Marvin Leonard Kalb (born June 9, 1930) is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. Kalb was the founding director of the

Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center or ...

and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy from 1987 to 1999. The Shorenstein Center and the Kennedy School are part of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He is currently a James Clark Welling Fellow at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

and a member of the Atlantic Community Advisory Board. He is a guest scholar in Foreign Policy at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

Career

Kalb spent 30 years as an award-winning reporter for CBS News and

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. Kalb was the last newsman recruited by

Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...

to join CBS News, becoming part of the later generation of the "

Murrow Boys The Murrow Boys, or Murrow's Boys, were the CBS radio broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his time at the network, most notably in the years before and during World War II. Murrow recruited a number of newsm ...

." His work at CBS landed him on

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's "enemies list". At NBC, he served as chief diplomatic correspondent and host of ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

''. During many years of Kalb's tenures at CBS and NBC, his brother

Bernard Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "bra ...

worked alongside him. Kalb has authored or coauthored many nonfiction books (''Eastern Exposure'', ''Dragon in the Kremlin'', ''The Volga'', ''Roots of Involvement'', ''Kissinger'', ''Campaign ’88'', ''The Nixon Memo'' and ''One Scandalous Story'') and two best-selling novels (''In the National Interest'' and ''The Last Ambassador''). His book, ''The Year I was Peter the Great'', was published on October 10, 2017. Most recently, his book ''Enemy of the People: Trump's War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy'', was published by the Brookings Institution Press in 2018.His latest book is 'Assignment Russia' (2021) also published by Brookings. Kalb hosts ''The Kalb Report'', a monthly discussion of media ethics and responsibility at the

National Press Club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

''Haunting Legacy''

In ''Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama'' (Brookings Institution Press 2011), Marvin Kalb collaborated with his daughter, Deborah Kalb, in an attempt to present a history of presidential decision-making on one crucial issue: in light of the

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war? The Kalbs participated in a webcast interview of the book at the

Pritzker Military Library The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...

on October 27, 2011.

Partial bibliography

* ''Enemy of the People: Trump's War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy'' (2018), Brookings Institution Press, * ''The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956—Khrushchev, Stalin’s Ghost, and a Young American in Russia'' (2017), Brookings Institution Press, * ''Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War'' (2015),

Brookings Institution Press The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, . * ''The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed'' (2013), Brookings Institution Press, . * ''Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama'' (2011), Brookings Institution Press, . * ''The Media and the War on Terrorism'' (2003), Brookings Institution Press, .''The Media and the War on Terrorism''
from the

* ''One Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, and Thirteen Days That Tarnished American Journalism'' (2001, ) * ''The Nixon Memo: Political Respectability, Russia, and the Press'' (1994, ) * ''The Last Ambassador'' (1981, ) * ''In the National Interest'' (1977, ) * ''Kissinger'' (1974, ) * ''Roots of Involvement: the U.S. in Asia, 1784–1971'' (1971, ) * ''Dragon in the Kremlin: A Report on the Russian-Chinese Alliance'' (1961)

Trivia

Kalb's colleagues at NBC had a running joke involving an NBC affiliate in

Alexandria, Louisiana Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the prin ...

–

KALB-TV KALB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Washington Street in downtown Alexandria, and its transmitt ...

, referring to that affiliate as "Marvin's Station". At one point, ''Today'' co-host

Bryant Gumbel Bryant Charles Gumbel (born September 29, 1948) is an American television journalist and sportscaster, best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's '' Today''. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. Since 1995, he has hosted ...

, in a co-op promo for the station's upcoming feature about ''Today'' in 1985, identified the station as KALB, smiled into the camera, and then intoned, "Marvin's Station" at which point the off-camera crew broke up. Former Fox News political commentator Bill O'Reilly was one of Kalb's students.

References

External links

About Marvin Kalb
at ''The Kalb Report'' from the

website
Marvin Kalb's Profile at Harvard University
from the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

website
Marvin Kalb's Expert Page at The Brookings Institution
from The