Collection address delivered by Barbara Cochran ‘67 during this year’s Alumni Weekend and her 50th Reunion

Barbara Cochran ‘67 is the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism and director of the school’s Washington program. She has held executive positions in newspapers, radio, television and the non-profit sector. She was managing editor of the Washington Star, vice president for news at NPR, where she directed the creation of NPR’s Morning Edition, was executive producer of NBC’s Meet the Press and then vice president and Washington bureau chief of CBS News–the first woman to head a network bureau in Washington. Cochran served for 12 years as president of the Radio Television Digital News Association.

Attribution: daily.swathmore.edu
Full story: Barbara Cochran

Wash Post Busted Pressmen’s Union in 1975 Strike. Why It Still Matters Today.

Attribution: The Washington Post

The day after the strike began, another friend and fellow publisher, Arthur Sulzberger of The New York Times, was in D.C. having lunch with Joe Allbritton, the publisher of the Washington Star, the Post’s only major competitor. Sulzberger denied he was in D.C. to pressure Allbritton to join forces with the Post crush the pressmen by printing the Post on the Star’s presses.

“Of course, I didn’t advise Mr. Allbritton what to do. He didn’t ask my advice… and I’m not in any position to give advice,” Sulzberger told a reporter. It was just a friendly lunch, the day after the strike began, and the Times publisher just happened to bring up the following: “I told him about the New York situation in which the unions learned to whipsaw the papers until they [the papers’ owners] learned to work together.”

While Sulzberger denied pressing Allbritton, Graham didn’t. “On the morning of October 2, Mark [Meagher] and I went to see Joe Allbritton to propose the idea that the Star print the Post on its presses, which would, of course, have resulted in that paper’s being shut down, too,” Graham wrote.

Had the Star printed the Post, the Star’s pressmen were expected to strike in solidarity with the Post pressmen. And a stoppage could have put the Star, which was facing financial difficulties, out of business.

Still, Times columnist James Reston thought the Star should print the Post “even if they had to go down together.” Allbritton, however, thought differently and continued publishing only the Star.

Attribution: Pete Tucker - huffingtonpost.com
Full story: 1975 Strike

Gloria Borger Wiki

Gloria Borger’s years of experience made her a noteworthy political pundit in the media. She grew up in New Rochelle, New York, where her father ran an electrical appliances distributorship called Borgers. After graduating from Colgate University in 1974, she worked as a journalist, columnist, and political analyst.
She began her career as a political reporter for The Washington Star. In her early broadcast career, she worked on CNBC’s Capital Report as a co-anchor. She even made appearances on CBS’ 60 Minutes II and Face the Nation. She was also a contributor and columnist for US News and World Report magazine. She joined CNN in 2007, where her work was recognized with several honors and awards.

Attribution>  Caroline John - earnthenecklace.com
Full Story> Borger

The Health Of The Community Newspaper

The Evening Star appeared downtown in 1852 and, renamed the Washington Star, lasted until 1981, when its final parent (my then-employer) Time Incorporated shuttered it. (Today Time is confronting its own digital-age survival challenges.)

The Post (where I did two stints) arrived in 1877 as a “four-page organ of the Democratic Party,” the Britannica says. It was joined in the 20th century by the original Washington Times, the Times-Herald and Washington Daily News.

Attribution:Charlie Clark - fcnp.com
Full story: Our man in Arlington

Six Days in July: The 1967 Detroit Riots

Haynes Johnson of the Washington Star Syndicate asked about the chances of similar riots across the country.
Cavanagh said that Congress was indifferent to the issues that many Americans faced. “What will it profit this country if we, say, put a man on the moon by 1970 and at the same time you can’t walk down Woodward Avenue in this city without some fear of violence,” Cavanagh said. “We may be able to pacify every village in Vietnam over a period of years but what good does it do if we can’t pacify the American cities.”

Attribution: clickondetroit.com
Full article: Detroit

Newspaper legacy, journalist Barbara DeWitt Smith returns to Wyoming Valley

When I was a young girl, I used to walk the four-mile round trip from our house on Shrine View to the library on Main Street in Dallas to get my Nancy Drew books. After reading the first one, I remember standing in my bedroom and saying out loud: “I’m going to write a book!”

And so all these years later, I have.

In May, my first book was published. “Home At Last” is a memoir that tells all the family secrets of growing up in a privileged but nutty, colorful household. My father used to write the Little Studies column in the Times Leader about his trials and tribulations of dealing with his five daughters and their antics. And everyone would say, “Oh, that Smith family is so colorful!”

My four sisters and I all went to the Day School and then went away to boarding school (where I used my middle name and became known as DeWitt Smith because there were four other Barbaras in my class). I was the only Smith sister who returned to the Back Mountain to live, back in 1979, for a year, before moving to Washington, D.C. to work for the Washington Star.

Attribution:Barbara DeWitt Smith - For Times Leader

Full Story: Home At Last