Contact: Paul C. DiNero
E-mail: dinerop@kean.edu
EXHIBIT RECOUNTS HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND THE STORIES BEHIND THE NEWS
UNION - Kean University will host an exhibit, Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else in the University’s Nancy Thomson Library throughout March. The exhibit, based on a 2007 book of the same name detailing the AP’s 162-year history, contains photos and images from the news organization’s archives that also recount some of the leading events in our nation’s history.
The exhibit tells how the AP documented such breaking news as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the terror attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Visitors will learn how AP reporter Joseph I. Gilbert borrowed Abraham Lincoln’s own handwritten draft of the Gettysburg Address to provide the most accurate account of what the President said at that solemn occasion in 1863.
Memories of the AP’s civil rights coverage include the story of scrappy AP reporter Kathryn Johnson, pictured in 1961 when she wore bobby sox and a sweater so she would look like a student and could get on the University of Georgia campus to see Charlayne Hunter integrate the school on her first day of classes.
Other panels in the exhibit focus on AP’s foreign correspondents, aviation milestones, memorable moments in sports, the White House beat and famous courtroom dramas, including the Lindbergh kidnapping trial in 1935 and O.J. Simpson’s not-guilty verdict 60 years later.
The exhibit is free and open to the public and will be on display during regular library hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Kathleen Carroll, Executive Editor of the World’s Largest News Organization, Featured in Kean University Lecture
Kean University will also host several events related to the exhibit, including a talk by Kathleen Carroll, AP Executive Editor. She will discuss the news business and the challenges awaiting young journalists on March 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the university’s Center for Academic Success, Room 106.
Carroll is the AP’s highest-ranking newsperson. She directs the organization’s daily coverage and supervises its global news staff, which includes some 3,000 journalists in 243 bureaus located across 97 countries.
Carroll’s career with the AP dates back to 1978, when she took her first AP post in the Dallas bureau. She has since served in various roles in the Newark, Los Angeles and Washington bureaus. Carroll was named to the AP’s top spot in 2002, becoming the first woman to serve as Executive Editor.
The AP dates its founding to 1846, when the heads of six New York newspapers agreed to share the cost of gathering and transmitting by telegraph the news from the Mexican War and other points far from the city. Today, on any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP (www.ap.org).