"homicide, life on the street." he worked as a writer and later as a producer on that award-winning drama. went on to take a second leave of absence from the sun to research and write "the corner, a year in the life of the city neighborhood" about baltimore's drug trade. that inspired an emmy award-winning h.b.o. miniseries. "homicide" paveed the way for "the wire" a h.b.o. drama which ran for five seasons depicted baltimore's struggles with drugs, corruption, schools, and finally back to where we started, the media. in addition to his sometimes unflattering depiction of the media and the wire, he continues to vocally criticize the state of contemporary american journalism, taking aim at the producers and consumers of news. last month before a senate panel he said that he believes nothing can save high-end professional

journalism. now, despite all that he is doing what he can. he continues to work as a freelance journalist and author writing for the "washington post," the new republic, and details magazine among others i'm told. ladies and gentlemen, please give a nice national press club welcome to david simon. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]