ISSUE

Summer-Fall 2013

75th Anniversary Issue

As she lay dying, the widow of a Milwaukee newspaper editor made a gift that has now invigorated journalism for 75 years. Agnes Wahl Nieman, a well-educated woman with a fondness for bicycling, willed money to Harvard to “promote and elevate the standards of journalism.” That $1.4 million bequest (worth about $23 million in today’s dollars) funded the Nieman Fellowship program that has brought 1,442 journalists from around the world to Harvard for a year of study. To celebrate the Nieman Foundation for Journalism’s 75th anniversary, Nieman Reports tells the stories of 75 Nieman Fellows, among them pioneers in biography, documentary filmmaking, and investigative journalism.

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Features

The Meaning of the Nieman
75th Anniversary

The Meaning of the Nieman

How the Nieman Foundation and Harvard continue to “educate persons deemed specially qualified for journalism”—and why that matters
Ann Marie Lipinski
Mother of Invention
75th Anniversary

Mother of Invention

The untold story of Agnes Wahl Nieman, her will, and the creation of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
Maggie Jones
A Gift Beyond Measure
75th Anniversary

A Gift Beyond Measure

As I prepared to begin my tour as curator during the summer of 2000, I worked at framing a vision of how the Nieman Foundation might build on its legacy…
Bob Giles
The Nieman Factor
75th Anniversary

The Nieman Factor

The Nieman Fellowship’s evolution from “dubious experiment” to transformative experience
“Whatever it is you're here for, get on with it”
75th Anniversary

“Whatever it is you’re here for, get on with it”

I can’t tell you how my drawing class in the monastery on Memorial Drive or James Wood’s close reading of English novelist Henry Green or Diana Eck’s lecture on Gandhi…
Jeb Sharp
Taking Back Our Language
75th Anniversary

Taking Back Our Language

The shape and content of my decade as curator was determined by unexpected events. Howie Simons’s time as curator was cut drastically short by his death. The dissolution of the…
Bill Kovach

Articles

75th Anniversary

The Faces of Agnes Wahl Nieman

How two artists created new portraits of the Nieman Foundation's benefactor
Alexandra Garcia
October 7, 2013
75th Anniversary

János Horvát, NF ’76

Having launched and operated a number of cable television channels in Hungary, Horvát was named the nation’s ambassador to Cuba in 2006 In 1975, Paul Ipper, the New York correspondent…
János Horvát
October 6, 2013
75th Anniversary

Anne Hull, NF ’95

Hull’s reporting on the abysmal treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center caught the attention of Congress and earned her and Washington Post colleague Dana Priest the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for…
Anne Hull
September 27, 2013
Robert A. Caro, NF ’66
75th Anniversary

Robert A. Caro, NF ’66

Caro’s interest in understanding Robert Moses took on a new urgency as he sat in an urban planning course at Harvard. The result was “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and…
Robert A. Caro
September 27, 2013
75th Anniversary

Morton Mintz, NF ’64

An investigative reporter for The Washington Post, Mintz broke the story of the birth defects associated with thalidomide I owe to Louis Lyons the marvelous experience of a Nieman year.…
Morton Mintz
September 24, 2013
Mary Ellen Leary, NF ’46
75th Anniversary

Mary Ellen Leary, NF ’46

One of the first two female Niemans, Leary (1913–2008) covered politics in California for half a century Learning in the Nieman environment was wider than the campus limits. But the…
Mary Ellen Leary
September 24, 2013
1945: Writing Courses
75th Anniversary

1945: Writing Courses

“Mastering the craft”
Anne Bernays
September 24, 2013
Anthony, NF ’57, and David Lewis, NF ’94
75th Anniversary

Anthony, NF ’57, and David Lewis, NF ’94

David Lewis was the first CNN employee to receive a Nieman and has worked throughout the broadcast news business. His father, Anthony Lewis, who died in March of this year,…
David Lewis
September 24, 2013
Ed Williams, NF ’73
75th Anniversary

