May 9, 2007

Charles Bierbauer with Chuck Larsen
Photo by John Adair

Lake Murray-Irmo rotary Meeting Minutes May 9, 2007
Reporter - Herb Harrison

President Molly called the meeting to order. John Hanson introduced our guest which included a number of Interact Club Members and a special guest of Dr Carey Hite, Bill Brooks, who received a $500 scholarship in 1952 from the Bradenton FL Rotary club which enabled him to attend the Citadel. Mr. Brooks is a prospective member - and reads our blog. Lyman Whitehead once again counseled us on marriage with wisdom and inspiration. Beetle Bailey announced he officially retired May 8. Other announcements included our upcoming social June 6 and that our District 770, is close to raising the $1,000,000 goal for the Rotary Foundation. President Molly encouraged all to contribute to assist in attaining our goal. Harry Haefer is organizing and leading our clubs volunteers on the Harbison State Forest trail work project. President Molly mentioned it was five years ago that we began Happy Dollar and she was the first to contribute, celebrating the fact she had quit smoking. Congratulations Molly, with five years you may now qualify for UPNS life insurance rates!

Chuck Larsen introduced our speaker, former CNN correspondent Charles Bierbaur who is now Dean at THE University of South Carolina (’s) College of Mass Communications. Mr. Bierbaur spoke on several interesting subjects. First he asked “how do you convey what you do at USC?” Surveys conducted found that when asked about USC three out of four thought of the other USC. We are in a global age where USC needs to project itself to this global audience. Mass communication includes the College of Library and Information Science. They embrace traditional journalism as well as mass communication mediums such as the internet. He mentioned anyone can be a journalist however they attempt to teach professionalism and ethics in journalism. Journalism is frustrating due to the fact we are grounded in the first Amendment, 43 plain spoken words with broad implications. On the national stage Russia is pulling back from its recent reforms restricting the media by regulating what they are allowed to say. Nationally the Virginia Tec tragedy and how the media reacted illustrated in his words how the nature of media is changing. The media can become focused somewhat like a Cyclops without very good peripheral vision, focused on one event. Mentioning the manifesto released by NBC he discussed the responsibility of the media asking how the media discerns what information should be released and what should not. In politics he said it was interesting how politicians and media come together. The politician wants the media to get his message out with good publicity but the media will also look for bad news and inconsistencies. In closing he asked considering the number of sources and wealth of information from the internet, u-Tube and many other venues are we getting the right kind of information with sufficient quantity and quality.

President Molly adjourned our meeting after Mr. Bierbaur fielded several questions.