Ken Auletta and Maureen Dowd A Hit At The SAC

The Southampton Art Center hosted a very successful talk with Ken Auletta and Maureen Dowd on Wednesday, July 15th at 5:00 pm. It was well attended and received a standing ovation at its conclusion,which included this author. It was a wonderful way to avoid the poisonous Canadian smoke that surrounded the area that weekend.

once again earns this author's praise for great programming at the SAC. This talk coincided with the exhibit titled, "The Story of America," that was organized by the "Museum of Democracy," that ended on July 18th.The exhibition was sponsored in part by The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, with General Operating support by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

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The audience enjoyed the interaction of and author/journalist, Ken Auletta , interviewing Maureen Dowd. Ms. Dowd was the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. She was also a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995 after being a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986. Shehas covered various presidential campaigns and has even served as aWhite House correspondent. She began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. What the audience enjoyed most was her wit, charm and knowledge of both the current Trump Presidency and her encyclopedic handle on all things political.

Ken Auletta has some powerful credentials too. He is an American author, political columnist for the New York Daily News and Media critic for The New Yorker. He is the author of thirteen books, including five national bestsellers, including—Three blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way; Greed and Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman. Ken often was tempted throughout the evening to share some information on his current project: a documentary on Rupert Murdoch. While he wasunable to totally share perhaps what he wanted, he did share the depth of the research he has done on all things Murdoch, he did tease with juicy tidbits threaded with known tales of the present family lawsuits for control of their vast media empire.

What made this night incredible for political junkies was the collection of recollections of meetings, interviews and articles that these two iconic journalists have had over the last 50 years with political leaders from Ed Koch to Donald Trump. They touched on billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. They even discussed their personal views on what is happening at both CBS News and The Washington Post. (Neither are happy with the direction journalism is going at both those places. )One thing about being a journalist is that you get the opportunity to spend time with fascinating people. That's why when journalists open up about their careers, the conversation is totally fascinating, and this author, who studied both politics and journalism in college, loved every second of it, as did the audience, who gave the two speakers a standing ovation.

SAC Summer Gallery Hours: July 2nd – September 7th

Thursday - Monday | 12 – 5 PM

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