Ed Williams, NF ’73

After being hired for his first reporting job by W. Hodding Carter III, NF ’66, Williams spent 25 of his 35 years at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer as editor of…
Ed Williams
September 24, 2013
Sunday Dare, NF ’01
75th Anniversary

Sunday Dare, NF ’01

As editor of The News magazine during a brutal regime in the 1990s, Dare risked his life to report on corruption and other problems in Nigeria During my Nieman year,…
Sunday Dare
September 24, 2013
George de Lama, NF ’92
75th Anniversary

George de Lama, NF ’92

During 30 years at the Chicago Tribune, de Lama opened three bureaus in Latin America and rose through the ranks from reporter to foreign correspondent to managing editor for news…
George de Lama
September 24, 2013
Raul Peñaranda, NF ’08
75th Anniversary

Raul Peñaranda, NF ’08

The former editor in chief of the Bolivian daily Página Siete, Peñaranda is a fierce proponent of press freedom. To produce a series called “Journey to the Heart of Bolivia,”…
Raul Peñaranda
September 24, 2013
Tony Heard, NF ’88
75th Anniversary

Tony Heard, NF ’88

Heard, an opponent of government press restrictions, was fired in 1987 after 16 years as editor of South Africa’s Cape Times My Nieman stint was a godsend in a career…
Tony Heard
September 24, 2013
I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr., NF ’86
75th Anniversary

I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr., NF ’86

As co-founder, publisher and editor of Panama’s independent newspaper La Prensa, I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr. faced physical and economic danger under the regimes of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Antonio Noriega.…
I. Roberto Eisenmann Jr.
September 24, 2013
75th Anniversary

William J. Lederer, NF ’51

Lederer (1912–2010), best known for co-authoring “The Ugly American,” arrived at Harvard a career Naval officer and public relations specialist I mentioned to sociology professor [Samuel A.] Stouffer that USA…
William J. Lederer
September 24, 2013
75th Anniversary

Harold Hayes, NF ’59

When Hayes (1926–1989) arrived at Harvard, he was locked in a battle with Clay Felker for the editorship of Esquire. A few years later, Hayes triumphed and was named editor…
Harold Hayes
September 24, 2013
Murrey Marder, NF ’50
75th Anniversary

Murrey Marder, NF ’50

Washington Post reporter Marder (1919–2013) made his name on the “red beat,” where he was among the first to challenge U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy I also had a lot of…
Murrey Marder
September 24, 2013
Amy Ellis Nutt, NF ’05
75th Anniversary

Amy Ellis Nutt, NF ’05

Nutt, a reporter at The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, won a Pulitzer for her feature story about the mysterious sinking of a fishing boat My proposed project for my Nieman…
Amy Ellis Nutt
September 24, 2013
H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger, NF ’86
75th Anniversary

H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger, NF ’86

Bissinger’s narrative nonfiction book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream” inspired an acclaimed show that ran for five seasons on NBC People say, “Why’d you begin…
Buzz Bissinger
September 24, 2013
Philip Meyer, NF ’67
75th Anniversary

Philip Meyer, NF ’67

A reporter in the Washington bureau of the Knight newspapers, Meyer arrived at Harvard to learn how to apply social science research to reporting. The result: The invention of precision…
Philip Meyer
September 24, 2013
A.B. Guthrie Jr., NF ’45
75th Anniversary

A.B. Guthrie Jr., NF ’45

Guthrie (1901–1991), who spent 21 years at The Lexington (Ky.) Leader, called the Nieman Fellowship his “big break.” English professor Theodore Morrison helped him write the novel “The Way West,”…
A.B. Guthrie Jr.
September 24, 2013
75th Anniversary

Larry L. King, NF ’70

King (1929–2012) had a wide range, from “Confessions of a White Racist,” nominated for a National Book Award, to the Playboy article that inspired “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”…
Larry L. King
September 24, 2013
Mary Schmich, NF ’96
75th Anniversary

