MAY 1999 Volume 28, Number 5
IMPRIMISBecause Ideas Have Consequences 27th The End of year Admiration The Media and The Loss of Heroes 840,000 subscribers Peter H. Gibbon Research Associate, Harvard University Peter Gibbon notes that journalists have eter Gibbon is a research often encouraged cynicism and celebrity wor- Passociate at Harvard Univ- ersity’s Graduate School of Ed- ship at the expense of idealism and heroism, but ucation. The author of numer- he suggests that their influence can be more ous articles in harmful in the era of “instant communication.” such publications Dr. Gibbon’s remarks were delivered at “The as Newsweek, the Fourth Estate: A History of Journalism,” a sem- New York Times, inar hosted by Hillsdale College’s Center for the Los Angeles Constructive Alternatives and Herbert H. Dow II Times, and the Program in American Journalism. Washington Post, he is currently at travel around the country talking to work on a book about the disap- Americans about the loss of public heroes. I pearance of public point out that New York City’s Hall of Fame heroes in Amer- for Great Americans attracts only a few thou- sandI visitors each year, while Cleveland’s Rock and ican society. Dr. Gibbon holds Roll Hall of Fame draws over one million. degrees from Harvard, Case- I describe a 25-foot stained glass window in the Western Reserve University, and Cathedral of St. John the Divine–dedicated in the Columbia University Teachers 1920s to four athletes who exemplified good char- College. A longtime teacher and acter and sportsmanship–and I offer a quick list of administrator, he has done titles of contemporary books on sports: Shark extensive research on the educa- Attack, on the short and bitter career of college tional systems of Japan, China, and Germany, and for ten years coaches; Meat on the Hoof, about the mercenary he served as headmaster of the world of professional football; Personal Fouls, on Hackley School in Tarrytown, the mistreatment of college athletes; The Courts of New York. Babylon, on the venality of the women’s profes- sional tennis circuit; and Public Heroes, Private Felons, on college athletes who break the law. I contrast two westerns: High Noon, which won four Academy Awards in 1959, and Unforgiven, which was voted “Best Picture” in 1992. The hero of Also in this issue: High Noon, Will Kane, is a U.S. marshal. The hero Daniel Sundahl of Unforgiven, Will Munny, is a reformed killer and Editors Wanted: alcoholic reduced to pig farming. Inquire Within I mention that our best-selling postage stamps feature Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and that
A Monthly Publication of Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242 IMPRIMIS Because Ideas Have Consequences our most popular TV show was, until it left the air we can turn to countless radio stations, videotapes, recently, Seinfeld. and web pages. I remind my audiences that Thomas Jefferson This explosion of information means is now thought of as the president with the slave we now have a vast menu of choices mistress and Mozart as the careless genius that allows us to be transported to who liked to talk dirty. many different worlds and pro- I add that a recent biography of vides us with educational opportu- Mother Teresa is titled The Missionary nities undreamed of thirty years Position. ago. It also means that we spend I offer some reasons for the more time in front of televis- disappearance of public heroes. ion and computer screens Athletes have given up on and less time reading to being team players and role our children. It is no models. Popular cul- wonder that our chil- ture is often irrev- dren have shorter erent, some- attention spans times deviant. and smaller Revisionist his- vocabularies. torians present an unforgiving, skewed picture of the past. Biographers are increasingly hostile toward their subjects. Social scientists stridently A Wired World assert that human beings are not autonomous but are conditioned by genes and environment. Hovering in the background are secularism, long with this vast menu of choices is the which suggests that human beings are self-suffi- absence of gatekeepers. As parents, we cient and do not need God, and modernism–a need to realize that there are dangers that complex artistic and literary movement that repu- come with too many choices and too few guides.A We need to remind ourselves that their diates structure, form, and conventional values. Finally, in an age of instant communication, well-being depends not only on nutrition, sun- in which there is little time for reflection, accura- light, and exercise; on friendship, work, and love; cy, balance or integrity–the media creates the but also on how they see the world. Subtly and impression that sleaze is everywhere, that nothing powerfully, the media helps shape their world view. is sacred, that no one is noble, and that there are The media has a liberal bias, but its central no heroes. bias is toward bad news. Accidents, crimes, conflict, and scandal are interesting. Normality is boring. The prevalence of bad news and the power of the Nothing to Admire image encourage children–and us–to overesti- mate the chance of an accident, the risk of disease, adio, television, and computers offer the rate of violence, the frequency of marital infi- news with such speed that newspaper delity. The average policeman, for example, never and magazine circulation has plummet- fires a gun in action, and most Americans are ed, and readers have smaller