I heard about the legendary Professor David Paletz long before I ever met him. Throughout my freshman year in 1979-80 I would hear weekly tales from a group of admiring upperclassmen then taking his Politics and the Media class. Each week I would hear of the great films they had watched and the brilliant professor who seemed to know everything about everything and who promised that by the end of the year the student’s would see “how it all fits together”.
My first meeting with David – perhaps to get permission to take his class – resulted in me not only enrolled in his class but also with David as my faculty advisor, after he deemed my then current advisor not up to snuff. Later he would arrange an internship at The National Journal for me after the internship I had arranged on my own did not meet his standards.
So three classes with David, several semesters as his research assistant and at least one Gabriel soccer game later, I learned that all accounts of the great and engaging Professor Paletz were understatements. There is not much I remember about the classes I took at Duke, but I can still name almost every film shown in Politics and The Media.
All these years later I am still trying to figure out ”how it all fits together”, but surely closer for having been lucky enough to know and have learned from David.