 "Photo: Will Halsey")
When Robin Toner passed away from colon cancer in December at the age of 54, she left behind a doting husband, two beautiful children and a legacy as a dogged political journalist. Ten months after her death, loved ones gathered Tuesday to honor her at Syracuse University, the place she once called home.
Peter Gosselin fought back tears as he talked about his wife.
"Nora, Jake and I are still living as if Robin's still on one of those campaign swings, the ones that always started with an afternoon call," he said.
Gosselin, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who is now a speech writer for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, joined with SU to bring together the nation's top political journalists in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse III Tuesday. They were there to honor the life of Toner, the first female political correspondent for The New York Times, at the "Robin Toner Symposium: Honoring the Life and Work of a 'Reporter's Reporter.'"
The journalists also served on a panel that reflected on challenges and opportunities that technology brought to political reporting during the digital age. Robert McClure, professor of political science and public affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Charlotte Grimes, the Knight Chair in Political Reporting at SU, moderated the panelists, asking each journalist to reflect on these challenges.
Gwen Ifill, a senior correspondent on PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," was one of the political journalists who came to commemorate Toner.
"I think of her as being someone who everybody else would stop and listen to when she asked a question because they knew she was getting to the heart of the matter," Ifill said.
Ifill was joined on the panel by Dan Balz, The Washington Post's national political correspondent, Beth Frerking, a senior editor at The Politico and Politico.com and Adam Nagourney and Jackie Calmes, political correspondents for The New York Times.
Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, announced the creation of an endowment in Toner's name Tuesday that will sponsor future lecture series and a contest to recognize outstanding political reporting. John Chapple, the chair of SU's Board of Trustees, donated $100,000 for the endowment's initial funding.
In discussions with Gosselin, Branham learned Toner had long felt a lack of recognition for exemplary work done by political journalists.
"I believe that political journalism is so important," Branham said. "If we could create a contest that would honor the work that the people are out there doing and recognize that work, it would be another way to encourage the people that are out there to do great political journalism."
Toner, a 1976 SU graduate, began her political reporting career in West Virginia at the Charleston Daily Mail before moving south to work at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. She joined The New York Times in 1985 and covered five presidential elections, including serving as lead reporter for the 1992 election between then presidential candidates Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.
Tuesday began with opening remarks from McClure, followed by a 10-minute video commemorating Toner's work in the industry. Then, Ifill and Richard Berke, the assistant managing editor of The New York Times, delivered a keynote address that included a letter from Jill Abramson, the managing editor of The New York Times.
Balz, The Washington Post reporter, believes today's journalists should take advantage of technology.
"We are in a period of enormous innovation and creativity unlike anyone of us has ever seen in our careers," Balz said. "The opportunity to re-create journalism, to me, is one of the exciting things we get to do."
Nagourney agreed with Balz, saying the stories continue to evolve as more reporters find more information.
"The final story is so much different than the original," he said.
Gosselin, Toner's husband, summed up the symposium with more words of inspiration.
"If a symposium like this could convince you to start out off on your own campaign swing, that would be quite a legacy for Rob to leave."
kcleach@syr.edu
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