Gwen Ifill and Jeffrey Brown anchor the live special broadcast
(Arlington, VA) PBS NEWSHOUR will provide comprehensive live coverage of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. A special daytime edition of the PBS NewsHour broadcast anchored by Gwen Ifill and Jeffrey Brown and a live stream of the inaugural events both begin at 11 A.M. Eastern on Monday, January 21, 2013. Online, the PBS NewsHour team will offer extensive reporting on the people, the process and the history of past celebrations.
The broadcast special includes live coverage at the Capitol building, including the swearing-in and President Obama’s second inaugural address. Plus, it will feature analysis by the NewsHour’s regular commentators syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Richard Norton Smith, scholar-in-residence at George Mason University; Beverly Gage, professor of 20th century history at Yale University; and Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of American legal history at Harvard Law School will contribute perspective and historical context.
Online, the PBS NewsHour website will list the schedule for the day’s events with a breakdown of what’s happening where and when. You can read our Inauguration Live Blog and watch a live stream of our broadcast special as well as extended live coverage of the inaugural parade.
Features on the regular NewsHour broadcast include:
Friday, January 18
• Inauguration Preview, a look at preparations underway to welcome the hundreds of thousands expected to watch the inauguration and parade. • Poet Robert Blanco will be just the 5th inaugural poet in the nation’s history. Jeffrey Brown speaks with him about what it is like to be the first Latino, first openly gay and the youngest poet chosen to read his work at a presidential inauguration. • Youth Perspectives on Presidential Politics, student journalists, participants in PBS Student Reporting Labs in high schools across the country gather their peers thoughts on presidential politics.
Online Features include:
• A live blog and a live stream of Inauguration events beginning on Sunday when President Obama will be sworn in at the White House. • A look back at NewsHour’s Inauguration coverage from the past 35 years, beginning with the swearing in of Jimmy Carter in 1977. • An Interview with Stephen Ayers, Architect of the Capitol, who oversaw construction of the massive stage and viewing stands built on the Capitol grounds for the inauguration • A Feature Report on Presidential Second Terms throughout history• A Presidential History Quiz to test your knowledge• NewsHour correspondents Ray Suarez and Hari Sreenivasan will report from the National Mall for the website and that evening's broadcast of the NewsHour. • An Inauguration Lesson Plan for Teachers: Attention middle and high school teachers, PBS NewsHour Extra! has developed a lesson plan that correlates to national standards to help teach students about presidential history and the inauguration. • Reports from Rising Stars: As part of a larger effort to recruit rising stars for future public media newsrooms, PBS NewsHour held a competition to identify leading student journalists across the country. The fourteen winning student journalists will travel to D.C. to participate in a multimedia short course and provide special coverage of the inauguration. More information and their reports can be found here: www.inaugblog.com
Tune in to PBS at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, January 21st or online at www.pbs.org/newshour for the PBS NEWSHOUR Inauguration Special.
PBS NEWSHOUR is seen by over 5 million weekly viewers and is also available online, via public radio in select markets and via podcast. The program is produced in association with WETA Washington, D.C., and WNET in New York. Major funding for the PBS NEWSHOUR is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers. www.pbs.org/newshour
Contact: Anne Bell, 703-998-2175
