Nat Hentoff on The Village Voice and the Cato Institute

Nat Hentoff is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. http://www.cato.org/people/nat-hentoff

In this clip, Hentoff discusses being fired by The Village Voice and hired by the Cato Institute as a Senior Fellow. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

Nat Hentoff is one of the foremost authorities on the First Amendment. While his books and articles regularly defend the rights of Americans to think and speak freely, he also explores our freedoms under the rest of the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment by showing how Supreme Court and local legislative decisions affect the lives of ordinary Americans. Hentoff's column, Sweet Land of Liberty, has been distributed by the United Feature Syndicate since 1992.

Hentoff has earned numerous awards and is a widely acknowledged defender of civil liberties. In 1980, he was awarded an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award for his coverage of the law and criminal justice in his columns. In 1983, the American Library Association awarded him the Imroth Award for Intellectual Freedom. In 1995, he received the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism, and in 1999, he was a Pulitzer finalist for commentary.

Hentoff was a columnist and staff writer with The Village Voice for 51 years, from 1957 until 2008. A jazz expert, Hentoff writes on music for The Wall Street Journal and Jazz Times.

Hentoff has lectured at many colleges, universities, law schools, elementary, middle and high schools, and has taught courses in journalism and the Constitution at Princeton University and New York University. Mr. Hentoff serves on the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) and is on the steering committee of the Reporters' Committee for the Freedom of the Press. A native of Boston, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in education and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950. He did graduate work at Harvard University, received his B.A. with highest honors from Northeastern University and was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from Northeastern in 1985.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cato institute
• nat hentoff
• village voice
• catoinstitutevideo
• jazz
• civil liberties
• libertarian

[shaudee67]

Nat Hentoff was the only reason I ever read the Village Voice. When he left, I was heartbroken. I was so pleased to see him resurface at the Orange County Register (I think that was the name) and subsequently found out from that publication that he had joined the Cato Institute. It is because of him that I learned of Cato (so good choice, Managing Director/Editor!!)

[luke55664]

@tmac9938 He is a great writer and historian.

[Firestryke2]

@boredmonkey29

well, yea...

more specifically, his speech on the possibility of John Yoo becoming a supreme court judge. whatevs

[boredmonkey29]

@Firestryke2 John Yoo has never been a judge. Was a DOJ official.

[Firestryke2]

he has alot of great stuff to say (not so much this video, more of a history lesson) but past intervews have been really informative...ex: his interview on hatecrimes, on judge john yoo

[tugger]

Nat is a big deal, but people young enough to stumble by him on youtube probably don't appreciate that. /wiki/Nat_Hentoff

[richardcadbury]

We don't care about the past expoits of some shagged-out old wino!

We want today's men; tomorrow's, not yesterday's.