta may use Lake Lanier as its primary water source. 

“The first species we worry about with regard to water is the homo sapiens,” Isakson said.  Alabama and Florida have argued that Lanier water should be sent downstream, primarily to stabilize fish and other wildlife populations.

Delta Airlines was presenting sponsor for the Monday, May 11 luncheon.  Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and the European Union Center of Excellence at Georgia Tech were table sponsors.  CNN senior national correspondent John King will address the Press Club luncheon on Tuesday, May 12, also at The Commerce Club, 34 Broad Street in downtown Atlanta.

Written by Mike Klein, APC Board Member