Belmont to Host Seigenthalers for Debate Dialogue

Journalism Veterans to Discuss 'Ethical Responsibility in an Election Year'
The Center for Business Ethics and the new Century Journalism Program will host a lively dialogue between John L. Seigenthaler, award-winning journalist and founder of the First Amendment Center, and his son John M. Seigenthaler, partner and CEO of Seigenthaler Public Relations New York and former NBC news anchor. The dialogue, titled “Ethical Responsibility in an Election Year: Is the Media Helping or Hurting?,” is scheduled for Fri., Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. in the Frist Lecture Hall located on the fourth floor of Belmont's Gordon E. Inman Center.

The Seigenthalers will share an ethical perspective on the media’s coverage of the presidential election and will engage in a dialogue on positive and negative examples of ethics and media coverage. They will also answer questions from the audience consisting of Belmont University students and the larger Middle Tennessee community. This event is free, but seating is limited. Registration is available by clicking here.

John L. Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment rights and values. A former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Seigenthaler served for 43 years as an award-winning journalist for The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. At his retirement he was editor, publisher and CEO and retains the title chairman emeritus. In 1982, he became founding editorial director of USA Today and served in that position for a decade, retiring from both the Nashville and national newspapers in 1991.

Seigenthaler left journalism briefly in the early 1960s to serve in the U.S. Justice Department as administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. His work in the field of civil rights led to his service as chief negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the Freedom Rides. During that crisis, while attempting to aid Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Ala., he was attacked by a mob of Klansmen.

John Michael Seigenthaler, CEO of SPR New York, specializes in crisis and reputation management, media strategy and media training. One of the nation’s most respected broadcast journalists, John was the anchor of the top-rated "NBC Nightly News Weekend Edition" from 1999 to 2007 and host of "MSNBC Investigates," an hour-long documentary series. In addition, he served as a special correspondent for NBC News, anchor for MSNBC and The News on CNBC and substitute anchor for "NBC Nightly News," "Dateline NBC," "Today" and "Meet the Press." He also anchored the Court TV program "Under Investigation" and a special on the Titanic for the Discovery Channel.

Called “the thinking man’s broadcaster” by The New York Daily News, John began his television news career in 1980 as an anchor, reporter and producer for NBC affiliate WSMV-TV, Nashville, and over the course of a decade covered most of the city’s major news stories. From 1990 to 1993, he was an anchor and reporter for KOMO-TV in Seattle, an ABC affiliate. He returned to Nashville in 1993 to co-anchor the nightly news for WKRN-TV, also an ABC affiliate. In 1996, NBC tapped him to be co-anchor of "Morning Line," a weekday morning news broadcast on its cable news channel, MSNBC, which launched his 11-year career with the network.