Bernard Kalb

Bernard Kalb (born February 4, 1922) is an American journalist, moderator, media critic, lecturer, and author.

Life and career

Born in New York City, he covered international affairs for more than three decades at CBS News, NBC News and ''The New York Times''. Nearly half that time he was based abroad in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Paris and Saigon.

Near the end of his tenure at the ''Times'', Kalb received a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations - awarded annually to a foreign correspondent - and took a leave from the newspaper for a year. He also won an Overseas Press Club Award for a 1968 documentary on the Vietcong.

He and his younger brother, journalist Marvin Kalb, traveled extensively with Henry Kissinger on diplomatic missions and later wrote a biography together entitled ''Kissinger.'' The two brothers also co-authored ''The Last Ambassador'', a novel about the collapse of Saigon in 1975.

In 1984, Kalb was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and spokesman for the State Department. It was the first time that a journalist who covered the State Department had been named as its spokesperson.

Kalb quit this post two years later to protest what he called "the reported disinformation program" conducted by the Reagan Administration against the Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi. Kalb said of it, ″you face a choice, as an American, as a spokesman, as a journalist, whether to allow oneself to be absorbed in the ranks of silence, whether to vanish into unopposed acquiescence or to enter a modest dissent. Faith in the word of America is the pulse beat of our democracy.″

In his later career, Kalb travels widely as a lecturer and moderator. He was the founding anchor and a panelist on the weekly CNN program '' Reliable Sources'' from 1993 to 1998.

Education

Kalb graduated from the City College of New York with a B.S.S. and later received an M.A. from Harvard University.

Personal life

Kalb lives with his family in Maryland. He turned 100 in February 2022.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalb, Bernard
1922 births
Living people
Journalists from New York City
Television anchors from New York City
American male journalists
American television reporters and correspondents
American war correspondents
American war correspondents of the Vietnam War
American male non-fiction writers
American expatriates in Vietnam
American expatriates in Indonesia
American expatriates in France
American expatriates in Hong Kong
American centenarians
Men centenarians
CNN people
NBC News people
The New York Times writers
United States Department of State spokespeople
United States Assistant Secretaries of State
Harvard University alumni
City College of New York alumni
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists