Political Journalist Howard D. Fineman to Speak at Pitt Oct. 18

PITTSBURGH—With less than a month to go before election day, the University of Pittsburgh’s Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy and the University Honors College will present renowned political journalist delivering a talk titled “Down to the Wire: The 2012 Presidential Election” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the J.W. Connolly Ballroom, First Floor, Alumni Hall, 4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

Fineman is editorial director of The Huffington Post Media Group. He also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and the author of the best-selling book, The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Century (Random House, 2008). 

Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg and Pitt Distinguished University Professor of Neuroscience and University Honors College Dean Edward M. Stricker will deliver opening remarks at the lecture. Pitt alumnus and Emeritus Trustee Dick Thornburgh (LAW ’57)—formerly governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. attorney general and currently counsel to the international law firm K&L Gates LLP in its Washington, D.C., office—will moderate the Q&A session following the lecture. Although the event is free and open to the public, seating is limited; therefore, registration is required by e-mailing www.thornburghforum.pitt.edu. For further information, contact Kimberly Carson at kac15@pitt.edu.

Joining The Huffington Post in 2010 as political editor, Howard Fineman was named editorial director of the newly created Huffington Post Media Group after the company’s 2011 merger with AOL. He is part of a team that has grown The Huffington Post into a leading online U.S. news site, with more than 40 million monthly visitors.

Previously, Fineman was chief political correspondent, senior editor, and deputy Washington bureau chief at Newsweek magazine, where he covered campaign-year politics, race and politics, and political theater. Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., where his coverage of the United Mine Workers’ record 111-day strike was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. 

Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1985 to then-Senator Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle.

Fineman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate University, a Master of Science degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a Juris Doctor degree from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.

About the American Experience Distinguished Lecture Series

The late Pitt faculty member Robert G. Hazo created the American Experience program at Pitt more than 40 years ago to offer Pittsburghers the opportunity to gain insight into political and economic thought with the intent of enlightening the public’s political discourse. The program’s current director is Edward L. McCord, director of programming and special projects in Pitt’s University Honors College and the director of the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy. 

About the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy

Established in 2007, the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy at the University of Pittsburgh fosters public education and civic action on important public policy issues, building on the legacy of Thornburgh. Among the Forum’s goals are to promote able and principled governance at all levels, to advance the rule of law at home and abroad, and to assist the government’s response to the special needs of persons with disabilities, many of them wounded in service to their country.

About the University Honors College

The University of Pittsburgh dedicated the University Honors College a quarter century ago, in 1987. Its mission is to assist the larger University as it seeks to meet the special academic and extracurricular needs of Pitt’s most motivated and inquisitive undergraduate students by providing intellectual challenge, inspiring individual effort, and fostering independence of mind and self-discovery. The Honors College also seeks to attract to Pitt students who have unusual talent, curiosity, drive, and philanthropic disposition.

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