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Congressional Record—Senate S 10076

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Congressional Record—Senate S 10076 S 10076 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð SENATE July 14, 1995 praise from another great independent In some cases, he was acting on tips from Seldes lived in Hartland Four Corners, Vt. journalist of our century. mainstream reporters who knew their own Until recently, he was self-sufficient at home My visits and frequent correspond- papers would never print what they'd dug up. and ever delighted to receive such pilgrims ence with George rank among the high- They would leak the news to Seldes who as Ralph Nader, Morton Mintz and Rick would print it. In other cases, In Fact be- Goldsmith, a California filmmaker who is lights of my Senate career. He never came a more reliable source of news for completing a documentary on Seldes's life. intruded, but did on occasion offer mainstream newspapers than their own The film will include references to I.F. some very good advice to this senatorÐ sourcesÐthe ultimate flattery for any news- Stone, who credited Seldes' newsletter ``In and most times, I was smart enough to paper person, and ultimate indictment of Fact''Ðwhich had 176,000 subscribers for a recognize good counsel when I heard it. those who missed the news. time in the 1940'sÐas the model for his own I had the great pleasure of joining him In his later years, Seldes was always care- carefully researched I.F. Stone's Weekly.'' ful to note improvements in the objectivity at his 100th birthday party in Ver- The titles of some of Seldes's books give a of today's newspapersÐwhile holding firm to hint of the fires that burned within him: montÐan event that became a public the belief that when newspapers forget their ``You Can't Print That: The Truth Behind celebration of his life. responsibility to truth, they risk retreat the News'' (1928). ``Never Tire of Protesting'' Here was a man who interviewed Wil- into those bad old days. (1986), ``Tell the Truth and Run'' (1953), liam Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roo- Nor was his burr-under-the-saddle style ``Lords of the Press'' (1935). In the 1980s, he sevelt, Eddie Rickenbacker, Generals without faultÐhis muckraking, make-waves wrote his memoir ``Witness to a Century'' Pershing, Patton, and MacArthur; a narrowness of vision caused him to miss and edited ``The Great Thoughts,'' the latter personal observer of Lenin and Musso- some of the bigger picture, too; a heavy dose a thick and rich collection of ideas Seldes of Seldes at this prime could be hard for any lini and a confidant of Picasso, Ernest had gathered throughout a lifetime of read- average reader with broader interests to ing and listening. Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis. take. ``Sometimes in isolated phrase or para- One of the great lives of our century What seemed most striking about his com- graph,'' he said of his selections from has passedÐbut George Seldes left be- ments at that appearance in Hanover, N.H. Abelard to Zwingli and from Ability to Zen, hind a recorded history to guide our howeverÐjust as it does nowÐis the dimin- ``will work on the reader's imagination more understanding of the turbulent time. ished capacity of contrary voices like his to forcefully than it might when buried in a I attach an editorial that appeared in be heard today in the din of the modern in- possibly difficult text. Each time a formation age. the July 8, 1995 edition of The Bur- quotation in this book makes a reader think Today, so many loud, contrary voices com- in a new way, I shall have achieved my aim.'' lington Free Press, and a column writ- pete for listeners' ears, with so many public As a reporter and press critic, Seldes was ten by Colman McCarthy that appeared outlets for spreading their views, the prob- more than an iconoclastic outsider, as wor- in the July 11 edition of The Washing- lem is no longer an absence of facts, in some thy and rare as that calling is. His news- ton Post. cases it's too many factsÐand too few people gathering and analysis were ethics-based. They capture the spirit and dogged taking the time to make sense of them. Omitting the news is as vile a sin as slanting pursuit of truth that marked George More big-picture wisdom and few discon- the news, he believed. Too many papers nected facts in every type of media today avoid stories that might upset the powerful Seldes' lasting contribution to journal- would go a long wayÐa need that's grown ism and the history of our age. I ask or the majority, while printing news on safe wider with George Seldes' passing. subjects and editorializing to bloodless con- unanimous consent that they be print- clusions. ed in the RECORD. [From the Washington Post, July 11, 1995] In ``freedom of the Press,'' Seldes recalled