News & Media

Poet James Merrill. The son of the founder of the Merrill Lynch brokerage house, Merrill took to Europe at age 24, a newly published poet "meaning to stay as long as possible". That was in 1950. His new memoir "A Different Person" (Knopf) details his two and a half years there, and features encounters with psychoanalysts, new and old lovers, and Alice Toklas. Merrill is the author of eleven books of poems, the winner of two National Book Awards, the Bolligen Prize for Poetry, and the Pulitzer Prize.

John Leonard reviews "New York Days" (Little, Brown, & Co.) by Willie Morris.

Journalist and former anchor of the CBS News, Walter Cronkite. Thirty years after Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech, Cronkite questions whether African-Americans choose to integrate into society or socialize primarily with each other. Cronkite's newest project "The Faltering Dream," questions whether integration is still a goal or if a "equal but separate" is a more appropriate approach to race relations. In "The Faltering Dream," Cronkite interviews notable black leaders including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee.

Columnist Rami Khouri. Khouri, a Palestinian Jordanian, is the former editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times newspaper and is now columnist there.

Commentator Gayle Pemberton on the importance of African-American magazines.

Correspondent for The New York Times, Malcolm Browne. He has a memoir about his life as a reporter, "Muddy Boots and Red Socks: A Reporter's Life." (Times Books). He spent two decades as a foreign correspondent for wire services, newspapers, and magazines. He followed troops in Vietnam, and took the famous photographs of Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire in the streets of Saigon. He won a Pulitzer for his coverage of Viet Nam.

Howell Raines is editorial page editor of "The New York Times." He's written a new "fishing" memoir, that's part sporting autobiography, and part guide-book for the middle years of life. "Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis," (William Morrow & Company). Raines also won the Pulitzer Prize for "Grady's Gift," a New York Times Magazine article about his friendship with a black woman in segregated Birmingham.

Foreign correspondent for "Newsday," Roy Gutman. He and his photographer were the first western journalists to report on genocide in a Serb-run concentration camp. Shortly after the story was published the camp was closed and the Red Cross let in. Their reporting led to public outrage, and official condemnation by the United Nations. Gutman won a Pulitzer Prize for this reporting.

American-Israeli Ze'ev Chafets. He is editor of "The Jerusalem Report," a news magazine published in Israel. He was the director of the government press office under prime minister Menacham Begin. He's also the author of "Inherit the Mob," a comic novel about a journalist lured into the Jewish Mafia, baited by a large inheritance.

Journalist Stan Sesser, who details the successful marketing of American cigarettes in Asian countries in a New Yorker article, (September 6, 1993). Sesser claims the continent of Asia consumes half the world's cigarettes. Of particular interest to American tobacco firms is China -- despite explicit laws prohibiting the sale or advertising of foreign cigarettes -- because three hundred million people smoke (more people than the entire population of the United States).

Miami Herald columnist and novelist Carl Hiaasen. "Strip Tease," Hiaasen's fifth novel and latest gonzo thriller, is a yarn, pitting a seamy Florida politician against the star stripper at Miami's Eager Beaver club. Mr.

Sportswriter and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Jim Murray He's just written his autobiography (Macmillan) about his five decades in journalism: as a young reporter for Time magazine following the 1952 presidential campaign and the rise of Richard Nixon's political career; working as one of the original writers for Sports Illustrated; and beginning in 1961, as sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times. His syndicated column once reached 200 newspapers a day and he has won the Sportswriter of the Year award a record 14 times. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

New York Times European diplomatic correspondent, Craig Whitney. Whitney is the author of a new book about espionage and spy swaps during the cold war in the two Germanys: "Spy Trader" (Times Books). Now living in Bonn, Whitney reports on the issues surrounding European unity: the rise of ethnic conflicts, and the crisis in Bosnia. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

New York Times Reporter Chris Hedges He's based in Cairo, Egypt where he covers the Middle East. Terry will talk with him about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt and Iran. In Iran, the militant group, Basij -- which is being funded by the Iranian Government -- has been cracking down on Western style behavior and culture in the Country.

Professional New York house cleaner and NPR commentator, David Sedaris. Sedaris occasionally reads from his diaries on NPR; he started this year around Christmas time, when he recounted tales of being a Macy's elf named Crumpet during the holiday season. Other pieces have covered life with window hangers, the world of soap operas, and smoking on a bench in Central Park with a non-smoker. He's recently signed with Little, Brown for a book of short stories and a novel.

Editor of the editorial page at the Des Moines Register, Dennis Ryerson. Ryerson and the staff are putting out the paper during the floods, without running water or electricity; they work in daylight with pencils and typewriters. Ryerson was in the unique position to report on the near fistfight between the Des Moines mayor and its city council over the right time to turn on the city's water supply.

Media and Political Correspondent for The L.A. Times, Tom Rosenstiel. During the 1992 Presidential campaign, he followed the ABC news team to see how the news media and the candidates affected each other and the campaign. His new book is "Strange Bedfellows: How Television and the Presidential Candidates Changed American Politics, 1992."

For many years Killen was the head of Tree International, Nashville's leading music publisher, writer and producer. Killen once played bass in Hank Williams' band for ten dollars a night; in 1989 he sold Tree to Sony for 50 million. He's worked with just about every star in the Country firmament: Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson; and many classics in the Country cannon: "King of the Road", "Okie from Muskogee" and the immortal "D-I-V-O-R-C-E". Killen's new autobiography is "By the Seat of My Pants."

Molly Moore is New Delhi bureau chief for "The Washington Post." She covered the war in the Gulf, traveling with a general and his troops into Kuwait, where she says she witnessed the allied ground attack on Iraqi troops, and the liberation of Kuwait. Moore has written a new book about it, called "A Woman at War."

Journalist David Remnick talks with Terry about the impact of history on today's Russia. Remnick was in Moscow recently and wrote a book called "Lenin's Tomb," which documents his research into the often violent legacy of the Soviet Union.