Georgia Gang Panelists to Speak at September Luncheon

This month’s luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 16, is sponsored by Florida Coastal School of Law, Jacksonville, Florida. We would like to thank Florida Coastal for their sponsorship and for graciously offering to purchase a projector for the DeKalb Bar Association.

We are in for a new experience at our upcoming Bar luncheon. We will host the panelists of the Georgia Gang, a local political show seen every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. on WAGA-TV Fox5 Atlanta.

The Georgia Gang will provide a 25-minute-or-so “preview show” for the upcoming Sunday followed by a question-and-answer session. The show will be based on the latest topics in the news (weighted of course toward DeKalb County).

The Georgia Gang is Atlanta’s longest-running public affairs broadcast. It began in 1982 under the name “Sunday News Conference.” Originally an interview program, the show was modified to provide a weekly discussion of the issues in Atlanta’s missing and murdered children’s cases. Over time, it became a forum for state and local issues. Today, moderator Dick Williams heads up the panel of local community, business, and political experts including Phil Kent, Jeff Dickerson, and Alexis Scott.

It's the Georgia Gang: Jeff Dickerson, Phil Kent, Alexis Scott, and moderator Dick Williams

The Georgia Gang began in 1982 under the name “Sunday News Conference.” Originally an interview program, the show was modified to provide a weekly discussion of the issues in Atlanta’s missing and murdered children’s cases. Over time, it became a forum for state and local issues. Today, moderator Dick Williams heads up a panel of local community, business, and political experts that includes Phil Kent, Jeff Dickerson, and Alexis Scott.

Dick Williams has been reporting and analyzing politics and public policy for more than 30 years. For 17 of these years his column was featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Williams joined the newspapers in 1979 and served as executive city editor and business editor before becoming a columnist in 1981. In 1996, he purchased the Dunwoody Crier. In 1999, his column moved to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

For almost 25 years, Williams has been moderator of the Georgia Gang, seen now on WAGA-TV in Atlanta.
e-mail: thecrier@mindspring.com

Jeff Dickerson served more than 25 years as a journalist, including 17 years on the editorial board of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also op-ed page editor at the Detroit News. Dickerson was founding editor of news sections at the AJC. He has served as a reporter and editor and in many other newsroom capacities, and is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards.

The bulk of Dickerson’s journalism career has been in political advocacy, both as a columnist and editorial writer for several print organizations, including the AJC, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the Detroit News, the Atlanta Tribune and others. He has also served as a regular panelist on the Georgia Gang for 22 years. He is president of Dickerson Communications, a public affairs firm that provides public relations, issues-management and media consulting services to private- and public-sector clients. The firm provides public relations, issues-management and media consulting services to private- and public-sector clients. It has helped some of Atlanta’s most prominent organizations manage public crises, including Coca-Cola, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, MARTA, Delta Air Lines, AT&T, several state agencies, the Morehouse School of Medicine, the Atlanta Public Schools, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Grady Memorial Hospital and many others.
e-mail: jdmedia@comcast.net

Philip A. “Phil” Kent is a veteran award-winning journalist. He was an editorial writer, editorial page editor, and political columnist for the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle for 25 years. He was also a co-founder and chairman of the board of advisors (1997-2000) of the Washington, D.C.-based Editorial Information Network, an organization providing Capitol Hill information to the media.

Kent is now president of the Atlanta-based Phil Kent Consulting Inc., which specializes in media consulting. As an author, columnist and media commentator, he regularly appears on the Fox News Network, CNN, MSNBC, and syndicated talk radio programs across the nation.
e-mail: philkent@philkent.com

Alexis Scott is publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, a newspaper founded by her grandfather in 1928. She is responsible for the overall editorial content and general management of the paper, which targets the African-American community in metro Atlanta. In 1932, the Atlanta Daily World, founded by W.A. Scott II, became the nation’s first black-owned daily newspaper. The paper now publishes once a week and can be accessed daily at www.atlantadailyworld.com.

Ms. Scott joined the family business in 1997, following a 22-year career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Cox Enterprises, Inc., where she worked her way up from reporter to vice president/community affairs at the AJC and then director of diversity at Cox. Following a family/shareholders meeting in 1997, Ms. Scott and four other family members were elected to the board of directors of the Atlanta Daily World, Inc., and Ms. Scott was elected chair of the board, president and publisher.

In addition to her duties as publisher of the newspaper, Ms. Scott is a regularly featured commentator on the Georgia Gang. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Atlanta Life Financial Group, and a member of the advisory board of the Coleman Group, another family business in Atlanta. e-mail: publisher@atlantadailyworld.com

For more information visit www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/about_us/georgia_gang_page_060909.