National Press Club to Host Panel: 'Merriman Smith and UPI's Glory Days" Nov. 17

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Event: Panel to discuss "Merriman Smith and UPI's Glory Days"

When: Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: National Press Club, 529 14^th Street NW, Washington, DC 13^th Floor

Who: Panel includes:
Bill Sanderson, whose new biography of Smith, "Bulletins from Dallas"  has just been released;

Al Spivack, a former UPI White House Correspondent;

Gwen Gibson, who worked closely with Smith in the Eisenhower White House who went on to the NY Herald and the NY Daily News;

Sid Davis, who as correspondent for Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., was in the motorcade when Kennedy was shot and was aboard Air Force One with Smith when LBJ was sworn in as president. He was later Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News.

Tom Johnson, a young assistant press secretary in the Johnson White House who got to know Smith well. Johnson went on to be publisher of the LA Times and Dallas Morning News and president of CNN.

Also invited is Tim Smith, Merriman's son;

Mike Freedman will moderate the panel. He was managing editor of UPI's broadcast division and now is a senior vice president at the University of Maryland University College, teaches journalism at George Washington University and is a member of the Club's Board of Governors.

Details:

No one epitomized the scrappy determination of United Press International in the 1960's than  its legendary White House correspondent Merriman Smith. From the Franklin Roosevelt administration through Richard Nixon, he had a front row seat at the White House as he battled the Associated Press for every breaking news story.

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of President Kennedy's assassination – 52 years ago this month. He and the AP correspondent fought over the telephone in the press pool car just four cars back from the presidential limousine.

Tickets are $5 for NPC members, $10 for nonmembers and free for students. Reservations can be made by clicking here: http://www.press.org/events/merriman.

Contact: Gil Klein, 703-338-2721 or [email protected] for the Press Club

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080917/NPCLOGO

SOURCE National Press Club