At 6:00 p.m. on Monday, Apr. 28, KO News writers and school faculty gathered in Alumni Hall for KO’s annual Baird Journalism Dinner, named in honor of former KO English Department Chair Warren Baird, who served as a faculty advisor for the KO News for 22 years before handing off the torch in 1989. This year, KO welcomed Eric Levitz ’06, a senior correspondent for Vox and a seasoned political journalist.
After a delightful dinner provided by Sage Dining and a short introductory speech delivered by senior and former KO News editor-in-chief Raine Wang, Mr. Levitz was welcomed to the podium to share his outlook on his career and the field of journalism as a whole.
Contrary to what one might expect, Mr. Levitz didn’t start his journey in writing with the goal to one day become a journalist—as a kid, he found passion in comic books and other forms of fiction. Although he wrote for the KO News during his tenure at KO, Mr. Levitz attended college with the intent to emerge as a creative writer, earning both a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and a master’s in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins.
However, finding stable footing as a writer outside of college proved to be difficult, and he eventually switched gears to journalism, where he discovered a passion for political discourse. Since then, Mr. Levitz has contributed to several news organizations, including MSNBC and New York Magazine. Now a senior correspondent at Vox, Mr. Levitz covers a wide range of topics within the American political sphere. Currently, he produces articles covering Trump’s latest actions in D.C., the economic state of the country, and how the Democrats could potentially promote the future of their party in a column he calls “The Rebuild.”
As a political journalist, Mr. Levitz works to balance his own political opinions and theories with the “unbiased” perspective often demanded by some audiences. In a call we shared before the dinner, Mr. Levitz explained that he tries to be diligent in maintaining a level of professionalism in his research and writing. “ My work is not objective in the sense of taking a neutral position,” Mr. Levitz clarified, “but my fundamental obligation and responsibility is to inform my readers and to be as accurate as I can.” He noted that in this new age of social media, it can be more and more difficult to sort the real from the fake—one of the many challenges plaguing media consumption today.
In his speech at the Baird Journalism Dinner, Mr. Levitz called attention to a few more issues dogging the field of journalism. One obstacle he highlighted was the tense relationship between the Trump administration and the media. “Whatever else one may say about Donald Trump, it cannot be seriously denied that the man lacks reverence for the First Amendment in general, and freedom of the press in particular,” Mr. Levitz asserted. He then brought up the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, an international student at Tufts University who condemned the genocide in Gaza in her pieces for the school’s newspaper, leading her to be taken off the street and held at an immigration detention center for over a month. Her student visa was also revoked without her knowledge.
Fear of persecution on the basis of one’s political views, however, was not the only challenge Mr. Levitz spotlighted in his speech. He also brought attention to the ways in which the internet and the rise of generative AI have begun to change the way people source and consume information. “[When] it comes to providing quick, simple nuggets of information to readers, AI chatbots—and Google’s AI overview feature—can often outperform news outlets,” Mr. Levitz said. “Or at the very least, AI can produce this content faster and cheaper than humans can, in part by cannibalizing journalists’ past work.” On that cheery overview of the current state of the news, Mr. Levitz joked that any aspiring journalists in the audience might want to participate in a safer and more practical occupation, like professional gambling.
However, although most of his speech took a rather somber outlook on the prospects of the journalism field in the future, Mr. Levitz also provided attendees with a call to action. “Part of the solution is a new generation of young people eager to tell the stories our society needs to hear,” Mr. Levitz claimed. “So, if anyone here feels driven to pursue that vocation, I’d encourage them to follow that impulse—at least, if you don’t have a similar passion and talent for blackjack.”
Once again, the Baird Journalism Dinner provided an amazing opportunity for both students and faculty to learn more about the field of journalism and media. The dinner is a fascinating peek into the lives, career paths, and opinions of leading writers in the journalistic sphere. We were so lucky to welcome Mr. Levitz back to KO for this special event, and we are excited to continue the long and important legacy of the Baird Journalism Dinner for years to come.
