David Halberstam, Doctor of Letters
Among the many lessons of Vietnam is the enormous effect that can result from good reporting — dogged, honest, fearless reporting. Your careful, persistent dispatches for The New York Times — criticized by officials at the time but vindicated by the Pentagon Papers — changed forever a generation’s perception not only of the war but of government. Along the way you introduced into the language the useful phrase “The Best and the Brightest” to warn us of the unintended dangers that can lurk within an able but out of touch elite. In addition to your delightful sideline of chronicling the world of sports, you have, in dozens of books and countless articles, helped write the first draft of the history of the last half-century, from the Civil Rights Movement to declining productivity to the valiant efforts of firefighters on nine-eleven. At a time when the headlines too often cite dramatic breaches of journalistic ethics, we gladly honor you here today as a bright example of the importance, and the power, of what you proudly call “old-fashioned grunt reporting.”
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 6, 2004
Morton Owen Schapiro
President of the College