Mary Schmich, NF ’96

A columnist at the Chicago Tribune since 1992, Schmich won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. She writes about politics, the personal, and the culture of Chicago When I left…
Mary Schmich
September 24, 2013
Simeon Booker, NF ’51
75th Anniversary

Simeon Booker, NF ’51

Working for Jet magazine, Booker covered the civil rights movement for 53 years The Nieman program under Louis M. Lyons was eons ahead of the nation’s press when it came…
Simeon Booker
September 24, 2013
Howard Berkes, NF ’98
75th Anniversary

Howard Berkes, NF ’98

For the last 10 of his 30 years at NPR, Berkes has been a rural affairs correspondent. He also is a veteran Olympics reporter, careening downhill on a luge sled…
Howard Berkes
September 24, 2013
1972: Affiliates
75th Anniversary

1972: Affiliates

“Lucky break”
Ruth Daniloff
September 24, 2013
1947: Nieman Reports
75th Anniversary

1947: Nieman Reports

“About newspapering”
James Geary
September 20, 2013
1939: Seminars
75th Anniversary

1939: Seminars

“Talk that shouldn’t be missed”
Louis M. Lyons
September 20, 2013
1939: Dinners
75th Anniversary

1939: Dinners

"Getting conversation going"
Archibald MacLeish
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Janet Heard, NF ’10

After her Nieman year, Janet Heard joined the Cape Times as assistant editor, head of news I visited my father, Tony Heard, at Harvard in 1987. About to start my…
Janet Heard
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

William Marimow, NF ’83

Marimow, in his second stint as editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, received the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1985 for his stories about the Philadelphia Police Department K-9 unit.…
William Marimow
September 20, 2013
Paul Salopek, NF ’12
75th Anniversary

Paul Salopek, NF ’12

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who has canoed through rebel-controlled regions of the Congo, Salopek is walking across the world, tracing the path of the first human diaspora out of…
Paul Salopek
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Ying Chan, NF ’96

Founding director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, Chan has reported from New York for the Daily News and NBC News as well…
Ying Chan
September 20, 2013
Pablo Corral Vega, NF ’11
75th Anniversary

Pablo Corral Vega, NF ’11

A photojournalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine, Vega is founder and director of www.nuestramirada.org, the largest network of Latin American photojournalists. He…
Pablo Corral Vega
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Fletcher P. Martin, NF ’47

The first black journalist to receive a Nieman Fellowship, Martin (1916–2005) was a World War II correspondent. As city editor of the Louisville Defender in the 1940s, he advocated for…
Peter Nieman Martin Sr.
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Margaret Engel, NF ’79

Executive director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, Engel has reported for The Washington Post and The Des Moines Register The setting was a Nieman seminar; the speaker one of Harvard’s…
Margaret Engel
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Alice Bonner, NF ’78

Bonner was a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, a newsroom recruiter for Gannett, and has taught journalism at several universities My reporting career had barely begun when Bob Maynard,…
Alice Bonner
September 20, 2013
75th Anniversary

Kabral Blay-Amihere, NF ’91

In Accra, Ghana, presidential election results are posted on a scoreboard. David Guttenfelder/Associated Press Having edited a number of publications in Ghana and led journalist organizations, Blay-Amihere is now chairman…
Kabral Blay-Amihere
September 20, 2013
Kabral Blay-Amihere, NF ’91
75th Anniversary

Kabral Blay-Amihere, NF ’91

Having edited a number of publications in Ghana and led journalist organizations, Blay-Amihere is now chairman of the National Media Commission of Ghana My last job before arriving in Cambridge…
Kabral Blay-Amihere
September 20, 2013
Robert C., NF ’66, and Dori Maynard, NF ’93
75th Anniversary

Robert C., NF ’66, and Dori Maynard, NF ’93

Following a career as a newspaper reporter, Dori Maynard took the helm of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Founded by her father (1937–1993), it has trained thousands…
Dori J. Maynard
September 19, 2013
María Cristina Caballero, NF ’97
75th Anniversary

