EDITORS: John Hockenberry will be available on Thursday morning for media interviews. Please contact Tom Uribes in University Relations as soon as possible before noon on Wednesday (April 28) to make arrangements.

`Dateline NBC’ Correspondent to Speak On ‘Passive Media’ At Fresno State April 29

John Hockenberry, the award-winning “Dateline NBC” correspondent, will discuss “The Consensus of No Consensus: Passive Media in an Era of Active Crisis” at the next University Lecture Series on Thursday, April 29, at California State University, Fresno.

The talk will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union (address). Tickets are $10 for the general public ($12 at the door) and $6 ($8) for faculty.

A tea reception in Hockenberry’s honor will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Smittcamp Alumni House. Admission for the tea is $10 ($3 for students) and includes a free ticket for the evening lecture,

The reception is sponsored by Fresno State’s Rehabilitation Counseling Program of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development and the Disabilities Studies Institute also at Fresno State.

The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, the University Student Union, Associated Students, Inc., Coke and James Hallowell, KJWL, Borders and Piccadilly Inn Hotels.

Hockenberry, who is also a host for National Public Radio (NPR), has earned three Emmy awards, two Peabody awards and much critical acclaim. He served as a foreign correspondent for ABC News during the Persian Gulf War.

But the Fresno visit by Hockenberry, who uses a wheelchair, has special meaning for the Rehabilitation Counseling Program, said Dr. Charles Arokiasamy, program coordinator.

“He is a very powerful speaker,” Arokiasamy said. “I use his NBC Dateline documentary on ADA in class. This is a rare treat.”

Hockenberry’s most prominent “Dateline NBC” reports include a hidden-camera investigation

which confronted the discrimination facing the disabled community; an hour-long documentary on

the lives of three former AT&T employees affected by the companies’ massive lay-offs; and his extensive coverage for ”Dateline NBC” after Princess Diana died.

Hockenberry is also the author of “Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence,” his memoir of life as a foreign correspondent. He chronicles his life as a foreign correspondent and of overcoming obstacles due to the loss of the use of his legs 28 years ago from a spinal cord injury, Arokiasamy said.

In 1996, Hockenberry performed “Spokeman,” the one-man, off-Broadway show, based on his book.

He has also written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, I.D., The Columbia Journalism Review, Details, and The Washington Post.

Previously, Hockenberry served as a correspondent for the ABC newsmagazine, “Day One” (1993-95), where he contributed on a wide range of stories, including investigative pieces on NASA and a scientific controversy on AIDS, as well as an interview with controversial Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Prior to that, Hockenberry spent more than a decade with NPR as a general assignment reporter, Middle East correspondent and host of several programs.

During the Persian Gulf War (1990-91), Hockenberry was assigned to the Middle East, where he filed reports from Israel, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

He was one of the first Western broadcast journalists to report from Kurdish refugee camps in Northern Iraq and Southern Turkey. He also spent two years (1988-90) as a correspondent based in Jerusalem during the most intensive conflict of the Palestinian uprising.

Hockenberry received the Columbia Dupont Award for Foreign News Coverage for his reporting on the Gulf War and an Emmy for his television work.

Hockenberry served as anchor of “Talk of the Nation,” a daily two-hour live call-in show from Washington D.C. He anchored the broadcast from its premiere in November 1991.

In 1987, Hockenberry joined NPR where he won his first Peabody Award, while hosting NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday,” for a profile of a young man permanently injured during a drive-by shooting. He received his second Peabody Award in 1990, for his work on “Heat,” a daily, two-hour public affairs program Hockenberry helped create, co-produce and host.

Hockenberry’s broadcasting honors also include the 1984 and 1985 Champion Tuck Business Reporting Awards, the 1985 Benton Fellowship in broadcast Journalism, and the 1987 Unity in Media Award. He was named one of 40 “Journalist in Space” semifinalists in 1986.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Hockenberry grew up in upstate New York and Michigan, and attended both the University of Chicago and the University of Oregon. Hockenberry and his wife, Alison, live in New York City with their twin daughters.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY LECTURE SERIES

Advance tickets for the University Lecture Series are available at the University

Student Union Information Center (278-2078) and Borders Books in Riverpark Shopping Center in north Fresno. Tickets will be sold on a space-available basis at the Satellite Student Union Box Office from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 18.

Tickets are $10 general admission; $6 Fresno State faculty, staff, Alumni Association members and seniors; $5 elementary and secondary students; and $2 Fresno State students. Ticket prices on the day of the event increase by $2 for general admission, faculty, staff and Alumni Association members.

The University Lecture Series is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, the University Student Union, Associated Students Inc., Coke and James Hallowell, KJWL, Borders and Piccadilly Inn Hotels.

For further information contact the University Lecture Series office at 278-5309 or see www.csufresno.edWuniversitylecture/

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EDITORS and NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS: Press releases can be downloaded at www.fresnostatenews.com. University Relations also provides releases for news media companies via e-mail. To be added to the distribution list, send your e-mail address to tomu@csufresno.edu.