AMES, Iowa -- Chicago Tribune journalist Joe Mahr will speak on "Watchdog Journalism in the 21st Century" on April 8 at Iowa State University. Mahr's talk will be at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Part of the university's First Amendment Days celebration, the presentation is free and open to the public.
Mahr previously worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Toledo Blade, where he was part of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning team that uncovered the U.S. Army's 26-year cover-up of the atrocities committed by Tiger Force during the Vietnam War. The reporters also received The Medal by Investigative Reporters and Editors, a Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting, a Nieman Award from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, and an investigative reporting award from the Associated Press Society of Ohio.
Mahr's investigative work also included an investigation into allegations that the Toledo police refused to arrest or investigate abusive priests for the Toledo Blade, and a series of stories looking at abuse and neglect in the mental health system for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Mahr earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University.
Mahr's talk is cosponsored by the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Iowa State Daily, Lee Enterprises and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.
More information on ISU lectures is available at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling (515) 294-9935.