Spring Break
Editors speak at Devroy Forum
Washington Post duo speaks on reporting government secrets
Jessica Branen
Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: Campus News
|
It "shows what the government is doing in your name," he said to an audience of more than 400 people in Zorn Arena Thursday night.
Kaiser presented a speech entitled "The Importance of Learning Government Secrets" for the 10th annual Ann Devroy Memorial Forum.
Kaiser spoke alongside Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Robert Woodward, who spoke via video hookup from San Antonio about the importance of American citizens knowing what their government is doing at all times.
"The thing I worry about is secret government," he said. "Whoever said it got it right - democracies die in darkness."
The Forum was established to honor UW-Eau Claire alumna Ann Devroy, who died of cancer in 1997. Devroy worked at The Washington Post for nine years and spent 15 years covering the White House.
"She had this way of presenting dramatic information where the people who she was writing about praised her," Woodward said of Devroy.
Kaiser recalled how Devroy had a different status than other reporters covering the White House.
"She was always fair and straight with (the people she wrote about) that they confided in her," he said.
Before Kaiser's and Woodward's speech, junior Nick Halter, sports editor of The Spectator, received the 2007 Ann Devroy Fellowship, which includes a three-week internship at The Washington Post and a summer internship at a Wisconsin newspaper.
Junior public relations student Christina Taddy said she came to the Forum for the chance to see and hear Woodward.
"I thought it was exciting since he was a national hero," she said.
Woodward achieved international noteriety after writing about the Watergate scandal with his work partner, Carl Bernstein.
Be the first to comment on this story