If you watch the news, listen to a newscast or download a podcast today, you are benefiting from the work of Lowell Thomas. As Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Dalai Lama and many others explain in this lively film about a dynamo of a man, Lowell Thomas invented what is now often celebrated or disparaged as “traditional journalism.” Today as truthful journalists are accused of fake news, the life of Lowell Thomas reminds us why a 'free press' is important to democracy and shared faith in factual reporting is a cornerstone of a civil society.

About the speakers 

Producer/director Rick Moulton has been an independent filmmaker since 1972. His career began in the 1960s with “Reeform" and "Oceans," surf movies made in Hawaii and California. In the early 80s, his film "Legends of American Skiing" won the Baniff Mountain Film Festival and was nationally released on PBS. Since then, Moulton has produced numerous productions for PBS, IBM, The Orton Foundation and NBC. He has extensive archival experience with the New York Public Library, Dartmouth College, the National Ski Hall of Fame and recently the Lowell Thomas collection at Marist College.

Mitchell Stephens is a professor of journalism at New York University's Carter Institute. He is the author or co-author of nine books, including A History of News (Viking, Penguin, Oxford); Beyond News: The Future of Journalism (Columbia); and Journalism Unbound (Oxford). His latest book, The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of Twentieth-Century Journalism (St. Martin’s), received the 2018 Sperber Prize as the year’s best journalism biography.