Two of the country's most distinguished investigative journalists -- Phil Bennett, the former Washington Post managing editor whose teams won several Pulitzer Prizes, and New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti, whose front-page article this past weekend exposed a privately run intelligence operation -- will appear on the Duke University Ustream channel Friday, Jan. 28, beginning at noon Eastern Time.
Anyone may submit a question in advance or during the webcast by sending an email to live@duke.edu, tweeting with the tag #dukelive or posting to the Duke University Facebook page.
Bennett, who is now a professor at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy, said at a recent public conversation about WikiLeaks that technology is changing the way journalists obtain and report sensitive information. "There is an arc between the Pentagon Papers and Wikileaks, each beginning a new age of information," Bennett said. "The release of the Pentagon Papers led to a new period in the relationship of the government and the press. WikiLeaks may do the same."
At Duke, Bennett is the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy. This semester, he is teaching two courses: "Narrative Journalism and the Web" and "Islam and the Media."
Mark Mazzetti
Joining Bennett and moderator David Jarmul for part of the webcast will be Mark Mazzetti, a Duke alumnus and national security reporter for the New York Times. In 2009, Mazzetti shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the U.S. response to intensifying violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In his most recent article, he wrote about a former CIA agent who is running a private intelligence service.
Office hours at a university are times when professors leave their doors open for individuals to stop by and discuss issues such as current events and developments in their fields. Duke's "Office Hours" series aims to bring the expansiveness and sparkle of these conversations to anyone with an Internet connection and an interest in the ideas bubbling up at Duke. This academic year, topics have ranged from world poverty and learning in a digital age to the theology of eating and the legal implications for brain science.