In conjunction with the Off-Broadway debut of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, conversations spotlight journalists, scholars, jurists and public policy leaders
With the nation involved in two wars and facing continuing threats of terrorism, USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) presents TOP SECRET TALKS, a timely examination of the tension between the government’s need for secrecy and the public’s right to know, in conjunction with the New York production of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers.
As issues of government classification—and declassification—confront the current administration and as the Internet opens new frontiers for the disclosure of confidential information, Top Secret Talks promises a month long series of conversations with leading journalists, scholars and policymakers about the modern lessons of the Pentagon Papers story.
Individual programs are presented by organizations such as the Columbia Journalism Review, Human Rights Watch, NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, the Asia Society, The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU and the Center for Public Integrity. Speakers will include Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense and State Department official who gave the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post; legendary Washington Post investigative reporter Carl Bernstein; Leslie Gelb, who led the Department of Defense project that produced the Pentagon Papers; New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson; Washington Post editor Marcus Brauchli; and playwright Geoffrey Cowan; among others. Continue reading for a more detailed schedule.
CCLP hosted Alec Ross, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, for a visit to Los Angeles in February 2010 for a series of discussions about the impact of technology – current and potential – on key issues on the U.S. foreign policy and development agenda.
CCLP director Geoffrey Cowan and USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III brought together entertainment, media, and academic leaders to explore ways in which their experience and expertise might facilitate the application of mobile, web and other rapidly evolving technologies in areas like human rights, economic development and women’s empowerment.
CCLP hosted Alec Ross, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, for a visit to Los Angeles in February 2010 for a series of discussions about the impact of technology – current and potential – on key issues on the U.S. foreign policy and development agenda.