Basil Talbott
George
H. Gallup Professor
W335 Adler Journalism & Mass Comm. Bldg. (AJB)
319-335-0544 - cell: 515-991-3477
basil-talbott@uiowa.edu
Basil Talbott began reporting at the City News Bureau where his father started during the Front Page era, and moved to the Chicago Sun-Times where he worked for more than 35 years as political editor and Washington correspondent.
As a reporter, he covered the civil rights movement, riots, corruption and city and state government. As political editor, chief political writer and columnist in Chicago and then as a Washington correspondent, Talbott covered six Chicago mayors from Daley to Daley, six presidents, two national presidential campaign cycles, the fall of two U.S. House speakers, and the Illinois Legislature and the Congress.
In his last post, Talbott covered the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton for Congress Daily, a paper on Capitol Hill. He arrived in Des Moines five years ago to live in Des Moines, near where his great grandfather settled in 1845, and is in his fifth year of commuting weekly to Iowa City to teach a full load of classes.