Jesse Hall hosts forum
Published Jan. 29, 2008
Chancellor Brady Deaton will moderate a forum Wednesday where a panel will discuss the publishing of the top-secret Pentagon Papers in The New York Times and The Washington Post in the early 1970's.
The forum will precede a theatrical production showing Saturday at Jesse Auditorium that portrays the decision to run the papers.
The forum, called Battle of the Pentagon Papers, will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Ellis Auditorium.
The play, “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” is part of the University Concert Series.
The panel will discuss the Pentagon Papers and the ensuing controversy portrayed in the LA Theatre Works production of the documentary-drama.
It will include Executive Director of National Freedom of Information Coalition and MU associate journalism professor Charles Davis, Committee of Concerned Journalists founding chairman and MU professor of journalism Bill Kovach and MU Enoch H. Crowder Professor of Law Christina Wells.
“It’s useful to have a background on it,” Wells said.
When the Pentagon Papers were first compiled in 1969, only 15 copies of the potentially politically embarrassing narrative of United States involvement in the Vietnam War were circulated, according to the play’s Web site.
The papers were then leaked to The New York Times in 1971, sparking a Supreme Court battle over the media’s first amendment right to print the information and the executive branch’s right to withhold information that could damage national security. Considered a victory for media rights, the effects of this case still effect relations between the presidency and the media, the Web site stated.
The play follows the decision of The Washington Post to publish the papers after The New York Times received an injunction ordering the paper to not do so.
Wells said the clashes between the press and government in former President Richard Nixon’s administration are very similar to what is being seen in President George Bush’s administration.
One of the panelists was involved with the Pentagon Papers to a certain extent and the others are very familiar with the legal and journalistic aspects of the case, Wells said.
The panelists are uniquely situated to discuss the issues of the Pentagon Papers that still affect journalism and politics today, Wells said.