María Cristina Caballero, NF ’97

Twice in her life, Caballero found at Harvard a safe haven from threats of violence, first as a Nieman Fellow and later as a fellow at the Kennedy School I…
María Cristina Caballero
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Richard, NF ’56, and John Harwood, NF ’90

John Harwood is chief Washington correspondent of CNBC and a political writer for The New York Times My small Nieman moments began long before I set foot in Cambridge in…
John Harwood
September 19, 2013
Tom Regan, NF ’92
75th Anniversary

Tom Regan, NF ’92

After his Nieman year, Regan helped The Christian Science Monitor develop its online presence and he spent two years as executive director of the Online News Association It was fall…
Tom Regan
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Michael J., NF ’68, and Pippa Green, NF ’99

Pippa Green has been the political editor at the South Africa Broadcasting Corp. and the Sunday Independent When my father, Michael Green, became a Nieman Fellow in 1967, it was…
Pippa Green
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Beth Macy, NF ’10

Macy has spent most of her career at The Roanoke (Va.) Times Working in one region for one medium-sized newspaper for almost 25 years, it’s hard to enumerate the many…
Beth Macy
September 19, 2013
Atsuko Chiba, NF ’68
75th Anniversary

Atsuko Chiba, NF ’68

A financial reporter at a time when that was a rare beat for a woman in Japan, Chiba (1940–1987) shocked the nation with her frank columns about her battle with…
Atsuko Chiba
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Dorothy Wickenden, NF ’89

Executive editor of The New Yorker since 1996, Wickenden wrote “Nothing Daunted,” the tale of her grandmother and a friend who left lives of privilege in 1916 to teach the…
Dorothy Wickenden
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Daniel Ulanovsky, NF ’96

Ulanovsky was inspired by his Nieman year to foster journalism that is intensely personal I had a good job with one of the most widely read Spanish-language newspapers in the…
Daniel Ulanovsky
September 19, 2013
Patricia S. Guthrie, NF ’96
75th Anniversary

Patricia S. Guthrie, NF ’96

Guthrie, a freelance journalist based in Seattle, found inspiration in the voice of the Rev. Peter J. Gomes I don’t remember the exact words on the sign, only that the…
Patricia S. Guthrie
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Victor K. McElheny, NF ’63

A veteran author of books and articles about science and technology, McElheny worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research center with ties to several Nobel Prize winners, before arriving…
Victor K. McElheny
September 19, 2013
Gustavo Gorriti, NF ’86
75th Anniversary

Gustavo Gorriti, NF ’86

For his reporting on the Peruvian government, Gorriti was forced into exile. He didn’t fare much better in Panama, where he angered the government with more reporting on corruption As…
Gustavo Gorriti
September 19, 2013
Gary Knight, NF '10
75th Anniversary

Gary Knight, NF ’10

A photojournalist, Knight has covered conflicts throughout the world. He is a co-founder of VII Photo Agency and the Angkor Photo Workshops I arrived at Harvard after spending 20 years…
Gary Knight
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

Percy Qoboza, NF ’76

After his return to South Africa, Qoboza (1938–1988) was detained and held for five months. The South African government shut down two black newspapers he edited, The World and The…
Percy Qoboza
September 19, 2013
Josef Tucek, NF ’97
75th Anniversary

Josef Tucek, NF ’97

After his Nieman year, Tucek returned to work at Mlada fronta Dnes in Prague, creating the paper’s first science section The Nieman Fellowship changed me in so many ways; it’s…
Josef Tucek
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

John Carroll, NF ’72

After covering the Vietnam War, Carroll was editor of The Baltimore Sun, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, and the Los Angeles Times, the latter of which won 13 Pulitzers during Carroll’s…
John Carroll
September 19, 2013
Hedrick Smith, NF ’70
75th Anniversary

