More than 200 people filled the dining room in Iacocca Hall on Thursday night for the 2026 Hagerman Lecture, featuring investigative journalist Carl Bernstein and historian Robert Kagan. This year’s lecture was titled “Freedom of Expression in Polarized Times.”
The annual Hagerman Lecture is organized annually by the Center of Ethics, which aims to promote ethical inquiry, reflection and global and personal engagement, according to their website.
Jessica Jackson, program manager in the Office of the Provost, said the center’s work spans a wide range of timely issues.
“I particularly enjoy supporting the Center for Ethics because it encompasses a wide array of topics and subjects that are interesting to a broad spectrum of people,” she said. “(It enables us to ask) ‘what is the relevant ethical question of the moment?’”
Kagan, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, is a former Washington Post columnist and author. Bernstein, also a former Washington Post journalist, is best known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal.
The panel discussion was moderated by Michael Gusmano, a College of Health professor and associate dean of academic programs. Before the lecture, Bernstein and Kagan attended a student Q&A and reception.
Gusmano opened the discussion by asking the panelists about seeking truth in a digital age shaped by artificial intelligence falsification, specifically “deepfakes,” in which a person’s body, voice or face is digitally recreated to spread fabricated information.
“You have to be an active searcher and consumer, and you have to look at different points of view and compare them and triangulate,” Kagan said.
Following Kagan’s response, Bernstein said he’s observed a shift in how news is disseminated, arguing that American culture no longer values truth in the same way.
He said a return to traditional reporting methods could serve as a starting point for overwhelmed news consumers.
“We need to go back to these basics of seeking out information from people,” Bernstein said. “Opening our minds to the best obtainable methodological version of how we go about that truth is a good starting place for all of us. ”
Gusmano then asked the panelists how Americans should navigate the truth when hearing from politicians and government officials.
Kagan said past presidents may have wished to silence the media but didn’t take actions as extreme as those seen today.
“Now, we have media that is being punished by the executive branch if it is not telling the story that they want to hear,” Kagan said.
Bernstein agreed and described the current political climate as a “cold civil war” that’s been building for decades.
“(Trump) has ignited that cold Civil War, and the result was not just authoritarianism, but a disdain for democracy, for democratic ideals such as we have never seen,” Bernstein said.
The panelists also discussed personalized media algorithms and their influence on social media users, particularly younger generations.
Kagan said he’s not ready to judge the current generation, adding that politics hasn’t disappeared, but the options available to young people are currently unappealing, a situation he said isn’t new.
Both speakers responded cautiously to a question from a younger audience member about shifting support to Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
Kagan said he has “political PTSD” from the 2016 election and still struggles to process President Donald Trump’s victory. He also said he no longer fully trusts his political instincts, noting that his past expectations have repeatedly been wrong, and said while he feels aligned with younger voters, he remains deeply uncertain and uneasy about the political future.
After the final audience question — which addressed manosphere-style podcasts and the challenge of reaching people who consume information — Bernstein offered what he called his only “fix.”
“We need to do the work,” Bernstein said. “Journalists need to do the work. I don’t accept for a minute that we’re ineffectual and that we have to be ineffectual. I don’t buy it. I think we’ve got to persevere.”
1 Comment
will video of the event be published?
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