Kathleen Parker Kathleen Parker, a resident of Camden and a member of the faculty there at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, addressed a full house a couple weeks ago in the Belk Auditorium in the lower level of the Darla Moore School of Business. Parker is a syndicated columnist, a part of the

Washington Post Writers Group, whose twice–weekly column is published in 425 newspapers, making hers the most widely distributed column in the country.

Parker is a regular on TV’s “Face the Nation,” radio’s NPR and sometimes Jim Bohannon’s nightowls’ radio show, 1–5 am, heard locally on 1320 AM. Her 2008 book, Save the Males, has put her on transmission towers and cable lines as a social commentator, while her political and economic views are what keep her opposite the editorial page in 425 newspapers.

The night’s occasion was the Bucheit Family Lecture Series. The Bucheit family sold the Spartanburg Herald–Journal to the New York Times decades ago and continues to participate in journalism through its philanthropy.

Introduced by USC President Harris Pastides, Parker lectured in a confident, relaxed manner, sure of her position in the room and her position in journalism. As the token South Carolinian in the Washington Post Writers Group, Parker is asked regularly, “Can you explain South Carolina to us?”

Parker took the audience through her observations on the good of civil discourse, or maybe the lack of civil discourse, making her point that points are better made with a civil tongue than with a tongue lashing. Her favorite illustration was the pregnant pause before saying, “Bless her heart,” after offering estimations on a third party’s character.

A highly telegenic profile, Parker prefers to avoid television gigs to avoid celebrity journalism. Her message, she says, comes across more forcefully in the written word than in the pert picture on a flat screen.

Parker fielded questions, but she dodged the request to suggest what else can print journalists expect to do for a living when only the Wall Street Journal among the country’s major dailies gained readership in 2009.

“Oh, Honey, I don’t know,” was her answer. Which was probably the best answer. No one knows.