Joan Konner, Dean Emerita and Professor Emerita of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, hosted a distinguished panel of professionals: Victor S. Navasky, Professor of Magazine Journalism at Columbia University, publisher emeritus of *The Nation, and acclaimed author of Kennedy Justice, Naming Names and Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq…A Matter of Opinion; Marvin Kitman, media critic at Huffington Post and, from 1965 to 2005, media critic at Newsday, author of nine books on politics and humor (most recently, The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O’Reilly*) and frequent television and radio commentator on the media; and Mort Rosenblum, a foreign correspondent reporting from various corners of the world since 1961, author of twelve books and currently professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

With over 200 years of combined experience between them, the panel touched on questions such as, “ Is Julian Assange of WikiLeaks a spy or a crusader, “Does journalism as we knew it exist today,” “Have the Punditocracy and Churnalism superceded serious reporting,” and “What impact is citizen reporting having on democracy?”

Not surprisingly, none of these questions could be answered in the short hour-and-a-half allotted, but there was plenty of informative discussion. The takeaway was that, in a profit-driven democracy, reporting is an almost impossible career choice and thus, the free press, and by proxy, democracy, is in peril.

This not-so-hopeful message was softened, however, as panelists cited the commitment and energy of today’s journalism students, as well as the efforts of online sites GlobalPost and ProPublica to provide serious, in-depth reporting on the important issues facing our nation and the world. The panel suggested that the future rests with us; to quote Rosenblum, “If we demanded better quality, we’d get it… get a few more people interested and we’ll do better.” It was a challenging mandate for a winter Sunday afternoon, but kudos to the library for presenting yet another thought provoking symposium with an impressive panel of experts.