=============2022-2023============
Oct. 18, 2023, (l-r) Gerald Eskenazi, Ira Burkow, Harvey Araton
Sept. 20, 2023,Paul Steiger and Steve Engleberg
Paul Steiger & Steve Engleberg
Paul Steiger, founding editor of ProPublica, and Steve Engelberg, its editor in chief, discuss how their newsroom has garnered its enviable reputation for investigative journalism
May 17, 2023, James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart, NY Times business reporter and author of the new book Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
April 19, 2023, Steven Brill
Steven Brill
Steven Bill, recipient of the Silurians 2023 Peter Kihss Award
March 15 2023, Joyce Purnick
Joyce Purnick
Joyce Purnick, recipient of the Silurians 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award
February 15 2023, Sandra Peddie
Sandra Peddie
Sandra Peddie, Newsday investigative reporter and author of “SONNY, the Last of the Old-Time Mafia Bosses, John Sonny Franzese“
January 18 2023, Jelani Cobb
Jelani Cobb
Jelani Cobb, journalist and Dean of The Columbia School of Journalism
December 21, 2022, David Gelles
David Gelles
David Gelles, NY Times climate reporter and author of “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.”
November 16, 2022, Maggie Haberman
Maggie Haberman
Maggie Haberman, a White House Correspondent for the New York Times and author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”.
October 19, 2022, Janno Lieber
Janno Lieber
Janno Lieber, chairman and executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
September 19, 2022, Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta, acclaimed and best-selling New Yorker writer who has published a new book on Harvey Weinstein.
=============2021-2022=============
May 18, 2022, Bill McDonald
Bill McDonald
Bill McDonald, New York Times Obituary Editor.
April 20, 2022, Tim Weiner
Tim Weiner
Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of a series of books on intelligence agencies and national security.
March 30, 2022, Mikhail Zygar and James Brooke
Mikhail Zygar – James Brooke
Mikhail Zygar, Russian writer and filmmaker. James Brooke, journalist, VOA Moscow Bureau chief and founder of a Ukrainian English-language business newspaper.
March 24, 2022, Chester Higgens Jr.
Chester Higgins Jr.
Chester Higgins Jr, legendary artist, photographer and recipient of the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.
February 16, 2022, Edward Sorel
Edward Sorel
Edward Sorel, award-winning artist, caricaturist and author.
January 19, 2022, Steven Roberts
Steven Roberts
Steven Roberts, journalist and author.
December 15, 2021, Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen, journalist, author, documentary producer.
November 17, 2021, Michael Wolff
Michael Wolff
Michael Wolff, journalist and best-selling author.
October 20, 2021, Bill Sanderson
Bill Sanderson
Bill Sanderson, NY Daily News writer and editor, and author of “Bulletins from Dallas.”
September 22, 2021, Michael Riedel
Michael Riedel
Michael Riedel, New York Post theater columnist and co-host of Theater Talk on WOR.
=============2020-2021=============
June 16, 2021, Bill Whitaker
Bill Whitaker
Bill Whitaker, “60 Minutes” correspondent.
May 19, 2021, Marty Baron
Marty Baron
Marty Baron, former Washington Post editor.
April 21, 2021, Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Ben Smith, New York Times media reporter.
March 17, 2021, Ralph Blumenthal
Ralph Blumenthal
Ralph Blumenthal, veteran New York Times reporter.
February 17, 2021, Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Petri, humor columnist at The Washington Post.
January 13, 2021, Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Donald G. McNeil Jr
Donald G. McNeil Jr., the science and health specialist at The New York Times.
December 16, 2020, Marvin Kalb and Bernard Kalb
Marvin Kalb and Bernard Kalb
Marvin Kalb and Bernard Kalb recipients of the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.
November 18, 2020, Clyde Haberman and Maggie Haberman
Clyde Haberman and Maggie Haberman
Clyde Haberman is a retired New York Times columnist and correspondent. His daughter, Maggie Haberman, is the White House correspondent for The Times.
