Former CBS News correspondent to deliver lecture on ‘Trump vs. the Media’

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At an upcoming lecture at the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University, former CBS News correspondent and University of Virginia professor Wyatt Andrews will explore the contentious relationship between President Donald Trump and the news media.

Wyatt Andrews.
Wyatt Andrews.

The lecture, “Trump vs. the Media,” will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, in room 1164 of the T. Edward Temple Building, 901 W. Main St. The event is free and open to the public.

“While it is normal for the relationship between the news media and government to be adversarial, we have never before faced a situation where the president is publicly referring to the Fourth Estate as the enemy,” said William G. Oglesby, assistant professor and journalism sequence coordinator at the Robertson School, which is part of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“Even if we acknowledge some political hyperbole as being behind this relationship, it is important that we consider how to respond and do our jobs under such unusual circumstances,” Oglesby added. “Wyatt Andrews brings many years of award-winning network reporting to VCU, where he can help all of our students understand what is behind the headlines and how to respond.”

Andrews, a professor of practice in UVA’s Department of Media Studies, teaches a course on the news media, providing a real time look at how the news media functions and the challenges it faces. He also teaches Basic and Advanced Multimedia News Reporting for students hoping to learn professional level reporting skills.

He was a CBS News national correspondent from 1991 to 2015, covering politics, veterans’ affairs, health care, energy and foreign affairs. He was the principal reporter for the “CBS Evening News” segment “Eye on America” from 1992 to 2007. And, during the 2008 presidential campaign, he was the primary correspondent for the “Reality Check” segment on the Evening News, focusing on political claims and distortions.

Andrews was CBS News’ U.S. Supreme Court correspondent from October 2003 to December 2009, was White House correspondent from January 1989 to April 1991, and was State Department correspondent from January 1988 to January 1989. Prior to that, he served as CBS News’ Moscow correspondent and bureau chief, as well as Tokyo and Asia correspondent.

Andrews’ lecture is part of the Turpin Lectureship in News Management, established in honor of former VCU journalism professor Bill Turpin’s dedication to journalism and to his students in mass communications. The lecture typically focuses on the news industry and the business of providing, reporting on and delivering the news.