January 27, 1999
Two editors with the Wall Street Journal, Albert R. Hunt, executive Washington editor, and Gerald F. Seib, deputy Washington bureau chief, will join three area journalists in a discussion of the role of the media in an era of instant information.
Burdett Loomis, interim director of the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Policy and Public Service and professor of political science, will moderate the discussion. The William Allen White Foundation, based at KU, and KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications are sponsoring the event.
Dave Helling, weekend anchor and political reporter for WDAF-Fox 4 TV in Kansas City, Mo.; Emerson Lynn Jr., editor and publisher of the Iola Register; and Mark Zieman, editor of the Kansas City Star, will complete the panel.
Loomis said the panel will focus on how news organizations can make responsible decisions when their competition for increasingly fragmented audiences blurs the distinction between serious news and tabloid sensationalism.
Hunt is the William Allen White Foundation's 1999 national citation recipient. He will receive the award at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in the ballroom of the Kansas Union.
Both Seib, a Hays native, and Zieman, of Kansas City, Mo., are graduates of KU's School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Seib graduated in 1978 and Zieman in 1984. Zieman worked in the Wall Street Journal's Houston bureau from 1984 to 1986.