Some say contemporary cable TV news pundits—the Glenn Becks, Sean Hannitys, even Keith Olbermanns-- have assumed the mantle once occupied by Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Henry Steele Commager, Noam Chomsky, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and others. Have public intellectuals retreated to academia, or do they still exist in American journalism, arguing “freely according to conscience,” per John Milton? Indeed what is a “public intellectual” and if this animal isn’t yet extinct, how can we catch its scent? Can we track it through bestselling non-fiction or cutting-edge features, or to newsrooms stripped threadbare by corporate mergers? Can we hear new roar thundering from two groups usually marginalized in those newsrooms: women and people of color? This course will examine these issues and personalities, and weave a seamless new paradigm of the public intellectual’s contribution to America’s current media universe.