KU News Release

LAWRENCE — The Dole Institute at the University of Kansas will host two journalists for a discussion of politics and the news media. The 2009 Muncy Politics and Journalism Lecture: The Loyal Opposition will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the National Review Online, and Stephen Dinan, political reporter at the Washington Times, will examine social news media, media bias and other challenges facing journalism today.

“The Muncy Lecture is an opportunity to have nationally recognized reporters and commentators visit Kansas,” said Jonathan Earle, associate director of programming for the Dole Institute. “This year features representatives of publications critical of the Obama administration. They will make for an interesting evening.”

The lecture is free and open to the public. The series, dedicated to the ever-changing relationship between politics, policymaking and the media, has been endowed by Martha E. “Betty” Muncy, the retired owner, publisher and editor of the Dodge City Daily Globe. It has featured Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin, New York Times reporter Adam Clymer and former NBC News President Neal Shapiro.

Lopez is an associate editor at National Review and editor of the National Review Online, where she is known as K-Lo. An award-winning opinion journalist and editor, her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Women’s Quarterly, the National Catholic Register and American Outlook. She writes often on bioethics, religion, feminism, education and politics. Lopez has appeared on CNN, the Fox News Channel, MSNBC and Oxygen and is a frequent guest on radio and TV shows internationally. Lopez is a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she studied philosophy and politics. Before National Review, she worked at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank on Capitol Hill.

Dinan is director of the congressional bureau of the Washington Times. Before taking his current position, he spent six months as a reporter covering the Obama administration, two years on the campaign trail and one year covering the Bush administration. Dinan has been a reporter for the Washington Times for 11 years, with his first assignment on the metro desk covering the Fairfax County school system. He graduated in 1996 from the University of Virginia with a degree in government.