David M. Rubin

David M. Rubin holds a B.A. degree from Columbia University in American history, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in communication from Stanford University. His teaching specialties are Media and Society, Communications Law, and Arts Journalism.

He served as Dean of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University from 1990 to  2008, and is now a member of the full-time faculty of the school. Prior to his service at Syracuse he was, for 19 years, a member of the faculty and chair of the Department of Journalism at New York University.  Rubin is currently host (and co-creator) of The Ivory Tower Half Hour, a regular round-table discussion of public affairs that airs on WCNY-TV every Friday at 8 p.m. It is the highest rated public affairs show, exclusive of news broadcasts, in the central New York television market. 

Rubin is a classical music lover of all genres, but particularly opera.  His first live opera experience was with the Met's spring tour to Cleveland and a performance of Tosca (April 23, 1963) with Mary Curtis-Verna Franco Corelli, and Anselmo Colzani.  He was a regular standee at the old Met between 1963 and 1966, and his first experience at the current Met was Faust with Gianni Raimondi, Mirella Freni, Giorgio Tozzi and the young Sherrill Milnes.  Since then he has seen nearly 1,000 live performances at the Met, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Cleveland Opera, Syracuse Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Covent Garden and English National Opera.

He is married to former broadcast journalist, Tina Press, with whom he lives in Fayetteville, NY — along with their two shelties, Bobby and Ace, both of whom are masters-level agility competition dogs.