McMINNVILLE Controversy surrounding the freedom of press in post-World War II America is the focus of an upcoming lecture by journalism historian Ed Alwood at Linfield College.
Alwood will read from “Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press,” on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room in the Jereld R. Nicholson Library at Linfield.
The reading is free and open to the public as part of the Readings at the Nick series. Alwood will discuss how journalists became targets of anti-Communist supporters during the 1950s and draw parallels with modern conflicts over the rights of journalists to protect their sources.
Alwood has worked in the media throughout his professional career. He has 14 years of experience in broadcast news at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C., and at the Washington bureau of CNN. He is the author of ³Straight News: Gays, Lesbians and the News Media,² a book regarded by The New York Times as one of the best of 2009.
His work is published in the Christian Science Monitor and esteemed scholarly journals. Additionally, he worked as a public relations manager at a major financial trade association in Washington for 10 years and later served as a senior public affairs specialist at the Treasury Department.
He received his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently teaches writing and journalism at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.
The reading is sponsored by the Linfield Department of Mass Communication, Office of the President and Friends of Nicholson Library. For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte, college librarian, at 503-883-2517, swhyte@linfield.edu.
