Watch video of Herbert's lecture (RealPlayer or Windows Media)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Calling
George W. Bush the “president with the unsettling demeanor of a boy king,”
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert is as outspoken against “President Bush’s tragically misguided” war in Iraq as he is against American political apathy toward race issues and the erosion of basic rights. Herbert spoke Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the
Student Life Center on the
Vanderbilt University campus.
He is the author of
Promises Betrayed: Waking Up from the American Dream, a collection of his columns from 1995 to 2004 that show his conviction that America is going in the wrong direction. In a conversation at the
John F. Kennedy Library in May 2005, Herbert said, “It is difficult for big changes to occur without leadership that is smart and energetic and committed to American ideals.”
Herbert joined
The New York Times in June 1993. Prior to that he was a national correspondent for
NBC and reported regularly on
The Today Show and
NBC Nightly News. A founding panelist of
Sunday Edition, a weekly discussion program on
WCBS-TV, Herbert was also the host of
Hotline, a weekly hour-long issues program on
WNYC-TV.
He has won numerous awards, including the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City, the
American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing and the Peter Kihss award of the
New York Society of The Silurians for distinguished contribution to American journalism.
The speech was part of the 2006-2007 Chancellor’s Lecture Series. The Chancellor’s Lecture Series serves to bring to Vanderbilt and the wider Nashville community intellectuals who are shaping the world today. For more information about the Chancellor’s Lecture Series, visit
www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/cls.
Media Contact: Melissa Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
melissa.r.pankake@vanderbilt.edu
