[Insert Date]
It’s a real pleasure to join with you today for [this stamp dedication event/journalism panel discussion, etc.]. It might surprise you that the United States Postal Service and the news media share a long history.
Benjamin Franklin, who we like to consider our founder, wore quite a few hats in his time. And he wore two of them at the same time: he was a postmaster, and he was a newspaper publisher. In that dual role — a situation that wasn’t uncommon in those days — he helped to create an early version of the wire service.
Publisher-postmasters would routinely send their newspapers to each other to reprint articles they considered important — with proper attribution, of course.
And because mail was the only communication infrastructure that bound our country together, it became the nation’s earliest newspaper delivery system.
That early partnership still exists today, with more than 9 billion copies of newspapers and news publications delivered by the Postal Service in 2006 alone.
Since the first stirrings of our nation’s independence, the unique oversight role of the press — exercised by the countless reporters, editors, and columnists who work to get the story first and get it right — has served our nation well.
The same Constitution that recognizes the freedom of the press also establishes a system of checks and balances to keep any of the branches from going too far. The media, in its role as watchdog, has brought a potent practicality to that concept.
Over the years, the Postal Service has recognized some of American’s greatest and most innovative journalists through our stamp program. Of course there was Benjamin Franklin, and he was joined by people like Walter Lippman; Nellie Bly; Edward R. Murrow; Ethel Payne; Ernie Pyle; Marguerite Higgins; Ida May Tarbell; publishers Adolph Ochs, Henry Luce, and Joseph Pulitzer; and founding father James Madison. He was the author of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which was itself the subject of two postage stamps.
Today, we will add five more of America’s greatest journalists to this distinguished group, and we’re delighted to be here today to introduce them to you.
Each of these journalists covered events that changed our nation and changed the world. They are:
Martha Gelhorn. Her long and distinguished career included coverage of the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War, and broke new ground for women. Her dispatches on the effect of war on civilians brought a unique focus to the human costs of war.
John Hersey. His classic study of the aftermath of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima has been acclaimed as one of the greatest works of journalism in the 20th century. He covered World War II in both Europe and Asia and later reported on racial violence in modern America.
George Polk. He was a young CBS radio correspondent who filed hard-hitting reports from Greece describing the strife that erupted there after the Second World War. Just before his unexplained disappearance and death, he was working on a story about corruption involving United States aid.
Ruben Salazar. As the first Mexican-American journalist to have a major voice in the mainstream U.S. news media, he distinguished himself with reports on the Chicano movement of the 1960s. Like Polk, he was taken from us far too soon, the victim of a tear gas projectile shot by a police officer while covering a Vietnam War protest.
Eric Sevareid. He was recruited by the legendary Edward R. Murrow to cover the war in Europe and grabbed the world’s attention with his dramatic reports of the German’s approach to Paris and the exodus of civilians from the city. He later became one of the pioneers of network television news.
[Include information relative to local connections any of the stamp subjects have to the area, such as birthplace, early childhood, alma mater, places of employment, etc.]
These distinguished journalists risked their lives to record the events that shaped the modern world. Their work stands as a towering monument to the importance of a free press. It is our hope that Americans will use these stamps to honor these outstanding individuals who have served the cause of journalism well.
I’m pleased to be joined today for the unveiling of these stamp(s) by [insert name of person(s) and/or organization(s) here].
So [insert name of person/organization here], please join me at the drape for the unveiling of the American Journalists stamps.