vocabular- monogamous. Ries. I recently wrote an op-ed piece syndicated in In a wired world with no restraint, the media several newspapers. My title, “Nil Admirari,” can misinform us. It can also make us suspicious, which means “nothing to admire,” came from the fearful, and cynical. It can lead us to lose faith in Roman lyric poet Horace. None of the newspapers our nation, repudiate our past, question our lead- used the title, and one editor reminded me that ers, and cease to believe in progress. newspaper stories are now aimed at a sixth-grade We know the worst about everyone instantly. reading level. Over and over again, we see clips of George Bush In the Age of Information, the image reigns. vomiting, Dan Quayle misspelling “potato,” There are 81 television sets for every 100 Gerald Ford tripping. No longer do we want our Americans. In the typical household, the television child to grow up and become president. We harbor is on six hours a day. Television has become our dark suspicions about the personal conduct of chief source of local and national news, and scoutmasters, priests, and coaches. We think army broadcast journalists have become more promi- sergeants harass their subordinates. We have trou- nent and more powerful than columnists. There ble calling any public figure a hero. A wired world used to be three channels. Now, there are over one becomes a world without heroes, a world of nil hundred. When we weary of television channels, admirari, with no one to admire.
2 Americans tell pollsters the country is in moral treated like philosopher–kings, telling us how to and spiritual decline. In the midst of peace and live. In a recent interview, actress Sharon Stone, prosperity, with equality increasing and health star of Basic Instinct, advises parents to make con- improving, we are sour. With our military powerful doms available to their teenagers. and our culture ascen- Aggressive and anxious for dant, pessimism prevails. In the Age of Infor- ratings, television news shows feature hosts and guests who mation, the image come armed with hardened Crusaders reigns. There are 81 opinions. Many are quick to or judge and prone to offer easy television sets for solutions for complex Rogues? problems. “Talking heads” every 100 Amer- argue, yell, interrupt, and hould we blame rarely make concessions. journalists? It is icans. In the typical But in the world of nil certainly tempt- household, the tele- admirari, journalists are ing. Just as we now reviled more often than Sblame teachers for the revered. In the 1980s, muck- vision is on six hours poor performance of stu- raker Steven Brill skewered dents, so we can blame a day. lawyers. In his new maga- reporters for the nation’s zine, Brill’s Content, he malaise. But just as teachers are not responsible lambastes journalists. In Right in the Old Gazoo, for poverty and disintegrating families, journalists former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson accuses are not responsible for satellites, fiber optic cables, journalists of becoming “lazy, complacent, sloppy, transistors, and microprocessors–the inventions self-serving, self-aggrandizing, cynical and arro- that make possible instant information. Journalists gant beyond belief.” In Breaking the News, writer did not cause the sexual revolution. They did not James Fallows comments that while movies once invent celebrity worship or gossip. Nor did they cre- portrayed journalists as crusaders, they are now ate leaders who misbehave and let us down. portrayed as rogues “more loathsome than . . . At the same time, in the world of nil admirari, lawyers, politicians, and business moguls.” journalists are not innocent, and they know it. How much of this is new? Roger Rosenblatt, a veteran of the Washington Since the founding of America, reporters have Post, Time, Life, and the New York Times Magazine, been harsh critics of public figures. George says, “My trade of journalism is sodden these days Washington did not like reading in pamphlets that with practitioners who seem incapable of admiring the essence of his education had been “gambling, others or anything.” In his memoir, former presi- reveling, horse racing and horse whipping.” dential press secretary and ABC News senior editor Thomas Jefferson did not relish the label “effemi- Pierre Salinger writes, “No reporter can be famous nate.” Abraham Lincoln did not appreciate being unless they have brought someone down.” And portrayed by cartoonists as a baboon. New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik comments, “The Throughout our history, reporters have also reporter used to gain status by dining with his sub- received harsh criticism. Just after the Civil War, jects; now he gains status by dining on them.” abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe claimed the Journalists can be also be greedy. Eager for press had become so vicious that no respectable money, some reporters accept handsome speaking American man would ever again run for presi- fees from organizations they are supposed to be dent. In 1870, the British critic and poet Matthew covering. Some are dishonest, making up quota- Arnold toured America and concluded, “If one tions, even inventing stories. No longer content were searching for the best means . . . to kill in a with anonymity, many reporters seek celebrity, whole nation . . . the feeling for what is elevated, roaming the talk shows and becoming masters of one could not do better than take the American the sound bite. They write autobiographies and newspaper.” At the turn of the century, novelist give interviews to other journalists. Henry James condemned what he called the Just as our president is enamored of Hollywood, “impudence [and] the shamelessness of the news- so are our journalists. Larry King recently spent a paper and the interviewer.” In the early decades of full hour interviewing singer Madonna. Sixty the 20th century, “yellow journalism,” “muckrak- Minutes devoted much of a show to “bad boy” ing,” and “debunking” became household words actor Sean Penn. Actors, supermodels, and musi- to describe newspaper stories that exaggerated and cians are no longer just entertainers. They are