October 21, 2020, Andrea Bernstein
Andrea Bernstein
Andrea Bernstein, author of “American Oligarchs,” her book about the Trumps and the Kushners.
September 16, 2020, Jonathan Dienst
Jonathan Dienst
Jonathan Dienst, chief investigative reporter for NBC 4 New York (WNBC) and recipient of the 2020 Peter Kihss Award.
=============2019-2020=============
June 24, 2020, Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw, legendary anchorman, NBC News.
February 19, 2020 Jeff Danziger
Jeff Danziger
Jeff Danziger, a syndicated political cartoonist.
January 15, 2020 Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly
Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly
New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, co-authors of “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh.”
December 18, 2019 David Callaway
David Callaway
David Callaway, founding editor of Marketwatch.
November 20, 2019 Vicky Ward
Vicky Ward
Vicky Ward, investigative reporter and author of “Kushner, Inc”.
October 16, 2019 Steve Kroft
Steve Kroft
Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes,” recipient of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award.
September 18, 2019 Gabriel Sherman
Gabriel Sherman
Gabriel Sherman, author of “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” a biography of Roger Ailes.
=============2018-2019=============
June 19, 2019 Keith J. Kelly
Keith J. Kelly
Keith J. Kelly, Media Ink columnist for the New York Post.
May 22, 2019 Debby Krenek
Debby Krenek
Debby Krenek, publisher of Newsday Media Group.
April 17, 2019 Rich Lamb
Rich Lamb
Rich Lamb of WCBS Newsradio, and the recipient of the 2019 Peter Kihss Award.
March 20, 2019 Dan Barry
Dan Barry
Dan Barry writes the “This Land” column in The New York Times.
February 20, 2019 Tony Schwartz
Tony Schwartz
Tony Schwartz, writer and journalist.
January 16, 2019 Les Hinton
Les Hinton
Les Hinton, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and former CEO of Dow Jones.
December 19, 2018 Craig Newmark
Craig Newmark
Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist
November 19, 2018 Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta writes the Annals of Communications column in The New Yorker.
October 17, 2018 Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. is chairman of The New York Times Co.and former publisher of The Times.
September 26, 2018 Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times for 40 years.
=============2017-2018=============
June 20, 2018 Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour (Sy) Hersh is a contributor to The New Yorker.
May 16, 2018 David W. Dunlap
David W. Dunlap
David W. Dunlap of The New York Times, recipient of the 2018 Peter Kihss Award.
April 18, 2018 Andy Borowitz
Andy Borowitz
Andy Borowitz is the author of The Borowitz Report: Not the News.
March 21, 2018 Dan Rather in conversation with Gary Paul Gates
Dan Rather and Gary Paul Gates
Dan Rather, former anchor of CBS Evening News, and Gary Paul Gates, a former CBS colleague, are co-authors of “The Palace Guard,” a study of the inner workings of the Nixon White House.
February 21, 2018 David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author.
Jan 17, 2018 Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuval is publisher and editor of The Nation magazine.
Dec 20, 2017 Ronan Farrow
Ronan Farrow
Ronan Farrow is a freelance reporter whose articles on sex scandals in Hollywood were among 2017’s biggest scoops.
Nov. 15, 2017 Stephen B. Shepard
Stephen Shepard
Stephen B. Shepard, editor, educator and recipient of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Oct. 18, 2017 Jim Rutenberg
Jim Rutenberg
Jim Rutenberg, media columnist at The New York Times.
Sept. 20, 2017 Floyd Abrams
Floyd Abrams
Floyd Abrams is an attorney known for his ardent defense of the media in First Amendment cases.
=============2016-2017=============
June 21, 2017 Cindy Adams
Cindy Adams
Cindy Adams is the longtime columnist at The New York Post.
May 17, 2017 Anthony (Tony) Mancini
Anthony (Tony) Mancini
Tony Mancini, head of the journalism program at Brooklyn College, is the recipient of the 2017 Peter Kihss Award.
