McCloskey Speaker Series: The Ethics of Journalistic Decision-Making
Featuring Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR and contributor to MSNBC and NBC News, and Joanne Lipman, author of “That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together” and former chief content officer of Gannett and editor-in-chief of USA TODAY and the USA TODAY NETWORK, in conversation with Vivian Schiller, executive director of Aspen Digital. The conversation will explore the changing nature of journalism in a polarized world and the ethics of journalistic decision-making.
Eric Deggans is NPR’s first full-time TV critic. Deggans came to NPR in 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times, where he served a TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. A journalist for more than 20 years, he is also the author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media, published in October 2012, by Palgrave Macmillan.
Deggans is also currently a media analyst/contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. In August 2013, he guest hosted CNN’s media analysis show Reliable Sources, joining a select group of journalists and media critics filling in for departed host Howard Kurtz. The same month, Deggans was awarded the Florida Press Club’s first-ever Diversity award, honoring his coverage of issues involving race and media. He received the Legacy award from the National Association of Black Journalists’ A&E Task Force, an honor bestowed to “seasoned A&E journalists who are at the top of their careers.” In 2019, Deggans served as the first African American chairman of the board of educators, journalists and media experts who select the George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media.
He also has joined a prestigious group of contributors to the first ethics book created in conjunction with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies for journalism’s digital age: The New Ethics of Journalism, published in August 2013, by Sage/CQ Press.
Joanne Lipman has served as Editor-in-Chief at USA Today, USA Today Network, Conde Nast, and The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal, leading those organizations to six Pulitzer Prizes. She is also author of the No. 1 bestseller “That’s What She Said,” about closing the gender gap. A frequent speaker and television commentator, she was the inaugural Distinguished Journalism Fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, and is an on-air contributor at CNBC and a Yale University lecturer.
Dubbed “star editor” by CNN and “innovator in chief” by The New York Times, Lipman began her career as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, ultimately rising to Deputy Managing Editor, the first woman to attain that post. There, she created Weekend Journal and Personal Journal, and supervised coverage that earned three Pulitzer Prizes. She subsequently was founding Editor-in-Chief of Conde Nast Portfolio and Portfolio.com, which won National Magazine and Loeb Awards.
In 2015, she became the first Chief Content Officer of Gannett. There she was Editor in Chief of its USA TODAY and USA TODAY NETWORK, encompassing the flagship title plus 109 metro newspapers including the Detroit Free Press, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the Arizona Republic. In that role, she oversaw more than 3,000 journalists and led the organization to three Pulitzer Prizes.
Lipman is a frequent television commentator, seen on ABC, CNN, NBC, CNBC, CBS, MSNBC and PBS, among others. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Fortune, Newsweek and Harvard Business Review. She is also co-author of the critically acclaimed musical memoir Strings Attached.
Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world.
A longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology, Schiller has held executive roles at some of the most respected media organizations in the world. Those include: President and CEO of NPR; Global Chair of News at Twitter; General Manager of NYTimes.com; Chief Digital Officer of NBC News; Chief of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications; and Head of CNN documentary and long form divisions. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys.
Schiller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a Director of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian.