For Immediate Release
Contact: Cristal Logan
Community Outreach Director
The Aspen Institute
Tel. 970-544-7929
Aspen, CO, July 16, 2009 ––The Aspen Institute McCloskey Speaker Series event featuring award-winning journalist Dan Rather has been changed to July 28, 2009. Tickets purchased for the original date will be honored on the new date. The event will run from 6:30 to 7:30 PM on at the Greenwald Pavilion on the Institute’s Aspen Meadows campus in Aspen, CO. Tickets are $15 each and are on sale through Aspen Show Tickets at the Wheeler Opera House. The same ticket outlet will issue refunds if ticket holders cannot attend on the new date. As a full-capacity audience is expected for this program, early ticket purchasing is encouraged. Doors will open 45 minutes prior to the start of the event, and unclaimed tickets will be on sale at the door if available. The series is made possible by a gift from the McCloskey Family Charitable Foundation.
Dan Rather has more than earned his reputation as the “hardest working man in broadcast journalism.” He has interviewed every United States president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush and virtually every major international leader of the past 30 years. He landed two news-breaking interviews with Saddam Hussein, in 1990 and in 2003. In 2004, as a correspondent for 60 Minutes II, Rather also broke what was arguably that year’s biggest story—the abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Rather is now the anchor and managing editor of Dan Rather Reports, which started broadcasting on HDNet in November, 2006. Rather served as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from March 9, 1981 to March 9, 2005, the longest such tenure in broadcast journalism history. He was a correspondent for 60 Minutes from October 1975 to September 1981, and again from March 2005 to the summer of 2006.
Rather began his career in journalism in 1950 as an Associated Press reporter in Huntsville, Texas. Later, he was a reporter for United Press International (1950-52), KSAM Radio in Huntsville (1950-53), KTRH Radio in Houston and the Houston Chronicle (1954-55). He became news director of KTRH in 1956 and a reporter for KTRK-TV Houston in 1959. Prior to joining CBS News, Rather was news director at KHOU-TV, the CBS affiliate in Houston. He has received virtually every honor in broadcast journalism, including numerous Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and citations from critical, scholarly, professional and charitable organizations. Rather received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Sam Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University). He also attended the University of Houston and the South Texas School of Law.
Tickets to this event can be purchased online at http://www.aspenshowtickets.com/ or by calling Aspen Show tickets at the Wheeler Opera House at 970-920-5770. For more information on the Aspen Institute McCloskey Speaker Series and other events open to the public, please call the information hotline at 970-544-7970, or visit the Institute’s website at www.aspeninstitute.org/aspenevents.
Upcoming speakers to be featured summer events include:
July 28 | Dan Rather, Journalist, HDNet |
July 30 | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations Discusses his recent book, “War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars” (copies of this book will be on sale at event) |
August 1 | Ezekiel Emanuel, Senior Counselor, White House Office of Management and Budget, Health Policy |
August 3 | Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi |
August 4 | Nicholas D. Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times |
August 7 | Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund; Trustee, the Aspen Institute |
Cancelled | Dambisa Moyo, Economist, Author |
Event details subject to change. Please visit www.aspeninstitute.org/aspenevents for updates or call our events hotline at 970/544-7970.
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