A distinguished group of newspaper editors from across the country will tackle the question “Is the Press Being Fair to President Trump?” in a panel discussion sponsored by the Camden Conference on Friday, November 17, at 7 P.M. in Hannaford Hall on the campus of the University of Southern Maine in Portland.  USM is co-sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

Walter V. Robinson, editor-at-large of the Globe, and Greg Moore, former editor of The Denver Post, Keith C. Burris, editorial page editor of The (Toledo) Blade, and Katherine K. Lee, city editor of the Press Herald are expected to bring a range of views to the panel.  The discussion will be moderated by Matthew V. Storin, vice president of the Camden Conference and former editor of The Boston Globe (1993-2001).

Robinson led the Globe’s Spotlight Team from 1999 to 2006, most notably in its investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, for which the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003.  The team’s courageous reporting was the basis of “Spotlight,” the film that won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Picture.  Robinson has held various editing positions at the Globe and has reported from 30 foreign countries and all 50 states.  He was White House correspondent for the Globe during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, served as Middle East Bureau Chief from 1990-1991 and covered the Persian Gulf War.  Robinson also has served as a professor of journalism at Northeastern University, his alma mater.

Lee is the city editor of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, and was previously the city editor at the Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News, where she led a team of reporters to a Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News in 2012 for their coverage of a deadly tornado. Prior to that, she served in reporting and editing positions at the Tuscaloosa News, Tampa Bay Times and the Birmingham Post-Herald. A California native, Lee received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley.        

Moore, a native of Ohio, held various editing positions at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Boston Globe, before being named editor of the Denver Post in 2003. During his tenure, the Post won four Pulitzer Prizes. A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Moore is a former member of the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and served on the Pulitzer Prize Board for nine years, ending in 2013.

Burris brings 30 years of journalism experience to the panel and has written widely on politics, government, culture, and the arts for publications ranging from Commonweal to The New York Times. He was named editorial page editor of The Blade in March of 2016. He served previously as the Blade's metro columnist. Prior to this, for 21 years he was editorial page editor of the Manchester Journal Inquirer in Connecticut. While in Connecticut, he won the Allen B. Rogers Award – for the best single editorial, in any newspaper, regardless of size, in New England in a single year. Mr. Burris holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and has taught at a number of American colleges and universities.

The panel discussion, which will include questions from the audience, is held in anticipation of the 31st annual Camden Conference, New World Disorder and America’s Future. The Conference will be held February 16-18, 2018 at the Camden Opera House and will be live-streamed to the Strand Theatre in Rockland, the Hutchinson Center in Belfast and the USM campus in Portland. Registration is available now for members and will begin November 27 for the general public. Conference Sponsors include RM Davis, Inc., Unity Foundation, Down East and The Free Press.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world issues. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.

(Note: a previous on-line release listed Carolyn Ryan, assistant editor of The New York Times, as a participant.  Ms. Ryan has since been given an assignment abroad by the Times that will prevent her attendance.)