3 IMPRIMIS Because Ideas Have Consequences distorted events to make them more sensational. empire they have created is slick, quick, hard-hit- Nor is the media’s fascination with celebrities ting, entertaining, and inescapable. It makes us new. When silent screen idol Rudolph Valentino more knowledgeable, but it also leaves us over- and educational reformer Charles William Eliot whelmed, convinced that the world is a sleazy died within a day of each other in 1926, high- place, and mistrustful of authority and institu- minded Americans complained that the press tions. It all but extinguishes our belief in heroism. devoted too many columns to a celebrity and too few to a hero of education. Between 1925 and 1947, millions of Americans listened to Walter Hope for the Future Winchell’s radio program, The Lucky Strike Hour, re there reasons to be hopeful about the and read his column in the New York Mirror. future of America and the future of the Winchell hung out at the Stork Club, collecting media? I believe there are. Intent on expos- gossip about celebrities and politicians from tip- ing our faults, we forget what we do well. sters. He urged all newspaper offices to post these AAmerica is much better and healthier than words on their walls: “Talk of virtue and your the country portrayed in the media and in pes- readers will become bored. Hint of gossip and you simistic opinion polls. The American people are will secure perfect attention.” basically hardworking, idealistic, compassionate, In short, media critics have always called and religious. reporters cynical. Reporters have always collected American journalism is still biased, but it is gossip and featured celebrities. And high-minded slowly becoming more balanced. We have the Americans have always warned that journalists Washington Times as well as the Washington could lower the nation’s moral tone. Post, U.S. News & World Report as well as Newsweek, National Review as well as the Nation, the Wall Street Journal as well as the New An Empire of York Times. We have prominent conservative and Information liberal commentators. In the late 1990s, newspaper and television jour- nalists have become more self-critical. Some recog- rom the outset, thoughtful critics conceded nize the need to become less cynical, less greedy, less that journalists had an obligation to celebrity oriented, less combative; and a few recog- inform and expose. But those same critics nize the need to report the normal and the good were afraid that reporters would eliminate rather than only the sensational and the deviant. Fprivacy and slander leaders; that by repeating Reporters, editors, and publishers are influen- gossip and emphasizing crime and corruption, tial, but they are not all-powerful. In America, the newspapers would coarsen citizens; and that jour- consumer is king. We choose our sources of infor- nalists would become more influential than min- mation just as we purchase cars and potato chips. isters, novelists, professors, and politicians. They When CNN interrupted its coverage of the Lorena were right. Bobbitt trial to report on the Chernobyl nuclear Journalists have become more powerful than disaster, the number of angry callers caused the ministers, novelists, professors, and politicians. network’s switchboard to crash. Reporters could They preside over an empire of information be more courageous and less concerned with unimaginable to our ancestors–an empire that profits, but American citizens could be more high- reaches small villages in India and can change minded. governments in China; an empire characterized by In the Age of Information, journalists and cit- staggering choice, variety, and technological izens face the same challenges. We need to study sophistication. the past so as not to become arrogant, to remem- An empire of information ruled by the modern ber the good so as not to become cynical, and to media has eliminated privacy. With recorders and recognize America’s strengths so as not to dwell on cameras, reporters freely enter dugouts, locker her weaknesses. We need to be honest and realistic rooms, board rooms, hotel rooms. There are nei- without losing our capacity for admiration–and to ther secrets nor taboos. Some listen in on private be able to embrace complexity without losing our telephone conversations and sift through garbage faith in the heroic. for incriminating documents. Changing address? Please use the Early critics were also right to worry that jour- enclosed postpaid envelope or nalists could contribute to a decline in taste and telephone (800/437-2268) or e-mail judgment, could destroy the feeling for the elevat-