Hedrick Smith, NF ’70

A member of the team that won a Pulitzer for reporting on the Pentagon Papers, Smith has had a major presence on PBS with his Frontline investigations As a reporter…
Hedrick Smith
September 19, 2013
Larry Tye, NF ’94
75th Anniversary

Larry Tye, NF ’94

After covering medicine, the environment, and sports at The Boston Globe, Tye now writes books and runs a fellowship program that trains journalists covering health care It was the moment…
Larry Tye
September 19, 2013
Harro Albrecht, NF ’07
75th Anniversary

Harro Albrecht, NF ’07

A medical writer and editor for the German weekly Die Zeit, Albrecht was one of the Nieman Foundation’s first Global Health Fellows In 2007 I was in Gulu, in northern…
Harro Albrecht
September 19, 2013
75th Anniversary

James D. Squires, NF ’71

The former Chicago Tribune editor’s 1993 book “Read All About It!” raised an early alarm about the corporate takeover of U.S. newspapers Like many other young Southern journalists, my passion…
James D. Squires
September 18, 2013
Katherine Fulton, NF ’93
75th Anniversary

Katherine Fulton, NF ’93

As president of Monitor Institute, Fulton works with business and government leaders to find new approaches to social and technological challenges Shortly after I arrived in Cambridge someone said to…
Katherine Fulton
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Pekka Mykkänen, NF ’04

Mykkänen has been a reporter for Helsingin Sanomat since 1995 The story I tell most often is about Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a former Finnish president who, as a spy…
Pekka Mykkänen
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Harry S. Ashmore, NF ’42

As executive editor of The Arkansas Gazette, Ashmore (1916–1998) was a leading voice against segregation I remember going over to the President’s house. It was a very impressive thing for…
Harry S. Ashmore
September 18, 2013
Thomas Sancton, NF ’42
75th Anniversary

Thomas Sancton, NF ’42

Sancton (1915–2012) wrote about the nascent civil rights movement in the 1940s The award of a Nieman Fellowship in 1941 was a turning point in my father’s life. It sent…
Tom Sancton Jr.
September 18, 2013
Edwin A. Lahey, NF ’39
75th Anniversary

Edwin A. Lahey, NF ’39

At the Chicago Daily News, Lahey (1902–1969) used what he learned at Harvard about accounting to investigate an Illinois state auditor; the official landed in prison The Nieman Fellow who…
Louis M. Lyons
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Jack Bass, NF ’66

As a journalist and history professor, Bass has sought to draw attention to the Orangeburg Massacre Jack Nelson, NF ’62, has written in his posthumously published memoir “Scoop” that professor…
Jack Bass
September 18, 2013
Laura Amico, NF ’13
75th Anniversary

Laura Amico, NF ’13

Amico founded Homicide Watch D.C. to chronicle every murder committed in the nation’s capital I was nearing the end of my Fellowship year this spring when Wynton Marsalis played at…
Laura Amico
September 18, 2013
Doug Marlette, NF ’81
75th Anniversary

Doug Marlette, NF ’81

Creator of the syndicated “Kudzu” comic strip, Marlette won a Pulitzer for editorial cartoons he drew for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution When Doug Marlette (1949–2007) returned…
Mark F. Ethridge III
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

David Skok, NF ’12

Skok, director of Globalnews.ca, arrived at Harvard to explore ways to make journalism sustainable The professor slowly walked to the center of the amphitheatre, sat on the edge of the barren…
David Skok
September 18, 2013
Gene Weingarten, NF ’88
75th Anniversary

Gene Weingarten, NF ’88

One of Weingarten’s two Pulitzers for feature writing was for a story about parents who accidentally kill their children by forgetting them in cars. He writes a syndicated humor column…
Gene Weingarten
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Katie King, NF ’94

In 1994, King launched Reuters’s first daily multimedia publication, “What on Earth,” a joint venture with cable TV company Tele-Communications, Inc. Twenty years ago when I started my Nieman year,…
Katie King
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Rosental Calmon Alves, NF ’88

