Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace has awarded the Pundit a “William and Barbra Edwards Media Fellowship”:
The Edwards Media Fellows Program allows print and broadcast media professionals to spend time in residence at the Hoover Institution. Media fellows have the opportunity to exchange information and perspectives with Hoover scholars through seminars and informal meetings and with the Hoover and Stanford communities in public lectures. As fellows, they have access to the full range of research tools that Hoover offers.
The program involves everything from lunch with Stanford students:
Hoover Media Fellow Lunches are weekly opportunities for Stanford students to discuss the intersection between policy and journalism with reporters and editors from around the country. The Hoover Institution funds the lunches, which take place at the Faculty Club on campus. Small groups of students — usually around twelve per lunch — engage in timely and provocative discourse with journalists from geographic backgrounds and from many different types of media.
To the possibility of presenting a seminar on campus:
Hoover media fellow Matthew Bai discussed “How Baby Boomers Ruined American Politics” at a seminar September 22. Referring to President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, in which he cited scripture, “the time has come to set aside childish things,” Bai said he believed that was a comment on the baby boomer generation, which he believes has failed to meet the challenges set before it.
Bai, who writes on national politics for The New York Times, noted that baby boomers who helped create two enduring and remarkable social and ideological legacies — Goldwater conservatism and McGovern liberalism — have failed to translate either into lasting political change.
In addition, a defining characteristic of the baby boomer generation is that of an outsider, whether a conservative or a liberal, said Bai. Using Gary Hart as an example, Bai discussed how the former senator and presidential candidate failed to live up to his initial promise.
The core of the fellowship, though, is an opportunity to interact with Hoover’s policy superstars. Depending on the schedule and who is in residence at that time, it could be anyone from Condoleeza Rice, who we met at PMA, to George P. Schultz. There are scholars we have spoken to here at the Pundit, such as Richard A. Epstein, and scholars we hope to meet such, as Gary Becker and Thomas Sowell.
We are honored to join the roster of journalists granted this fellowship. Over the years the roster has included many important journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other top publications.
A little feather in the cap for the industry: It appears that the Pundit is the first person to be awarded a Hoover Media Fellowship who built his reputation through trade publishing.
We hope to come back with some great ideas and to help educate the broader policy community on issues such as food safety, as we did with our recent piece critiquing the CSPI “risky foods” list.
