FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Ten Russian journalists in Fort Worth, Texas, for a month-long training program spent an afternoon at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary March 19.
Local reporters were scheduled to sit on a media panel to discuss religion reporting in America. Because of the impending outbreak of the war with Iraq, only Jeff Weiss of the Dallas Morning News was able to participate. Weiss, along with Southwestern’s director of public relations, David Porter, and news director, Greg Tomlin, met with the Russians for several hours.
Porter called the visit with journalists from the former Soviet Union a valuable learning experience, but was surprised by one topic. “They said they had never heard of Billy Graham,” Porter said. “I’ve been under the impression that everyone in the world had seen or at least heard of Billy Graham.”
The Russians are guests of the Fort Worth Rotary Club and are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for three weeks to learn about the U.S. newspaper and communications industries. Porter, a member of the Rotary Club, arranged the visit.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS.
