The last scheduled “Kalb Report,” the public broadcasting series co-presented by University of Maryland Global Campus, airs on Maryland Public Television (MPT) Saturday, February 18, at 7 p.m. ET.
After 28 years and 103 programs, moderator Marvin Kalb will be joined by his longtime friend and fellow network correspondent Ted Koppel to look back on their long careers while also looking forward to where journalism and democracy are heading.
The program, recorded in November, will have an encore presentation on MPT April 23, at 4 p.m. It will also be available online at mpt.org.
In the series finale, the 92-year-old Kalb reflects on his broadcast news career that stretches back to 1957 as Koppel turns the tables on him and becomes the interviewer. They explore the symbiotic state of American democracy and the press from the Cold War to the War on Truth. Interwoven into the program are video excerpts and photographs from past Kalb Reports, as well as of Kalb as he reported for CBS News in the eras of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
The Kalb Report was created in 1994 when Kalb, on a one-year sabbatical from Harvard University, returned to Washington to teach at George Washington University (GW). Kalb was the last correspondent personally hired by Edward R. Murrow, and his career had taken him around the world as the CBS News chief diplomatic correspondent. He later moderated NBC’s Meet the Press before leaving the networks after more than 30 years to become the founding director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
At GW, Kalb found a partner in former CBS Radio Network General Manager Michael Freedman, who went on to become president of the National Press Club in 2020 and is now a senior vice president at UMGC. Freedman brought Kalb to the National Press Club, which quickly embraced the idea. The first of nine programs for the first season was produced on Sept. 29, 1994, and Freedman remained executive producer for the entire 28-year run.
The Kalb Report is a joint project of the National Press Club, the Journalism Institute, University of Maryland Global Campus, the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, and the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.
Maryland Public Television serves as presenting station for the series, which is distributed nationally by American Public Television. It also will be heard on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio and Federal News Radio in Washington. The series is funded by a grant from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, a subsidiary of Oklahoma-based Inasmuch Foundation.
On April 22, at the National Press Club, The Kalb Report series will receive the 2023 Lifetime Achievement honor from the New York Festivals (NYF) International Broadcast Awards. In announcing the award earlier this month, NYF Senior Vice President Rose Anderson said, “Over a decade ago, we made the decision to recognize some of the driving forces in the broadcast industry, leaders with a body of work that has made a lasting impression with a Lifetime Achievement Award. While trends may come and go, excellence never goes out of style. The Kalb Report, our 2023 Lifetime Achievement Honoree, has been a must-see event for nearly three decades and has created a legacy which will inspire journalists for years to come.”
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