SPJ @ W&L

Get all the latest on the W&L SPJ student chapter's activities.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 

"Mudcat" Saunders to give press conference

The W&L SPJ chapter is pleased to announce that Dave "Mudcat" Saunders will host a press conference before the Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon. The colorful Bubba-Democratic political advisor helped get Democrats Mark Warner, Jim Webb and Tim Kaine elected in Red-State Virginia.

Saunders has been featured in the Weekly Standard and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. The Roanoke Times has described him as "the go-to guy for national reporters searching out freewheeling, in-your-face quotes -- kind of a James Carville meets Dale Earnhardt meets Barney Fife." And the book he co-wrote with Harvard Professor Steve Jarding is said to be a blue-print for how the Democrats can re-take the White House: Foxes in the Henhouse: How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland, and what the Democrats Must Do to Run 'em Out. Mudcat says Steve wrote the book, and "I added the cuss words."

Paul Freedman from the University of Virginia has also agreed to speak on our "Covering Elections" panel.

Freedman is the 2003 recipient of the University of Virginia Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award. Freedman's current research projects focus on campaign advertising, issue framing, and the politics of abortion. His work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Communication, Campaigns and Elections and Slate. He has recently completed a book about television campaign advertising and American democracy. Freedman served as research director for the Project on Campaign Conduct at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. Since 2000, he has been an election analyst for ABC News in New York.

Other confirmed speakers include Greg Esposito (Roanoke Times), Wilson Lowrey (University of Alabama), Juliet Bickford (WSLS10 in Roanoke, Va.; WKTR in Norfolk, Va.), Duncan Adams (Roanoke Times) and Kelly Evans (Wall Street Journal).

Labels: speakers, spring conference

- Nicole
9:18 PM

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