A Deerfield Forum

How Does the Press Shape American Elections?

October 23, 2024 at 10:15 am in the Hess Auditorium

As part of our ongoing and collective work as an educational institution dedicated to inquiry and exploration, Head of School John Austin and the Deerfield Academy Academic Affairs Office are pleased to present the fourth Deerfield Forum. This fall’s event will bring together three important voices to discuss the question: “How does the press shape American elections?” Our moderator is chair of the Academy’s History and Social Science Department, Brian Hamilton.

This all-Academy event will take place on October 23 at 10:15 am in the Hess Auditorium.

As an institution, Deerfield has long believed that diverse perspectives fuel creative and innovative thinking and build empathy and consideration. To continue to encourage school-wide discussion and highlight diverse perspectives on issues of contemporary urgency, we are excited to continue the Deerfield Forum, which was first proposed by longtime Academy history teacher Joe Lyons, to provide regular, sustained, and, in some instances, required opportunities for listening and conversation among the student body.

The Forum models scholarly and civic engagement, and by staging conversations among scholars, professionals, and civic leaders, promotes constructive dialogue and active open-mindedness—a defining feature of Deerfield’s intellectual culture.

This year’s speakers

The Forum models scholarly and civic engagement, and by staging conversations among scholars, professionals, and civic leaders, promotes constructive dialogue and active open-mindedness—a defining feature of Deerfield’s intellectual culture.

Students, please come prepared!

Consider dipping into our guests’ writing before they arrive on campus.

Get to know our presenters

Annie Linskey

Meridith McGraw

Trump in Exile is available in Boyden Library
- Listen to an interview about Trump in Exile.
On X
Recent stories in Politico

Jay Rosen

Learn about our Speakers

Jay Rosen

NYU Journalism Professor and Press Critic

Meridith McGraw

National Political Correspondent, Politico

Annie Linskey

White House Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

What would you like to hear Mr. Hamilton ask Jay Rosen, Meridith McGraw '08, and Annie Linskey?

Annie Linskey

Annie Linskey is a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She’s reported from Washington, DC, since 2014, mostly focusing on Democrats, including the Obama and Biden White Houses along with presidential campaigns for Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. Linskey previously worked at the Baltimore Sun for about a decade covering crime and politics.

Meridith McGraw

Meridith McGraw is a national political correspondent at Politico, where she has worked since 2019, first as a White House reporter. This August, Random House published her first book, Trump in Exile, chronicling Donald Trump’s post-presidency. McGraw previously worked as a White House reporter and producer at ABC News, where she began her career. She is a regular contributor on television and has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC. She graduated from Deerfield in 2008, holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She grew up in West Virginia and now resides in Washington, DC.

Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen has been teaching journalism at New York University since 1986. He is the author of PressThink, a blog about journalism and its ordeals, which he introduced in 2003. In 1999, Yale University Press published his book, What Are Journalists For?, which is about the rise of the civic journalism movement during the pre-internet era. From 2017 to 2021 he was director of the Membership Puzzle Project, funded by the Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Luminate. The project studied membership models for sustainability in public service journalism. Rosen is also an active press critic with a focus on problems in the coverage of politics.

Brian Hamilton

Brian Hamilton chairs the History and Social Science Department at Deerfield Academy, where he has taught since 2019. His course offerings include Political Science 400: “Campaigns and Elections.” As a host for the New Books Network of podcasts, he has conducted over fifty interviews with scholars of environmental and economic history. A Maine native, he holds an M.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a B.A. in American Studies from Columbia University.