There being no objection, the mate- GEORGE SELDES: GIANT OF JOURNALISM how he was compromised while covering rial was ordered to be printed in the (By Colman McCarthy) World War I: ``The journals back home that RECORD, as follows: As a traveling companion, George Seldes printed our stories boasted that their cor- [From the Burlington Free Press, July 8, didn't believe in letting you rest. In the respondents had been at the fighting front. I 1995] spring of 1982 when he was 91 and in New now realize that we were told tonight but York to collect a George Polk Award for a buncombe, that we were shown nothing of A CONTRARY VOICE lifetime of contribution to journalism, I the realities of the war, that we were, in George Seldes, who died Sunday at 104, was took the Fifth Avenue bus with him for a 30- short, merely part of the Allied propaganda a journalist and harsh critic of mainstream block ride between the ceremony and his machine whose purpose was to sustain mo- journalists who might be best remembered nephew's apartment. We would have taken a rale at all costs and help drag unwilling by Vermont newspaper editors and reporters cab but he preferred the bus: a better way to America into the slaughter. We all more from an appearance before the Vermont and get the feel of the city and its people. or less lied about the war.'' New Hampshire Press Associations in the Along the jostling way, Seldes threw at me If so, that was to be the last time Seldes late 1980s. a half-dozen story ideas, mingled with side- shied from getting the whole story. For the Except for a slowed step and a bit of a bars of his opinions, plus advice on how not rest of his long life, his reporting on what stoop, nothing in Seldes' appearance be- merely to gather facts but to cull the useless were often no-no subjectsÐworkers' rights, trayed his exceptional age, nor hints of any from the useful, and then a string of mirth- public health and safety, press sellouts, cor- mellowing on matters he found importantÐ ful recollections from his newspapering days porate and government liesÐwas the essence beginning and invariably ending with a jour- going back eight decades. If we were the boys of truth-telling. Like his life, the telling had nalist's responsibility to tell it straight. on the bus, George Seldes was some boy. fullness. What bothered this long-time resident of He died on July 2, in his 104th year and f Hartland Four Corners most during his 86 only a half-decade or so after retiring from a years of covering historic events was not so reporting career that began in 1909 with the ACDA ANNUAL REPORT IS IN- much what got into newspapers of his day Pittsburgh Leader. FORMATIVE, CLEAR-HEADED EF- but what didn'tÐespecially immediately pre- It's well within the bounds of accuracy to FORT ceding and following World War II. Errors of say of SeldesÐand this isn't the kind of omission. gassy praise that's the customary sendoff for Mr. PELL. Mr. President. Yesterday, It was a time when some journalists dou- the deceasedÐthat for much of the 20th cen- the President transmitted to the Sen- bled as government informers for U.S. intel- tury he stood as a giant and a pilar of jour- ate the annual report for 1994 of the ligence agencies as a gesture of patriotism; nalism, a reporter's reporter. He had the Arms Control and Disarmament Agen- when the Washington Press Corps kept many subverse notion that investigating the cy. In addition to detailing the Agen- elected officials' personal foibles and pecca- pressÐthe money-saving schemings of the cy's many activities during 1994, the dillos a secret; and powerful publishers ran publishers of his day, editors cowering before report includes a major section on the newspapers more like personal fiefdoms in advertisers, reporters fraternizing with the pursuit of selective causes than purveyors of pashas they write aboutÐshould be as vital a adherence by the United States to its the larger truth. beat as skeptically covering politicians. arms control obligations and the com- Like I.F. Stone, Seldes figured if main- At the Polk ceremony, the citation of the pliance of other nations with their stream newspapers wouldn't print what he awards committee succinctly summarized arms control obligations. wrote for fear of riling advertisers or power- the spirit of intellectual independence Seldes This compliance report, which was ful news sources, he would print it in his own committed himself to: ``By mutual agree- provided in both classified and unclas- publication. In Fact, it was called, and it ment, George Seldes belonged not to the sified versions, is the most detailed an- took on, among many powerful interests, the journalism establishment, nor was he teth- nual compilation of arms control issues tobacco industry and its ability to keep dam- ered to any political philosophy.
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