The Harvard Medal Project for Journalistic Independence

2008 Award

        
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John Walcott Acceptance Speech

Press

The Platform: In Praise of Journalistic Independence
by Peter Osnos
10/21/08

On a recent beautiful October afternoon, with the global financial system gyrating out of control, a group of journalists and friends gathered at Washington’s Newseum for the presentation of the first I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, administered by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. The credit implosion of 2008 and simultaneous climax of a riveting two-year presidential campaign has overwhelmed pretty much everything else this fall, as well they should have. But the awarding of the Stone medal (for which I serve as an adviser) underscored again the importance of reporting that aggressively and against the odds of conventional wisdom challenges official dogma. … More