Bill Kovach
Encyclopedia
Bill Kovach is a US journalist, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times
, former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and co-author of the popular book, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect.
n parents, Kovach planned after college to go to graduate school in marine biology
. After four years in the U.S. Navy, a summer job at the Johnson City Press Chronicle in Johnson City, Tennessee
persuaded him to go into journalism.
Kovach covered the civil rights movement, politics and Appalachian poverty for the Nashville Tennessean from 1960 to 1967. In 1965, he was involved in a fight for public access to the legislature, when he refused to leave a committee hearing following a call for executive session. The state senate passed a resolution revoking his floor privileges. The Tennessean and editor John Seigenthaler, Sr. led a successful fight to open the legislative chambers.
After Kovach spent a year at Stanford University
on a journalism fellowship, Scotty Reston
of The New York Times
Washington bureau hired Kovach in 1968, and Kovach spent 18 years there, including serving as its Washington bureau chief.
After a tempestuous two-year tenure as editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when his staff won two Pulitzer Prizes and were finalists for several others, Kovach moved on to Harvard University
in 1989 as a fellow, then curator, of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
He retired from Harvard in 2001 and returned to Washington, where he is senior counselor to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
He also serves on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism.
Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College
. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from Boston University
.
He founded the Committee of Concerned Journalists
, which works to increase the quality of journalism.
Besides The Elements of Journalism, Kovach is a co-author of Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media and Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload, all with Tom Rosenstiel
.
In 2002, when it was discovered that USA Today
reporter Jack Kelley
had fabricated some of his stories, USA Today turned to Kovach, along with veteran editors Bill Hilliard and John Seigenthaler Sr., to monitor the investigation.
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and co-author of the popular book, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect.
Biography
Born in 1932 in East Tennessee of AlbaniaAlbania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n parents, Kovach planned after college to go to graduate school in marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
. After four years in the U.S. Navy, a summer job at the Johnson City Press Chronicle in Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City is a city in Carter, Sullivan, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, with most of the city being in Washington County...
persuaded him to go into journalism.
Kovach covered the civil rights movement, politics and Appalachian poverty for the Nashville Tennessean from 1960 to 1967. In 1965, he was involved in a fight for public access to the legislature, when he refused to leave a committee hearing following a call for executive session. The state senate passed a resolution revoking his floor privileges. The Tennessean and editor John Seigenthaler, Sr. led a successful fight to open the legislative chambers.
After Kovach spent a year at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
on a journalism fellowship, Scotty Reston
James Reston
James Barrett Reston , nicknamed "Scotty," was an American journalist whose career spanned the mid 1930s to the early 1990s. He was associated for many years with the New York Times.-Life:...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Washington bureau hired Kovach in 1968, and Kovach spent 18 years there, including serving as its Washington bureau chief.
After a tempestuous two-year tenure as editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when his staff won two Pulitzer Prizes and were finalists for several others, Kovach moved on to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1989 as a fellow, then curator, of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
He retired from Harvard in 2001 and returned to Washington, where he is senior counselor to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
He also serves on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism.
Awards
In 2000, Kovach received the Elijah Parish LovejoyElijah P. Lovejoy
Elijah Parish Lovejoy was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist. He was murdered by an opposition mob in Alton, Illinois during their attack on his warehouse to destroy his press and abolitionist materials.Lovejoy's father was a Congregational minister...
Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
.
He founded the Committee of Concerned Journalists
Committee of Concerned Journalists
The Committee of Concerned Journalists is a U.S. non-profit consortium of journalists, publishers, media owners, academics and citizens worried about the future of the profession....
, which works to increase the quality of journalism.
Besides The Elements of Journalism, Kovach is a co-author of Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media and Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload, all with Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel is an author, journalist, press critic and founder and director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism , a research organization that studies the news media and is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C...
.
In 2002, when it was discovered that USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
reporter Jack Kelley
Jack Kelley
Jack Kelley was a longtime USA Today reporter and nominee and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.He is perhaps best known for his professional downfall in March 2004, when it came out that he had long been fabricating stories, going so far as to write up scripts so associates could pretend to...
had fabricated some of his stories, USA Today turned to Kovach, along with veteran editors Bill Hilliard and John Seigenthaler Sr., to monitor the investigation.
Quote
“Journalism is the closest thing I have to a religion, because I believe deeply in the role and responsibility the journalists have to the people of a self-governing community.”External links
- Paula Devlin (2001). Profile of a Journalist
- Tracy Thompson. A Newsroom Hero - journalist Bill Kovach. Washington Monthly, May, 2000.
- Biography from Boston University
- Baccalaureate address by Bill Kovach at Boston University, 2007.