Keeping the Promise: A Free Press in the Age of Distrust
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026 | 5:00 PM
Reception following the lecture
Wallace House Gardens
620 Oxford Road, Ann Arbor
Welcome remarks by Valeria Bertacco,
Vice Provost for Engaged Learning,
University of Michigan
RSVP here. RSVPs are not required, but are helpful for our planning
A special Democracy Week event
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that can not be limited without being lost.” – Thomas Jefferson
Two hundred fifty years ago this summer, a group of delegates in Philadelphia signed a document that risked everything on a single conviction: that ordinary people, given truthful information about those in power, could govern themselves. But that promise is harder to keep every year. The Information Age has transformed into information overload; it’s more difficult than ever to know what to trust, and in cities and towns across America, there are far fewer independent reporters demanding government transparency and holding our officials to account.
Join Christopher Baxter, 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow and founder of the Pennsylvania nonprofit newsroom Spotlight PA, for a discussion on how local news lost its way, why the future of our free society and the future of a free press are inextricably linked — as the founders understood in 1776 — and what journalists and the public can do to ensure the press can fulfill its constitutional role in service to “We the People.”
This is an in-person event and will not be live-streamed. However, a recording of the lecture will be available on our website following the event.
About the Speaker
Christopher Baxter is the CEO/president and founding editor of Spotlight PA, and oversees all aspects of the organization. His work as an investigative reporter and editor has regularly prompted meaningful change in the form of new laws and regulations, criminal investigations, resignations, legislative hearings, and more. Most recently, he was the editor for data and investigations at NJ Advance Media (NJ.com & The Star-Ledger), where he led the newsroom’s highest-level investigative projects with a digital-first approach and an emphasis on journalism that gets results. Previously, he was the Mike Wallace Fellow in Investigative Reporting with the Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan and, before that, worked for four years as a statehouse investigative reporter in The Star-Ledger’s Trenton Bureau. He began his career as a local reporter for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His work has garnered numerous state and national awards, including the 2014 Livingston Award in Local Reporting, the 2018 Investigative Reporters & Editors Freedom of Information Award, as well as the 2019 Knight Award for Public Service and the 2019 Investigative Data Journalism Award from the Online News Association.
About the Graham Hovey Lecture
The annual Graham Hovey Lecture recognizes a Knight-Wallace journalist whose career exemplifies the benefits of a fellowship at the University of Michigan and whose ensuing work is at the forefront of our national conversations. The event is named for the late Graham Hovey, director of the fellowship program from 1980 to 1986 and a distinguished journalist for The New York Times.
This event is a Community Partnership with
