ABOUT NORMAN SOLOMAN
Norman Solomon is an award-winning American journalist, media critic, author, and activist. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published by The New Press in June 2023. Author and activist Naomi Klein called the book “a staggeringly important intervention,” observing that Solomon writes “with immense and rare humanity” and “insists that we awaken from the slumber of denial and distraction and confront the carnage of the U.S.’s never-ending military onslaughts.” And Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now!” called the book “essential reading in these increasingly perilous times” and praised Solomon for “eloquently casting sunlight, the best disinfectant, on the propaganda that fuels perpetual war.” Solomon's dozen other books on U.S. militarism, media deception, and government propaganda include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, which MEF adapted into a 2007 documentary film of the same name narrated by Sean Penn. Solomon is the co-founder and national director of the online organization RootsAction.org, which now has upwards of 1.3 million online supporters; the founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a consortium of policy researchers and analysts; a longtime associate of the media watch group FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting); and has appeared as a guest on a variety of leading national media outlets, including the "PBS NewsHour," CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, "Democracy Now," C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," public radio’s "Marketplace," and NPR’s "All Things Considered."
ABOUT THE ELLSBERG LECTURE
The Ellsberg Lecture is sponsored by the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at UMass. The lecture series is named for legendary anti-war activist and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who passed away this past June at the age of 92. The Ellsberg Initiative was inspired by the acquisition of Ellsberg’s papers by the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives at UMass. The Initiative’s mission is to promote public awareness, scholarship, and activism on the overlapping causes that define Ellsberg’s legacy: peace, anti-imperialism, democracy, truth-telling, nuclear disarmament, and social and environmental justice. Last year’s inaugural Ellsberg Lecture was delivered by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Azmat Khan. This year’s lecture by acclaimed journalist, media critic, and anti-war activist Norman Solomon will be the first since Ellsberg, a close friend of Solomon’s, passed away earlier this year.
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