Schieffer and A-List Media Panel Grace Fort Worth, Texas

From a FBDC guest blogger (and proud mother of a certain DC journo) in Fort Worth, Texas:

Each year, Bob Scheiffer invites noted members of the media to his namesake journalism school at TCU. As always, Wednesday night’s event was entertaining, interesting and timely. This year’s panelists, David Brooks, Trish Regan, Gwen Ifill and Mark Sheilds, with Schieffer moderating, shared their perspective on President Obama, the stimulus package, Afghanistan, the recent firing of Rick Wagoner and the changes facing journalism.

As one might expect, they didn’t agree on all of the topics, but the consensus was that President Obama is a very calm, self confident decision maker and politician. They discussed whether or not Obama has “bitten off more than he can chew” in his policy initiatives.

Some of the more insightful moments were when Ifill noted that comedian Jon Stewart, not the mainstream media, took on CNBC’s Jim Cramer. Brooks discussed the constitutionality of the government taking over corporate duties and the intricacies of Afghanistan and the nature of the Taliban. Shields reflected on the great loss of investigative reporting if papers continue to fail, and cited Walter Reed Hospital in Washington as an example. Regan explained the nature of the banking and Wall Street environment to the Main Street of Fort Worth.

Questions from the audience ranged from the media’s treatment of Obama to the governments authority “to fire” corporate executives. The Schieffer Symposium brings the very best media analysts to Ft. Worth, and our community is very fortunate to have this event each year! At $15.00 per ticket, it’s a wonderful learning experience. Past guests have included: Tim Russert, Tom Brokow, Judy Woodruff and Bob Woodward.

Our guest blogger’s wish list for next year: Maureen Dowd, Charlie Gibson, Ted Koppel and Frank Rich.

Also check out the AP’s Schieffer Symposium coverage here and the Star Telegram’s here.

More photos after the jump…

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