Student and Veteran Journalists to Present at W&L’s 80th Institute on Media Ethics The symposium on journalism ethics in the real world will take place Nov. 6-7.
Byron Pitts
Garrett Shanley
Washington and Lee University’s 80th Institute on Media Ethics, a two-day symposium designed to spark discussion of journalism ethics in the real world, will feature two events open to the public on Thursday, Nov. 6, and Friday, Nov. 7.
Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC News’ long-running newsmagazine Nightline, will present a keynote speech at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 7. Garrett Shanley, a student journalist at the University of Florida who has won national journalism awards, will appear in a talk about his work at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6.
Both events, sponsored by the Knight Foundation and W&L’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, will be held in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons.
The Institute on Media Ethics will open with a conversation between Shanley and Eric Deggans, W&L’s Knight Chair of Journalism and Media Ethics. Shanley, a current senior at the University of Florida (UF), made national news for his reporting on Ben Sasse, UF’s former president. In a story that ran in the Independent Florida Alligator, the university’s student newspaper, Shanley broke news that spending in Sasse’s office had tripled to more than $17 million, as the former Republican U.S. Senator steered lucrative contracts to political allies who worked remotely outside the state. His reporting triggered an audit by state officials, and Shanley won the Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts in the student media category, an honor bestowed by the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas, Austin.
As an intern at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Shanley broke another important story about conflicts between faculty members and officials at the University of Florida over a new institute established on campus at the request of area Republicans aligned with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The story received one of the inaugural Collier Awards for Ethics in Journalism from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Shanley has also reported for the Miami Herald and WUFT-FM, the NPR member station in Gainesville, Florida.
“Garrett is the same age and at the same stage of his academic career as a lot of journalism students here at W&L, but he’s doing national-level reporting that exceeds the work of some professionals,” said Deggans. “At a time when some schools in other states are pulling back on support of their newspapers and student journalists, it becomes even more important to highlight the quality work that journalism students can do if they are given the right resources, instruction and inspiration.”
On Nov. 7, Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC News’ Nightline and chief national correspondent at the network, will deliver a keynote on the state of modern journalism and ethics in the industry. Pitts was named co-anchor of Nightline in 2014, serving as a key part of ABC News’ presidential election coverage in 2016 and 2020, including leading its daily docuseries “Inside the Final 30” that documented the last month of the 2016 presidential campaign by talking to voters about their choices. During his time at ABC, Pitts has covered a range of topics, including the Boston Marathon bombing, the death of Nelson Mandela, natural disasters in Kentucky and the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.
Before joining ABC, Pitts worked at CBS News, where he contributed to programs like the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes, reported under fire as an embedded journalist during the Iraq War, and covered the humanitarian crisis that emerged in New Orleans following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Pitts is also the author of “Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges” (2009), which describes his struggle with dyslexia and a speech impediment as a child. With the unwavering support of his mother, Pitts graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and speech communication from Ohio Wesleyan University and began building a career in broadcast journalism with jobs at local television stations.
“Throughout his career, Byron has served as an example of a journalist who operates at the highest level, reporting for the most storied programs in TV news and fueled by a strong set of personal and journalistic values,” Deggans said. “I am excited to see him bring the story of how he overcame such notable challenges to become a top-tier journalist to the students at W&L and the community here in Lexington.”
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