CNN-Los Angles Times Feb. 26 Democratic Presidential Primary Debate to Be Moderated by Larry King at University of Southern California

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 2004--The CNN-Los Angeles Times Democratic presidential primary debate in Los Angeles is scheduled for 6 p.m. PST Thurs., Feb. 26, in Bovard Auditorium on the University of Southern California campus. Moderated by CNN's Larry King, the debate precedes "Super Tuesday" on March 2 when nine states, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, hold their primaries.

The 90-minute debate will be broadcast live nationwide. King, host of CNN's top-rated program, "Larry King Live," will be joined by an interview panel that includes Los Angeles Times' national political correspondent and columnist Ron Brownstein and editorial page editor Janet Clayton.

The leading candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination on the California ballot with at least 10 percent of the vote in any previous 2004 presidential primary who are still engaged in an active campaign have been invited to participate.

Larry King

The Emmy-Award winning King has interviewed every U.S. president and first lady since Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon. During the 2000 election season, King moderated a Republican candidates' debate in South Carolina among now President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Alan Keyes. Also in 2000, King's 37 consecutive days of political coverage during the election recount in Florida featured 348 guests, including George W. and Laura Bush and Al and Tipper Gore with both respective vice presidential candidates giving King their first interviews after being selected as running mates. King has interviewed all the current major presidential candidates of the 2004 election season.

Ron Brownstein

Ron Brownstein has been a correspondent for The Times since 1989 and writes "The Washington Outlook" column. He was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of Washington, D.C.'s "Top 20 Journalists" in 2001 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1996. He earlier served as chief political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, a White House correspondent for the National Journal and a senior staff writer for Ralph Nader.

Currently a political analyst for CNN, Brownstein's broadcast and cable TV appearances include "Meet the Press," "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," "Nightline," "Good Morning America," the "Today" show, "CBS Morning News," "Newshour with Jim Lehrer," "Inside Politics," "Lou Dobbs Tonight," "Wolf Blitzer Reports," and "Larry King Live." He was a regular panelist for the CBS-TV show "Face The Nation" from 1995 to 1997.

Janet Clayton

Janet Clayton has been editor of the editorial pages of the Los Angeles Times since 1995 and is responsible for The Times' daily editorial and letters page, Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion sections. She began her career with The Times in the newspaper's Washington, D.C., bureau and served as a general assignment reporter for The Times in Orange County, as a metro reporter covering politics and as deputy city/county bureau chief in Los Angeles before moving to the Op-Ed pages.

Clayton was the editor of a Pulitzer Prize-winning (2002) series of groundbreaking Times editorials on the homeless mentally ill. Under her direction the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. has named the Editorial pages best in the state. The Sunday Opinion section has won a national gold medal from the Assn. of Opinion Page Editors.

About the Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes. The Times publishes five daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a National edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.

About CNN

CNN, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world's most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to 15 cable and satellite television networks; two private place-based networks; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; eight Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; and CNN Newsource, the world's most extensively syndicated news service.

Editors: Information about media credentials and debate media facilities will be issued shortly.