4 Understand please, that it is common these Editors days for journalists to advise aspiring writers not to major in journalism. Hillsdale agrees, but goes one Wanted: step farther. We believe journalists need a broad- based preparation not only in the traditional liber- Inquire Within al arts but in the traditional ethics that have served our nation so well for the past 200 years. Daniel James Sundahl The mission statement of the program reflects Professor of English our philosophy: Director, American Studies “The Herbert H. Dow II Program in American Program Journalism is devoted to the restoration of ethi- Hillsdale College cal, high-minded journalism standards and to the reformation of our cultural, political, and social practices. Through academic challenge and practical application, the program seeks to aniel Sundahl has taught educate students to become defenders of our D English at Hillsdale College American heritage and the legacy of first prin- for sixteen years. Since 1992, he ciples intended by our Founding Fathers.” has also chaired the Hillsdale College Program in American Studies. He How It Works has published num- erous articles, book he program has three components. The reviews, and poems academic component consists of four in such periodicals as courses emphasizing the history of Am- Commonweal, First erican and international journalism. Things, Image, and TStudents who complete the academic compo- the University Book- nent will be educated in the history of the media, man. Two books of will be knowledgeable about the major figures in poems are in their second printing and their profession, and will be aware of–on philosoph- a third collection is ical, moral, and practical levels–the most important being readied for issues and themes that relate to the news and the publication. makers of the news. Dr. Sundahl holds degrees The practicum component consists of two from Gustavus Adolphus College, hands-on practical writing courses during which Northern Arizona University, and students learn the fundamentals of good writing the University of Utah. and reporting. The internship component consists of active involvement in the day-to-day life of a newspaper or a magazine. recent nationally syndicated cartoon in one There are 24 total semester hours in the pro- of the country’s largest daily newspapers gram, which is open to all students enrolled at portrays a young woman walking by the Hillsdale College. front window of a newspaper office. She doesA a double-take as she reads the “Help Wanted” sign in the front window: “EDITOR’S WANTED: A Unique Program ENQUIRE WITHIN.” The cartoon is laughable, but it is also painful- hat is unique about the Dow Journ- ly accurate. Quality journalism and high standards alism Program? First, there are few are all too rare these days. Rather than raise the academic programs that emphasize level of public debate, it seems that journalists have not only the history of the media but provided a steady diet of sensationalism for alsoW the role it has played in the realm of public “enquiring” minds. debate and in our country’s history. Second, the In October, Hillsdale College responded by program is neither a major nor a minor. Instead, establishing the Herbert H. Dow II Program in it is a course concentration that a student adds American Journalism. The College believes a fun- damental change is needed in media practices.
5 IMPRIMIS Because Ideas Have Consequences “The Fourth Estate”: The CCA Presents A History of Journalism ▼ Along with President Roche, members of the Dow family were on hand to help launch the new Herbert H. Dow II Program in American
Journalism. ▼Weekly Standard founding editor Fred Barnes discussed the growing
impact of conservative journalists. ▼ San Diego Union Tribune columnist Joseph Perkins argued that the media has shaped our views on race. to his or her selection of a traditional liberal arts The important question in the latter years of major. Third, through the practicum and intern- the 20th century is whether today’s journalists are ship, students gain the hands-on training needed patiently and humbly preserv- to become competent journalists. ing our liberty or abusing it. Thus the Dow Journalism Program is not only Journalists are educators an innovation but also an alternative. And it is with an ethical responsibility what our country’s enterprising leaders intended. to the community. They con- During America’s earliest years, a group of tribute to the standards of civi- brilliant minds came together for the purpose of lized conduct. They help deter- examining and institutionalizing the idea of free- mine and influence public beliefs. dom. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are In this context, we at Hillsdale are con- the Founding Fathers’ testament to the role of fident that the students who fulfill the freedom in modern civilization. Appropriately, requirements of the Herbert H. Dow II they believed a free press was vital for a cre- Program in American Journalism will be best ative society and was one of its chief pro- prepared to revitalize the Founding Fathers’ tectors. If freedom were to prevail, it sense of America’s mission and the role of a free would be through an informed public’s press in seeing that mission become a reality. knowledge of the issues.
6 ▼ Arizona State University Professor Marianne Jennings spoke about the evolution–and
devolution–of journalistic ethics. ▼ National Journalism Center founder Stan Evans gave students valuable advice about surviving in the modern newsroom.
▼ Former Reader’s Digest Executive Editor Ken Tomlinson addressed “Journalism and the War of Ideas.”
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