Former Washington Post Editor to Deliver Lecture on Politics and Journalism Marty Baron’s Oct. 1 talk is open to the public.

By Emily Innes
September 17, 2024

Washington and Lee University welcomes Marty Baron, author of “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post,” to campus to deliver the Knight Foundation Ethics talk at 5 p.m. on Oct. 1 in Stackhouse Theater.

The 78th Ethics Institute event, hosted by Alecia Swasy, Donald W. Reynolds Chair in Business Journalism, is free and open to the public.

Baron retired as executive editor of The Washington Post in 2021 after leading the newsroom to 10 Pulitzer Prizes.

Before joining the Post, Baron was editor of The Boston Globe, which won international acclaim for its investigation of the Catholic Church’s concealment of child sexual abuse. The investigation earned the Pulitzer Prize for public service and was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.”

Prior to the Globe, Baron worked at The New York Times and the Miami Herald.

Baron’s book has been widely praised for its candor about life inside the Post newsroom under Jeff Bezos, as well as former President Donald Trump’s constant attacks on the media. The New York Times calls “Collision of Power” a “gripping chronicle of politics and journalism during a decade of turmoil.”

During his campus visit, Baron will also be a guest lecturer in Swasy’s Journalism Ethics class.

“Marty’s distinguished work as a journalist serves as a master class on holding the powerful to account,” Swasy said. “It’s a great privilege to have him return to campus to talk to our students and share his insights about the intersection of power and politics.”