Visit the Changing Media episode archive
Visit the Front and Center episode archive

This interview program began its run on UMTV in the fall of 2001. Created and hosted by Lee Thornton, the Richard Eaton Professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the program features in-depth conversations with Washington journalists about journalism — the practice, the issues, the ethics and the politics.

Front and Center episodes have featured:

Wolf Blitzer, CNN Senior National Correspondent. This program looks at Blitzer's journalism career, from his days as a Washington-based reporter for the Jerusalem Post to the present.

David Broder, Washington Post syndicated columnist who has been called "the finest political reporter of his time." Broder won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1973. This program considers Broder's ideas about journalism today, what it does right—and not so right.

Haynes Johnson, two-time Pulitzer-Prize winner and author of numerous books including the best sellers, "Sleepwalking Through History," and "The Bay of Pigs." This program discusses Johnson's latest book, "The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years," a social history. Johnson also re-caps a recent trip in which he returned to Cuba for observation and talks with Fidel Castro.

Jim Vance, anchor, and Wendy Rieger, anchor and reporter at NBC owned-and-operated WRC-TV in Washington. This program studies local television news issues.

Jack Nelson, Pulitzer-Prize winner and chief Washington correspondent of the Los Angeles Times who has covered every presidential campaign and national political convention since 1968 — and every major Washington scandal since Watergate. This program focuses on Nelson's history as a civil rights movement reporter in the South and on what that period meant to both the nation and journalism.

Kelly Wallace, CNN White House correspondent, who covered the Mid-East Peace talks at Camp David, the Elian Gonzalez custody battle in Miami, and the terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen, among other White House stories. This program examines the limitations of the White House assignment and the status of women in television news.

DeWayne Wickham, columnist, USA Today, and Renee Poussaint, former ABC News correspondent. This program asks and considers the question, "Is there a color line in journalism?"

Jim Bohannon, host, Westwood One's "America in the Morning." Bohannon, nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001, discusses the history of radio as a social force and the status of the news-talk medium today.