Alves holds the Knight Chair in International Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He arrived in academia after more than a decade as a foreign correspondentI came to…
Rosental Calmon Alves
September 18, 2013
Jerome Aumente, NF ’68
75th Anniversary

Jerome Aumente, NF ’68

Founding director of the Journalism Resources Institute at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, Aumente trains journalists around the world I arrived at Harvard University in 1967, emotionally and…
Jerome Aumente
September 18, 2013
Tim Giago, NF ’91
75th Anniversary

Tim Giago, NF ’91

Giago founded the Lakota Times (now Indian Country Today), the first independently owned Native American newspaper in the U.S. I first entered Walter Lippmann House filled with fear and anticipation.…
Tim Giago
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

H.Y. Sharada Prasad, ’56

Prasad (1924–2008), a longtime spokesman for Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv, was a news editor for The Indian Express in Bombay, India Our father spoke often of his Nieman…
Ravi Prasad
September 18, 2013
Robert Drew, NF ’55
75th Anniversary

Robert Drew, NF ’55

A pioneer of cinéma vérité, Drew in 1960 used portable sound and film equipment he helped develop to produce “Primary.” For that documentary, Drew was granted round-the-clock access to presidential…
Robert Drew
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Hong Qu, NF ’13

A member of the startup team that built YouTube, Qu uses his technical knowledge to develop tools for journalists My visiting Fellowship at the Nieman Foundation recalibrated my career. I…
Hong Qu
September 18, 2013
Mike Pride, NF ’85
75th Anniversary

Mike Pride, NF ’85

For more than 30 years, Pride edited the Concord (N.H.) Monitor Zwelakhe Sisulu, my 1985 Nieman classmate, and curator Howard Simons changed my life. Zwelakhe, the South African in our…
Mike Pride
September 18, 2013
Geneva Overholser, NF ’86
75th Anniversary

Geneva Overholser, NF ’86

In 1991, The Des Moines Register’s series about a rape victim won a Pulitzer for Public Service. The subject of the series, Nancy Ziegenmeyer, decided to go public after reading a column…
Geneva Overholser
September 18, 2013
75th Anniversary

Lorie Hearn, NF ’95

To keep pace with the changing economics of newspapers, Hearn turned the San Diego Union-Tribune’s investigative unit she led into a nonprofit We obsessed over the future of journalism in…
Lorie Hearn
September 18, 2013
Gene Roberts, NF ’62
75th Anniversary

Gene Roberts, NF ’62

Roberts worked as a reporter in North Carolina before becoming the chief Southern and civil rights correspondent for The New York Times after his Nieman year. He is co-author of…
Gene Roberts
September 18, 2013
1978: Lippmann House
75th Anniversary

1978: Lippmann House

"Room just to hang out"
Kenneth Freed
September 18, 2013
Ellen Goodman, Patricia O'Brien, NF ’74
75th Anniversary

Ellen Goodman, Patricia O’Brien, NF ’74

Through her syndicated column, Goodman brought her feminist concerns to newspapers across the nation. O’Brien, a longtime political reporter, drew on her old beat when she started writing novels Until…
Ellen Goodman
September 12, 2013
75th Anniversary

Harvard Meets the Press

From the Nieman Foundation's 50th Anniversary: A Personal Account of the Early Nieman Years
Louis M. Lyons
September 11, 2013
1989: The Hawk
75th Anniversary

1989: The Hawk

“Oh! The Maltese Falcon”
Jonathan Seitz
September 11, 2013
1974: Soundings
75th Anniversary

1974: Soundings

“What led you to where you are now?”
Lois Fiore
September 11, 2013
2008: Nieman Lab
75th Anniversary

2008: Nieman Lab

"Journalism innovation"
Joshua Benton
September 11, 2013
75th Anniversary

1939: The Curator

"You're a curator"
James B. Conant
September 11, 2013