A Look at Fake News: Now and in Jefferson’s Time

Mr. Jefferson’s Salon Series returns to Poplar Forest on Thursday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m. to explore freedom of the press in America. This frank and illuminating discussion will look at the challenges of and for a free press during Jefferson’s time and historical analogues to the “fake news” currents today and how they challenge our free press, and consider why this constitutionally guaranteed right remains relevant today. Join award-winning author, lawyer and historian John Ragosta; Dr. Jeffrey Herbst, the president and CEO of the Newseum and the Newseum Institute; and Caroline Glickman, the managing editor of the Lynchburg newspaper, The News & Advance, inside Thomas Jefferson’s villa as they present their perspectives on the topic and engage the audience in conversation. The program concludes with a reception of wine and light hors d’oeuvres.

Much like the salons Jefferson himself attended in France, these salons are designed to encourage the exchange of ideas on issues or topics that were of interest or a challenge to Jefferson in his time and on why they continue to matter today. For the first Salon Series program of 2017, “Fake News: Now and in Jefferson’s Time,” Poplar Forest has invited three prominent experts on freedom of the press to join Jeffery Nichols, Poplar Forest’s president & CEO, in setting the stage for the conversation.

John Ragosta’s first two books––Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia’s Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution and Secured Religious Liberty and Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed––focus on the development and meaning of religious freedom in the United States. Professor Ragosta has taught history and international law at the University of Virginia and George Washington University, and history at Hamilton College, Randolph College and Oberlin College. He has been awarded fellowships by the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Noted political scientist and award-winning author Dr. Jeffery Herbst is the president and CEO of the Newseum and the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C., organizations that promote, explain and defend free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment: press, religion, speech, assembly and petition. He was president of Colgate University from 2010 to 2015; served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio; and taught at Princeton University for 18 years. He is the author of the award-winning States and Power in Africa and, with co-author Greg Mills, Africa’s Third Liberation and the just-published How South Africa Works and Must Do Better; as well as numerous articles published in papers around the world including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy.

Caroline Glickman is the managing editor of The (Lynchburg) News & Advance. She has spent her career in newspapers since graduating from Syracuse University in 1981. She worked at The Charlotte Observer for 17 years before coming to The News & Advance in 2004 as the paper’s city editor. She has been the managing editor since 2013. Her February 21st column “Here’s a Peek Behind Enemy Lines”addresses this topic.

Mr. Jefferson’s Salon, “Fake News: Now and in Jefferson’s Time,” will take place at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest at 1542 Bateman Bridge Road, Forest, Virginia, on Thursday, March 30 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For directions, please visit poplarforest.org/visit/directions.

Reservations are suggested due to limited space inside the house and can be made by calling the Museum Shop at 434.534.8120. Admission is $15 for adults (ages 18 and up) and $10 for college students (must show ID).