2018 Oppenheimer Ethics Symposium
“Fighting to keep verified truth alive is a high calling, and everyone — journalist and citizens alike — play a vital role in making that happen,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times national security reporter Adam Goldman, who met with students and addressed a capacity crowd at the spring 2018 Oppenheimer Ethics Symposium Lecture held at the Moscow campus March 29.
Goldman covers the FBI and national security issues for the newspaper. He contributed heavily to the paper's reporting on the FBI investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump administration. He spent a full day visiting classrooms and with student media before delivering his talk titled “Reporting on the President, Spies and Why the Truth Matters.”
Using examples from his own career, which spans the Obama and Trump administrations, Goldman told the evening audience that fear of providing inaccurate information to the public has kept him striving. “Fake news,” complicates matters for reporters and citizens because officials call facts fake, and promote false information as true. The role of journalists, who must rise above the political fray to keep government accountable, has never been more important. He recommends readers stay informed through reliable news sources, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press.
Before moving to the New York Times, Goldman reported on terrorism and other related topics for The Washington Post. He previously worked on The Associated Press investigative team in Washington, D.C., and got his start in journalism at daily newspapers in Virginia and Alabama.
Goldman is the recipient of several journalism awards, including the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Harvard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a George Polk Award. In 2014, the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison named him a recipient of the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics for his reporting on a former CIA contractor who was abducted in Iran.
He is the co-author of “Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America.”
In addition to his Moscow talk, Goldman addressed the City Club of Boise.
The Oppenheimer Ethics Symposium is held annually by the University of Idaho’s Journalism and Mass Media in the College of Letters Arts and Social Sciences. The event is underwritten by a gift from alumni Douglas F. Oppenheimer, president of Boise-based Oppenheimer Companies, and Arthur F. “Skip” Oppenheimer, chairman of the board. Previous symposia have brought nationally known journalists, journalism educators and ethics experts to Boise and Moscow.