April 19, 2017 Errol Louis
Errol Louis
Errol Louis is the host of NY1’s “Inside City Hall.”
March 15, 2017 Chris Hayes
Chris Hayes
Chris Hayes is the host of MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.”
February 18, 2017 Brian Stelter
Brian Stelter
Brian Stelter, CNN’s media correspondent and host of “Reliable Sources.”
January 18, 2017 Joe Lelyveld
Joe Lelyveld
Joe Lelyveld is the former executive editor of The New York Times.
December 21, 2016 Clyde and Maggie Haberman
Clyde and Maggie Haberman
Clyde Haberman is a retired New York Times columnist and correspondent. His daughter, Maggie, is a Times political reporter.
November 16, 2016 Betsy Wade
Betsy Wade
Betsy Wade, formerly of The New York Times, is the recipient of the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.
October 19, 2016 Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Toobin, chief legal analyst for CNN and staff writer at The New Yorker.
September 21, 2016 Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times.
=============2015-2016=============
June 15, 2016 Sree Sreenivasan
Sree Sreenivasan
Sree Sreenivasan, the first Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
May 18, 2016 Dan Sforza
Dan Sforza
Dan Sforza, managing editor of The (Bergen) Record, is the recipient of the 2016 Peter Kihss Award.
April 20, 2016 Robert Caro
Robert A. Caro
Robert Caro, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
March 16, 2016 Ken Thompson
Ken Thompson
Ken Thompson, the District Attorney of Brooklyn.
February 17, 2016 Jane Bryant Quinn
Jane Bryant Quinn
Jane Bryant Quinn is an authority on personal finance.
January 20, 2016 Peter Gelb
Peter Gelb
Peter Gelb is general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
December 16, 2015 Mary Pflum
Mary Pflum
Mary Pflum is a veteran producer at ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.
November 17, 2015 Gay Talese
Gay Talese
Author Gay Talese, formerly of The New York Times, is the recipient of the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.
October 21, 2015 Bill Keller
Bill Keller
Bill Keller, editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, is the former executive editor of The New York Times.
September 24, 2015 Matt Winkler
Matt Winkler
Matt Winkler is the founder and editor-in-chief emeritus of Bloomberg News.
=============2014-2015=============
June 18, 2015 Mimi Sheraton
Mimi Sheraton – photo by Noah Fecks
Mimi Sheraton, former New York Times restaurant critic, award winning food writer and author of several acclaimed books, including her latest “1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die”
April 21, 2015 Neal Shapiro
Neal Shapiro
Neal Shapiro, president and CEO of WNET and former president of NBC News
March 18, 2015 Margaret Sullivan
Margaret Sullivan
Margaret Sullivan, public editor, The New York Times
February 19, 2015 Liz Smith
Liz Smith
Liz Smith, legendary columnist hailed by many as “The Grand Dame of Dish”
January 15, 2015 Norman Pearlstine
Norman Pearlstine
Norman Pearlstine, chief content officer at Time, Inc. and former executive editor of The Wall Street Journal
December 10, 2014 Sandy Socolow,
Silurians 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree
Sandy Socolow
Sandy Socolow of CBS News, recipient of the Silurian 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner.
November 20, 2014 Robert F. Fiske
Robert Fiske Jr.
Robert F. Fiske Jr., former Whitewater Special Counsel
October 14, 2014 Lucinda Franks
Lucinda Franks
Lucinda Franks, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of “Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, & Me”
September 16, 2014 Lynn Sherr
Lynn Sherr
Lynn Sherr, former ABC TV News correspondent and author of the best-selling “Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space”
=============2013-2014=============
June 19, 2014 Gerard Baker
Gerard Baker
Gerard Baker, editor in chief, The Wall Street Journal
April 14, 2014 Steve Coll
Steve Coll
Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, staff writer at The New Yorker, author of seven books of nonfiction, and a two-time Pulitzer-Prize winner
March 18, 2014 Kate O’Brian
Kate O’Brian
Kate O’Brien, president of Al Jazeera America and former senior vice president for News at ABC News
February 18th 2014 Walt Bogdanich
Walt Bogdanich
Walt Bogdanich, assistant editor in the investigations unit of The New York Times and three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
January 14th 2014 Preet Bharara
Preet Bharara
Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
December 17th, 2013 Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Ben Smith, editor in chief of BuzzFeed
November 14th 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner Seymour Topping
Seymour Topping
The Board of Governors have selected Seymour Topping as this year’s recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award. Topping (aka Top), who is approaching his 93d birthday, has spent some 67 years in journalism. From the age of 16, when he was the editor of his high school newspaper he knew he wanted to be a journalist, specifically, a foreign correspondent in China. (He was inspired by Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China, a seminal book on the beginning of China’s communist party).
