John Hughes author talk: paper boy to Pulitzer

On July 10, 2014, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former editor of The Christian Science Monitor, John Hughes, discussed and read from his memoir of a career on the front lines of 20th-century history.  The book delves into Hughes’ reporting during the administrations of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Hughes won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1967, for his coverage of a bloody coup attempt in Indonesia, and the savage bloodbath that followed, along with the fall of President Sukarno.

Hughes wrote a syndicated column on national and international affairs for the Monitor for 27 years, and he is a former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

During the Reagan administration, he served successively as Associate Director of the United States Information Agency, Director of Voice of America, and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department Spokesman.

He also served as Assistant Secretary-General and Director of Communications at the United Nations.

The program included a period for questions and answers.  The Christian Science Monitor’s Editor-at-Large, John Yemma, introduced the talk.