Former journalism fellow returns to deliver Hovey Lecture

James Russell, senior vice president and general manager of Marketplace Productions, will deliver the 2004 Graham Hovey Lecture titled "Don't Look Now, But They're Not Following Us" at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Wallace House Gardens, 620 Oxford Road.

The 19th annual lecture honors retired Journalism Fellows Director Graham Hovey, a former foreign correspondent for the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune and a Washington correspondent and editorial writer for The New York Times.

Russell studied broadly in the humanities as a 1973-74 Knight-Wallace Fellow (formerly the Michigan Journalism Program). He is an award-winning journalist, creative producer, and executive in commercial radio, print, public radio and television. He helped create "Marketplace," "Marketplace Morning Report," "The Savvy Traveler," "Newton's Apple," "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" and "The World." Marketplace Productions is a division of Minnesota Public Radio, produced in association with the University of Southern California.

"My experience in the Fellows program was glorious," Russell says. "I used the fellowship to broaden my horizons, taking a wide variety of provocative courses, including ones in Non-Standard English, History of American Foreign Affairs (China), Psychology of Poverty, A Socialist History of the United States, and a course that created a 'simulated society' through game theory.

"I made lifelong friends and literally changed my view of the kind of journalism I wanted to practice. I went back to NPR after the program, and in 1974 became executive producer of 'All Things Considered.'"

The lecture will address the state of journalism's reputation for trustworthiness with the American public, and how many Americans simply do not share the most basic values, including the importance of a robust free press.

"In an admittedly extreme example, I will ask—if the Patriot Act were expanded tomorrow and newspapers and broadcasts banned or censored—would the American public rise up in protest?" he asks. "I have my doubts."

Russell also will discuss what journalists can do to change that level of trust and value in which their profession is held.

A reception, hosted by President Mary Sue Coleman and Steve Kunkel, interim dean of the Rackham Graduate School, will follow.

For more information or to RSVP, call (734) 998-7666.

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