Comment from Deborah Bonello
Date: Mar 3, 2009

Hey Jim - that link to Walter’s lecture doesn’t work - I’d really like to listen to it…any ideas where I can find it?

Comment from Jim Bettinger
Date: Mar 3, 2009

Sorry. Link’s been changed. Try this one: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/about/about-walter-isaacson/articles-walter-isaacson/hays

Comment from Peter Herford
Date: Mar 4, 2009

A voice from the past and now from China where I have been teaching for the past six years on the adventure of a lifetime. I hope you will have occasion to visit.
I read with interest and no surprise the increase in applications that you had this year. Small wonder as the pain of change ripples through journalism.
Among your applicants was a colleague and friend Mei Fong, a Pulitzer winner from the WSJ in the Beijing Bureau. Her husband and I were teaching colleagues at Columbia when you and I first met during the search that elevated you to your current role.
Long way of satisfying my curiosity of why Mei did not make the first cut? The reason I ask is that I get frequent requests from journalists about the value of the Knight and what their chances are. I realize selections are a moving target from year to year based on many factors, but when a Pulitzer winner doesn’t make the cut, I wonder if the very fact that she achieved the ultimate accolade was what kept her from consideration.

I hope this find you well and I am sincere when I say I hope you can find time to come to China where we can show you a slice of the reportorial world that you may not have thought of inthe context of this fascinating country.

cheers

peter