MEADVILLE, Pa. – Nov. 11, 2008 – The Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College will host a special post-election event, “Full Disclosure: The Media and the 2008 Election,” on Nov. 20.
“With the results of the presidential contest still fresh, we expect that Allegheny’s conference about the role of media in the historic 2008 election will facilitate a lively discussion among media professionals, college newspaper editors, students and members of the community,” said Daniel M. Shea, professor of political science and director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College.
E.J. Dionne Jr., a widely syndicated Washington Post columnist, will present the conference keynote address, titled “Election 2008: What Exactly Happened and What Will It Mean?,” at 7:30 p.m. in Ford Chapel. Dionne will discuss the long-term implications of the election, what we can expect from the new administration and how the extraordinary economic events that are going on now could leave a mark on our politics for years, even decades, to come.
While Dionne’s presentation will offer a national perspective on the meaning of the 2008 election, journalists representing print, broadcast and new media from across the country will participate in a roundtable discussion, titled “The Role of the Media in the 2008 Election,” at 4:30 p.m. in the Vukovich Center for Communication Arts.
Participating in the roundtable with Dionne will be Mark Naymik, political reporter at the Plain Dealer; Kate Phillips, online politics editor at The New York Times; Tom Waseleski, editorial page editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; and Jacqueline Policastro, evening news anchor with CBS affiliate WSEE-TV, Erie.
Also as part of the conference, college newspaper editors from Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York will meet earlier in the day to discuss how the election played out on their campuses. Mary Solberg, program coordinator for the Center for Political Participation, and Penni Schaefer, Meadville Tribune reporter and advisor to Allegheny’s college newspaper, will facilitate the student workshop, which is titled “Campus Political Activism in 2008.”
The roundtable discussion and Dionne’s evening presentation are free and open to the public.
Panelist Profiles
E.J. Dionne Jr.
E.J. Dionne Jr. is a widely syndicated Washington Post columnist, a regular political analyst for National Public Radio, and a frequent guest on the “Chris Matthews Show” and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Acclaimed for his keen insights into the competing philosophies of American politics, Dionne often participates in TV and radio debates as the liberal counterpart to David Brooks, William Kristol and others. He believes that America is about to enter a new progressive era featuring reform in government and renewed civic activism. Dionne spent 14 years with the New York Times, reporting on state and local government, national politics and news from around the world, including stints in Paris, Rome and Beirut. In 1990 Dionne joined the Washington Post, covering national politics. His book “Why Americans Hate Politics” won the Los Angeles Times book prize and was a National Book Award nominee. Dionne’s op-ed column is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers. His new book, “Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics After the Religious Right,” was published in February 2008. His other books include “They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era” and “Stand Up, Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge.” He also is the series co-editor to the Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion and Public Life, which include the recent publications “Lifting Up the Poor: A Dialogue on Religion” and “Poverty and Welfare Reform, and One Electorate Under God?: A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics.”
Mark Naymik
Mark Naymik is the political reporter for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. He began working for the newspaper in 2000, becoming politics writer in 2001. Since then, he has covered local and state races, as well as gubernatorial and presidential elections. Previously, Naymik worked for three alternative weekly newspapers in Philadelphia and Cleveland. He graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in English and spent three years in public relations before entering journalism.
Kate Phillips
Kate Phillips is the online politics editor for The New York Times, writing for and editing The Caucus, the politics news blog. In 1995 she joined the newspaper, serving in various editing roles, including two stints in the Washington bureau. Between those assignments, she was the New York political editor from late 1999 through mid-2002, supervising coverage of Hillary Clinton’s first Senate run, the latter years of the Giuliani Administration in New York, and government coverage in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. She was acting health editor for The New York Times in the latter part of 2003, and later became the deputy op-editor through the 2004 election. She worked as an editor on the national desk through part of 1996, during the transitional period in late 2000 until President Bush’s inauguration, and also during the early part of 2004. Before joining The Times, she worked in various editing positions at New York’s Newsday from 1989 until it folded in July 1995, when she was the city editor. Before that, she was a reporter and editor at the Times-Union (now defunct) in Rochester, N.Y., and the Fort Myers News-Press in Florida. She was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2002-03. A native of Pittsburgh, Phillips now lives on Capitol Hill.
Jacqueline Policastro
Jacqueline Policastro is the Washington bureau chief/evening news anchor at the CBS affiliate WSEE-TV, Erie, Pa. During this year’s presidential race, she traveled to Denver and St. Paul to cover the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. As Washington bureau chief, she has covered Congress and the White House, with a focus on Pennsylvania federal politics. Policastro worked for Associated Press Television and the ABC News bureau in Washington. Also, she worked for the Fox News channel in New York City. A graduate of Boston University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and political science. She attended Boston University’s journalism programs in Sydney, Australia and Washington, D.C. She is a Paul Miller Washington Fellow.
Daniel M. Shea
Daniel M. Shea is a professor of political science at Allegheny College and director of the Allegheny College Center for Political Participation. Shea has a bachelor of arts in political science and American studies from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master of arts in campaign management/applied politics from the University of West Florida. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Albany. Shea has written or edited 12 books on the American electoral process. His most recent project, “Living Democracy” (Prentice Hall, 2007), is a text on American government designed to inspire students and help them experience the impact of government in their daily lives. In 2007 Shea also edited, with John C. Green, “The Fountain of Youth: Strategies and Tactics for Mobilizing America’s Young Voters” (Rowman and Littlefield).
Tom Waseleski
Tom Waseleski has been the editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 2003. He joined the newspaper in 1983 as a roving reporter for the state staff, writing stories about the people, politics and government of Pennsylvania. Two years later, he became state editor and was responsible for general coverage of the state. In that role, he supervised Post-Gazette bureaus in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., and oversaw the Pennsylvania Poll, the newspaper’s public opinion research analysis. Waseleski was named associate editor at the Post-Gazette in 1990, beginning work as an editorial writer and a member of the editorial board. He has received numerous regional, state and national journalism awards. For 10 years, he was the Post-Gazette’s co-producer on two weekly public affairs shows, “The Editors” at WQED-TV and “KD/PG Sunday Edition” at KDKA-TV. Waseleski is active in the National Conference of Editorial Writers, for which he serves as vice president and a former convention chair. He is a former president of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors and a former Pittsburgh chapter president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He graduated in 1977 from the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in English writing.