After serving as an infantry officer in World War II, he realized his dream in 1946. International News Service hired him as a stringer with the title of Chief Correspondent for North China and Manchuria. He was based in Peking, where he covered the Chinese civil war. In 1947, INS put him on staff in Nanking. Six months later he joined the Associated Press and covered the fall of Nanking to the communists. A year later he established AP’s Saigon bureau, becoming the first American correspondent in French Indochina after World War II and the only one there when hostilities broke out. After two years, AP sent him to London, where he covered the diplomatic beat and then, in 1956, was assigned to a divided Berlin as bureau chief. In 1959, Topping joined the staff of The New York Times. He was assigned to Moscow as chief correspondent. He covered the first space shots, de-Stalinization and the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1963, he became the paper’s chief correspondent for Southeast Asia, covering the wars in Indochina. Other parts of the globe where he was based include the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. After 20 years abroad, Topping returned to New York to become the paper’s foreign editor and then was promoted to managing editor. He ended his 33-year career at The Times as the Director of Editorial Development. Upon leaving The Times he became the Administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a position he held for nine years. He also was a professor at the J School (now emeritus) and, after his retirement in 2002, he conducted a seminar at Columbia’s School of Arts and Sciences on The Evolution of Media and the Public Interest – History and Issues. Top has continued to write and lecture at other venues in the United States and China. He is president of the international advisory board at Tsinghua University in Bejing. In March 2010, Topping published his latest memoir: “On the Front Lines of the Cold War: An American Correspondent’s Journal from the Chinese Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam,” a book about his experiences on the ground in covering the major events of that era. His other books include “Journey Between Two Chinas” and two novels. Professional affiliations include the presidency of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and chairman of their committee on international relations. He is married to Audrey Ronning Topping, the photojournalist, documentary film maker, and author. They have five daughters. The award will be presented at our fall dinner Thursday, November 14th.
October 15th 2013 Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee
Linda Ellerbee, award-winning host of the Nickelodeon network’s “Nick News with Linda Ellerbee,” former reporter and anchor at NBC News and author of the best-selling autobiography “And So It Goes”
September 19th 2013 Harry Rosenfeld
Harry Rosenfeld
Harry Rosenfeld, metropolitan editor of The Washington Post during Watergate, who helped oversee the newspaper’s award-winning coverage of the scandal, and recently retired editor of the Times-Union of Albany
=============2012-2013=============
April 18, 2013 Are Medical Bills Killing Us? Steven Brill
Steven Brill
Steve Brill, founder and editor of the American Lawyer magazine and Brill’s Content, creator of Court TV and author of the 25,000-word, 36-page cover story of the March 4, 2013 issue of Time entitled “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us”
March 21, 2013 Covering Koch Joyce Purnick, George Arzt, JoAnne Wasserman
Panelists Joyce Purnick, New York Times reporter and editor; George Arzt, Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary and former New York Post City Hall Bureau Chief; JoAnne Wasserman, former NY Post political reporter, offering their takes on the tenure of “Hizzoner”
February 21, 2013 Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy, prize-winning author of 15 books, including “Passages, which remained on The New York Times best seller list for more than three years, and one of the original contributors to New York Magazine
January 17, 2013 David Rohde
David Rohde
David Rohde, Pulitzer-Prize wining foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times, who made news himself by describing his escape from seven harrowing months in Taliban captivity in Afghanistan. He is now a columnist for Reuters
December 4, 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem Nina Zacuto for the Journalism & Women Symposium
Gloria Steinem, writer, editor, feminist and activist, whose advocacy of gender equality has placed her in the pantheon of civil libertarians, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of the Silurians
November 15, 2012 Lynn Povich and Stephen Shepard
Steve Shepard and Lynn Povich
Wife-and husband duo Lynn Povich, former editor in chief of Working Woman magazine and managing editor of MSNBC.com. and Steve Shepard, founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, discussing their recently published books
October 18, 2012 Clyde Haberman
Clyde Haberman
photo-Fred Conrad/NYT
Clyde Haberman, former foreign correspondent and New York Times columnist and 2008 winner of The Peter Kihiss Award.
