President Liz Quinn led us in the Pledge and My Country 'Tis of Thee and John Walker gave the prayer.  Good to have back with us were John Beck, Anne Black, Chuck Carlsen and Stephanie McCabe.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND HAPPY DOLLARS:

As a result of the meeting of the Board of Directors held on Tuesday, January 8, non-member luncheon guests will pay the same fee as members - $18.  Other adjustments will be forthcoming.  The three Key Clubs from Blair, Walt Whitman and Walter Johnson will have a bowling party at Bethesda Naval on Sunday, January 27.  All club members are encouraged to participate.  Contact Jeanne Smith for complete details.  As anything else that we do at Bethesda Naval, they must have a complete list of names before entering the gate.

Ann Black introduced her guest, Susan Gawling.  Pat Tiede's guest was Louise Richardson, and Jeanne Smith introduced Emily Apatov, who read about our club in the Bethesda Gazette, and Tracy Calahan from Bethesda Florist who has provided the wreath each year for our Veterans Day memorial celebration.  Hopefully these guests will consider membership in our club.

Happy Dollars: John Walker for his son  who will be back from Afghanistan in one week. Ben Schlesinger happy to be as Tragara where the food is superb. Stephanie McCabe  glad to be back. Chris VandeMoortel - for the Wider Circle group,  Bethesda Cares is also part of that group.  George Spicer  he likes the new location since he walks about one minute from Imagination Stage where he works. Anne Black  glad to be back and HD for her guest Susan. Jim Aylor  for John Walker's son.  Jeanne Smith  HD. Scott Brewer  recalls that 50 years ago Bethesda Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce was concerned that Bethesda had no parking places and the garage across the street from Tragara was one of the first parking garages. Tracy Calahan  HD for Jeanne Smith and for his sister who worked for Bill Pennington many many years ago. Liz Quinn- HD for Emily as potential member, also for our speaker Walter Pincus.

Our guest speaker Walter Pincus has been a free lance writer, writer for the Washington Post, editor, former Army counter intelligence officer- former staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under J. W. Fulbright. He had his first job after graduating from college as a copy boy at the New York Times. The two themes he discussed were the ability of the government to spin or present the news in a way which hides what is actually going on. And the tendency of reporters today to accept this without doing the hard work of investigating and interviewing  the original sources. Politicians now have media people and reporters have limited access to the candidates themselves. Today fewer people are reading the newspapers- the Post has taken surveys and found that the longer the article- the fewer people will read it. He noted that the Iowa caucuses were hardly an accurate assessment of potential votes- anyone could show up at the caucuses even non-residents.

A fascinating talk.

George Patterson, Editor