Dear Poynter supporters,

Hello! My name is Josh Herrington, and I’m thrilled to be Poynter’s new development director. I spent the first two decades of my life in Orlando and Tampa. After graduating from the University of South Florida, I moved to Seattle where I spent the next two decades fundraising and marketing for nonprofits in the areas of public media, homeless services and the arts.

Earlier this year, I packed up my Smart car and my Bulldog, Gracie, and made the 3,000 mile, cross-country trek back to Tampa Bay to live closer to family and join the team at Poynter. Every day I’m fortunate to meet people who care about fact-based expression and connect them to an organization dedicated to improving the journalism you depend on to inform and enrich your life.

I hope you will join me at one or more of these exciting events coming up this fall. You’ll be inspired by dynamic speakers, meet my passionate colleagues and deepen your understanding and appreciation for journalism.

Looking forward to meeting you in person — hopefully soon,

Thank you,
Josh Herrington
Development Director
The Poynter Institute

P.S. If you are unable to attend one of these events, please consider donating to Poynter in lieu of attendance.
([link removed]) Thank you!

It’s Awesome, Baby! An Evening with Dick Vitale
Tuesday, Sept. 17 at the Palladium Theater

Known by fans everywhere as Dickie V, Vitale is college basketball’s top analyst and ambassador. Meet Vitale at a VIP reception and join Poynter for a lively conversation with the National Sports Media Hall-of-Famer about journalism, Vitale-isms and what it means to be “living the American dream.”

Tickets: [link removed]

How 'The View' Became the Must-Stop Show on the Road to 2020
Sunday, Oct. 13 at the Poynter Institute

ABC’s 'The View' has become an essential campaign stop for Democrats and must-watch TV for Republicans. How did this daytime talk show become what The New York Times called “the most important political TV show in America”? And what does that say about journalism, politics and our culture?

Join Poynter for a community conversation and VIP reception with Candi Carter, the award-winning executive producer of 'The View' and former producer of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' Katie Sanders, managing editor of PolitiFact, will interview Carter about the power of a majority-female audience, how to moderate authentic debate between political parties and why 'The View' might change the 2020 election.

Tickets: [link removed]

Poynter’s Bowtie Ball, honoring Katie Couric
Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Vinoy Renaissance Resort & Golf Club

Poynter’s annual Bowtie Ball celebrates the essential role of free press in our democracy – and ensures that it continues to thrive. Join us this year as we honor pioneering broadcast journalist Katie Couric and respected executive editor Norman Pearlstine. It will be a jubilant evening of libations, bowtie-inspired fashion and First Amendment fanfare.

Tickets are selling out fast, with only a few left for the VIP cocktail reception where you can meet Couric and Pearlstine. Act soon to guarantee your seat!

Tickets: [link removed]

In other news at Poynter:

PolitiFact is your trusty debate companion
If you watched the recent debates with 20+ candidates clamoring to have the best sound bite and moderators throwing out rapid-fire questions, you know it can be an overwhelming task to understand what’s going on.
Poynter’s PolitiFact is here to help. Our team is live fact-checking all the debates this political season, offering context and clarity to what politicians and pundits say. PolitiFact’s new partnership with Kaiser Health News
([link removed]) also helps us dive deeper into one of the top campaign issues for 2020: healthcare.

Follow PolitiFact on Facebook ([link removed]) and Twitter ([link removed]) to follow debate fact-checks as they happen or sign up for our PolitiFact Daily newsletter
([link removed]) to get the facts the next morning. See something you want us to check out? Send your question to: [email protected].

Poynter strengthens Tampa Bay schools

We’re known around the world for teaching journalists, but in the summertime, we turn our attention to local educators and students. If the student in your life has a favorite Tampa Bay English teacher, it’s likely he or she was trained by Poynter. For the fifth year in a row, we’ve taught more than 100 Tampa Bay English teachers during our Summer Language Arts Institute.

We also recently graduated 31 middle school boys from our nine-month Write Field program ([link removed]), 25 high schoolers from our High School Journalism program and launched our second year of the MediaWise teen fact-checking project ([link removed]).

Check out Poynter's "Man and Moon and Media" project

Go back in time as Poynter reflects on how mankind and the media came together on the surface of the moon 50 years ago. Check out our editorial package ([link removed]) that includes a series of original articles and a satirical front page that dares to imagine the response that any normal person might have while walking on the moon for the first time.

MediaWise adds ambassadors and Tampa Bay middle schools to its roster ([link removed])
Earlier this summer, we announced that several prominent journalists and social media influencers ([link removed]) have joined our friend and America’s most trusted news anchor, Lester Holt, as MediaWise ambassadors.

And MediaWise is partnering with two local middle schools to engage classrooms in the teen fact-checking network. Follow along on Instagram ([link removed]) to see the teens in action debunking misinformation on social media.

When America needs to understand mega media mergers, they turn to Poynter
Earlier this week when the nation’s two largest newspaper chains announced a merger, The Washington Post ([link removed]) turned to Poynter’s media business analyst, Rick Edmonds, to make sense of the move.

Speaking of turning to Poynter to make sense of the media, we’ve recently renamed our weekday morning newsletter, The Poynter Report. It’s written by someone you just might recognize — Tom Jones, Poynter’s senior media writer and a former sports columnist for the Tampa Bay Times.


With the media under attack and journalism at a crossroads, Tom felt a calling to join Poynter’s mission. We’re happy to have him lending his insight and expertise as he highlights outstanding journalism and helps make sense of the deluge of information coming at us. We hope that you’ll become a subscriber ([link removed]) to The Poynter Report and go behind-the-scenes with us.

Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here: [link removed]
The Poynter Institute, 801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 | www.poynter.org


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