The Dallas Morning News and Texas' three presidential libraries — George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and LBJ — came together to celebrate the centennial of the Pulitzer Prizes with a marquee event June 2 and 3.
Dallas Theater Center performers. Photo: Courtesy of The Dallas Morning News.
Prize-winning biographers, photographers, cartoonists, reporters and editors explored the relationship between the American people and their commander-in-chief. The Dallas Theater Center performed excerpts from dramatic works with a political bent, from George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing to Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2016 winner, Hamilton.
In one of the first panels, following a welcome from Bush 43, Jon Meacham, Annette Gordon-Reed and Ron Chernow discussed how they got their starts. Why would a historian undertake a biography of George Washington when 900 already exist? Tune in above to hear the trio's reasoning.
Prize-winning cartoonist Steve Benson captured the panel on presidential biographies in pen and ink.
They bantered about a statement by Chernow: "Great figures in history can carry the weight of their flaws."
The next day, a group of journalists considered campaign coverage in the digital age, when candidates offer competing narratives to those of the free press.
Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor at The Associated Press and a former Pulitzer board member, noted: "We have a competitor in the White House. They use social media quite effectively to release pictures shot by the official White House photographer … and they completely skip over the press.”
Mike Wilson, editor of The Dallas Morning News, introduces the panel discussion of “The Presidency: Coverage in the Digital Age.” (Courtesy of The Dallas Morning News)
The Dallas Morning News reported that the panelists criticized President Barack Obama and his administration for a lack of transparency.
Meanwhile, Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Stephen Benson captured the many compelling personalities as they took the stage. Among those appearing in his sketches: Martin Baron, who led The Boston Globe's Spotlight team to win the 2003 Public Service prize for uncovering sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and Robert Jackson, who won the 1964 photography prize after immortalizing the murder of Lee Oswald by Jack Ruby.
Editor Marty Baron, as captured by Benson.
The full video of the second day of "The People, the Presidency and the Press" is available here.
The next Pulitzer Centennial marquee event is titled, "Power: Abuse and Accountability," and will be held September 10-11, 2016. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard will host the program in Cambridge, Mass.
The program from the Dallas Pulitzer Centennial marquee event.