National Press Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Press Club is an association of journalists based in Washington, DC. It is well-known for its gatherings with invited speakers, including many presidential candidates and other influential politicians.
It was founded on March 12, 1908, by thirty-two newspapermen with $300 who met in the Gridiron Room of the Willard Hotel (across 14th Street from the current location of the National Press Building) and framed a constitution for the organization.
The Club founders laid down a credo at its founding which promised "to promote social enjoyment among the members, to cultivate literary taste, to encourage friendly intercourse among newspapermen and those with whom they were thrown in contact in the pursuit of their vocation, to aid members in distress and to foster the ethical standards of the profession."
The National Press Club has been a part of Washington life for more than 90 years. Its members have included all of the Presidents of the United States since Theodore Roosevelt. Most have spoken from The Club's podium, some to declare their candidacies for the highest office in the land.
During the Depression, the Club was well on the way to being recognized as one of the world's premier journalistic organizations. Regular weekly luncheons for speakers began in 1932 with an appearance by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today, an average of 70 luncheons annually provide a national forum for the views of Presidents, Prime Ministers, business and cultural leaders, members of the Cabinet and Congress. Over the years, major news has been made at The Club: Nikita Khrushchev, Winston Churchill, Madame Chiang Kai Shek, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Charles de Gaulle, Boris Yeltsin, Nelson Mandela, Yasir Arafat and many others have made headlines at the Press Club podium.
To many of the men and women who belong to the National Press Club, it is one of the world's foremost news forums, "the sanctum sanctorum of American journalists," as CBS commentator Eric Sevareid said in a memorable retirement appearance at The Club. "It's the Westminster Hall, it's Delphi, it's Mecca," said Severeid, "the wailing wall (for) everybody in this country having anything to do with the news business; the only hallowed place I know of that's absolutely bursting with irreverence."
