We are pleased to continue our Distinguished Lecture Series, now in its 17th season. On Sunday, February 25, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. Peter Canellos, Managing Editor of Enterprise at POLITICO, will discuss “POLITICO, the Supreme Court, and the State of Journalism and the Law in the United States.”
In May 2022, POLITICO reported that the Supreme Court had voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and published a draft opinion. This report – reflecting an unprecedented breach of court procedures – set off shock waves. Chief Justice Roberts launched an investigation into the leak. POLITICO followed up with exclusive investigations into how right-wing activists had sought to influence the court, and on the court’s lax ethics requirements. That set the stage for a year and a half of relentless scrutiny of the court across the media landscape. Peter Canellos oversaw POLITICO’s coverage of the court as editor of all the reports and co-writer of some of them. A law-school graduate and author of an acclaimed work of Supreme Court history, he will share his thoughts on the shocking events of 2022 that altered America’s perceptions of journalism and the court.
Peter Canellos is the author of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero, which Publisher’s Weekly named as one of the top 20 nonfiction books of 2021. As managing editor for enterprise at POLITICO, he oversees the site’s magazine, investigative journalism, and major projects. He also has been POLITICO’s executive editor, overseeing the newsroom during the 2016 presidential coverage, and the editorial page editor of The Boston Globe.
A native of Boston, Peter is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School. He spent most of his career at the Globe, where at various points he oversaw the paper’s local news coverage and Washington, D.C., bureau. As the Globe’s editorial page editor, he authored numerous editorials urging Bostonians to overcome their parochial divisions and embrace their status as a world-class city.
He also edited the Globe’s book, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy, which was a top-10 New York Times bestseller in 2009. The book also set the stage for much of the analysis of Kennedy’s career following his death from cancer, and supplied most of the anecdotes for President Barack Obama’s eulogy of Kennedy.
For the past 12 years, Peter has worked with the International Women’s Media Foundation overseeing the Elizabeth Neuffer fellowship, given to a woman journalist from around the world to study human rights at MIT and intern at the Globe and New York Times. He has also traveled overseas on human rights trips with the US Holocaust Museum, International Reporting Project, and Robert Bosch foundation, among other groups.
Peter considers the many young journalists he’s hired and mentored over the years to be his greatest accomplishment. As an editor, he has overseen two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects along with five others that were Pulitzer finalists, among many other awards. As a writer, he was recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors award in 2011 for excellence in editorial writing along with the 2022 George Polk Award, Robin Toner Award, and News Leaders Association Batten Medal for his writing about the Supreme Court. He was also a named finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Now in its 17th season, the Distinguished Lecture Series is organized and hosted by Dr. Jeremy Yudkin. Dr. Yudkin is a resident of the Berkshires and Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Beethoven Research at Boston University. Every summer at the Lenox Library he presents the pre-concert lectures for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood season.
All programs in the Distinguished Lecture Series are free and open to the public.