September 20, 2012 Marlene Sanders, Gary Paul Gates and Sandy Socolow
Marlene Sanders, Gary Paul Gates and Sandy Socolow
Esteemed colleagues Marlene Sanders, Gary Paul Gates and Sandy Socolow, distinguished journalists all, shared memories from their experiences working with Mike Wallace.
============================================
2011 -2012
May 17, 2012 Robert Lipsyte
Robert Lipsyte
Robert Lipsyte The Peter Kihss Award 2012 Honoree For his outstanding accomplishments as a journalist and fiction writer and his generosity as a mentor to younger colleagues.
April 19, 2012 Brian Williams
Brian Williams
Brian Williams News Anchor and Managing Editor of NBCNightly News
March 15th Gail Collins
Gail Collins
Gail Collins Columnist, Editor, Author Gail Charms or Inflames with Trenchant Opinions Wrapped in Droll Wit
February 16, 2012 Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly #1 in Cable News – #1 in Conservatives’ Hearts – #1 in Liberals’ Disdain Fasten Your Seatbelt. It’s Going To Be Bumpy.
January 19, 2012 Nicholas Lemann
Nicholas Lemann
Nicholas Lemann As Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Nick not only knows it all; he can explain it so well that even those of us who have not published five books, written for the New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, and worked with the BBC can grasp it.
December 15, 2011 Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta
Come travel the information superhighway with “Literary Lion” veteran journalist Ken Auletta. For the past 20 years Ken has written the “Annals of Communications” column for The New Yorker and authored 10 books, including his latest bestseller Googled: The End of The World As We Know It.
Nov 16, 2011 The Society of the Silurians 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree
Ruth Gruber
Ruth Gruber
Legendary Journalist, Photographer, Author, Humanitarian… Ruth Gruber didn’t just report the news, she made news. In the Soviet Arctic and Siberian gulag as the first journalist ever to visit. And aboard the ship Exodus where her photos recorded the plight of Holocaust survivors.
October 13, 2011 Pete Hamill
Pete Hamill
- Pete Hamill
September 15, 2011 Mimi Sheraton
Mimi Sheraton
Mimi Sheraton
If Star Wars had been a tale of the food universe, Mimi Sheraton would have been “The Force.” Don’t miss this chance to hear from the woman who all but invented the field of food criticism. We will also have a limited number of paperback editions of Mimi’s superb memoir, “Eating My Words” for you to purchase at a special Silurians price.
2010 -2011 . . . It Was a Very Good Year! . . . and it resumes in September
 Frank Rich |
Frank Rich2010 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner |
 Tom Brokaw. photo Random House Inc. |
Tom BrokawJanuary 20, 2011 Luncheon |
 Charles Osgood. Photo CBS. |
Charles OsgoodFebruary 17, 2011 Luncheon |
 Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky – photo UPenn |
Marjorie Margolies-MezvinskyMarch 17, 2011 Luncheon |
 Jules Feiffer – photo charlierose.com |
Jules FeifferApril 21, 2011 Luncheon |
 Joe Berger |
Joseph Berger2011 Peter Kihss Award Winner |