If you didn’t already know, D.C. Pro member Austin Kiplinger has been an SPJ member longer than any other current member – 73 years, I believe. He was one of three people honored on Saturday as fellows of the society (the others were the late Nelson Poynter and the late Stanley E. Hubbard).
Kiplinger, the chairman of Kiplinger Washington Editors, said Marshall McCluhan’s assertion that "the medium is the message" isn’t true.
"Our profession, our mission, is content, not mechanism," Kiplinger said.
Electronic advances have brought a great deal of chatter that used to be between neighbors, he said. "Now, we have global gossip," he said.
But he said he has faith that standards will remain essential.
"I feel confident that we will filter the bogus from the real," he said.