Harvard Club of New Hampshire: How to Cover Trump 2.0 With Credibility, Balance and Even-Handedness

How to Cover Trump 2.0 With Credibility, Balance and Even-Handedness

Sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School New England Alumni Association and the Harvard Law School Association of Massachusetts

Tuesday, June 3, at 6 p.m. Online

The daily struggle to stay factual, fair, and heard amid chaos and confrontation.

This program builds on the previous two: "Breaking Insights: Game-Changing U.S. Presidential Race -Groundbreaking Analysis and Critical Poll Numbers Coming" (October 21) and "Policy & Politics in 2025 – The Trump Administration 2.0 & the U.S. Congress" (January 14, 2025).

For this program, the panel will examine how, in a media and spin landscape dominated by sensationalism, misinformation, and 280-character outbursts, journalists should stay grounded in Trump 2.0. This session reveals the decisions, dilemmas, and strategies reporters consider - and the public has to deal with - as the press attempts to remain credible, even-handed and ethical while covering one of the most unorthodox presidencies in history.

Sign-up Here
 

Moderator

Dean Pagani is a professor of communications at the University of New Haven. He began his career in journalism, transitioned into communications roles in Connecticut state government and the U.S. Senate, and represents private and non-profit clients as a public relations consultant. In his work as a photojournalist he has experienced firsthand the changing nature of the relationship between the press and authority.
 

Panelists

Harvey A. Silverglate, an advocate for civil liberties since the 1960s, is an attorney, writer, and non-profit activist. Currently practicing law with the Boston firm Zalkind Duncan and Bernstein, LLP, Silverglate specializes in criminal defense, civil liberties, and academic freedom/student rights cases. In addition to his legal work, Silverglate has led a parallel writing career as newspaper columnist and book author.

Kathy Kiely is the Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies at Missouri School of Journalism. Her reporting and editing career includes stints as an editor for Bill Moyers and for Bloomberg Politics. At the National Journal, she worked with counterparts at CBS News to train and supervise a multimedia team covering 2012 presidential campaign. She also covered Congress and national politics for USA TODAY, headed Washington bureaus for The Houston Post and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was a White House correspondent for the New York Daily News and a general assignment reporter and Washington correspondent for The Pittsburgh Press.

Roger Desmond is professor Emeritus at the University of Hartford’s School of Communication, where he served as Director from 1999 to 2004. He earned his bachelor's and master's at San Jose State University and a Ph.D. in Communication Research from the University of Iowa in 1977. A former reporter for Red Eye (CA) and Bellevue Week (NE), he later taught journalism and media courses, including “Investigative Reporting” and “Media and Society.” His 2015 textbook Communication in the Digital Age has been used internationally. In 2006, he was awarded a fellowship by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and worked as a reporter for the Connecticut Post.

I. Michael Grossman, author and publisher, will talk about what he thinks the press is doing right, not doing at all and could improve in its coverage of the Trump administration. Three of his nine books, The Accidental President, The Realm and The Power satirize government dysfunctionality with emphasis on the greed and ideologies that drive it. A former journalist and journalism instructor, Grossman has been an avid observer of political environments since he was the Michigan Press Secretary for Senator Eugune McCarthy during his anti-war run for the presidency in 1968. Grossman holds an M.A. from Michigan State University and has published both traditionally and as a self-published author. His company, the EBook Bakery, has published over 100 titles for both domestic and international authors.