By: Bill Kirtz Giles Stresses Web Site For Outreach
Robert H. Giles, whose appointment as curator of the Nieman Foundation
was announced today by Harvard University President Neil L. Rudenstine,
will assume his duties in mid-August.
Speaking today from his bay-front home in Northport, Mich., Giles,
senior vice president of the Freedom Forum, said he hopes to build on
predecessor Bill Kovach's 'wonderful work, and to enable [Harvard's]
Nieman Foundation to be an increasingly important voice for journalism.'
Union officials had asked Rudenstine to reject Giles because he was -
as editor of The Detroit News during part of the bitter five-year-old
Detroit newspaper labor-management dispute - in their view a polarizing
figure. In response, Giles said today, 'One important value of journalism
is free expression. It's very important that those who disagree with me
be able to express their point of view, and they had a full opportunity
to do so. That's my only comment.'
Speaking about his plans in his new position, Giles said, 'It's premature
to say exactly what I will do' as Nieman curator. 'I obviously don't know
the ins and outs. ... There's certainly a learning phase in a new job.'
But, he said, 'Racial diversity is a part of the process of elevating
standards of journalism.' He also called the Nieman Foundation's Web site
a 'very important part of our outreach program, with great potential.'
The Harvard announcement quoted Kovach as complimenting his successor's
'solid record for institutional research in his work as president of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors and as the director of the Freedom
Forum Center in New York. He recognizes the issues of greatest interest
to journalists today.'
Giles, 67, is editor in chief of the Freedom Forum's Media Studies Journal
and is directing an in-depth study of fairness in the news media. He also
is instrumental in a Freedom Forum initiative to increase the number of
persons of color working in newspaper newsrooms.
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Bill Kirtz is a Professor of Journalism at Northeastern University in
Boston.
Related story:
GILES EXPECTED TO BE NAMED HEAD OF NIEMAN FOUNDATION
(c) Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher
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