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Sat 20 Mar, 2004 01:52 am
Ex-Watergate writer laments 'idiot culture'
Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein told about 200 people in Tampa that today's media is more gossip and trash than news.
By BRADY DENNIS, Times Staff Writer
Published March 19, 2004
TAMPA - Legendary reporter Carl Bernstein riffed Thursday night about President Bush, the Martha Stewart trial, the war in Iraq and his affection for Florida.
But mostly he talked about an epidemic that troubles him deeply these days. He calls it "the triumph of idiot culture."
Speaking to a crowd of about 200 at the Wyndham Westshore, he placed most of the blame on modern media outlets.
Bernstein, the former Washington Post journalist who, along with fellow reporter Bob Woodward, unearthed the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, said much of today's news has deteriorated into gossip, sensationalism and manufactured controversy.
That type of news panders to the public and insults their intelligence, ignoring the context of real life, he said. Good journalism, Bernstein said, "should challenge people, not just mindlessly amuse them."
He said the modern press lacks true leadership, citing such examples as AOL Time Warner and mogul Rupert Murdoch as media owners that have increasingly abandoned the principles of meaningful reporting.
"Their interest in truth is secondary to their interest in huge profits," Bernstein said.
Still, he said people can change that trend by exploring the Internet and piecing together from reputable sources their own news about important world matters.
He offered another solution to avoiding the trash that fills the airwaves: "Change the damn channel. Simple."
Bernstein also turned his attention Thursday to the coming election, calling President Bush "the most radical president of my lifetime and perhaps in the century."
Bernstein said Bush "is radical in every degree," from a favoritism of the wealthy to a pre-emptive foreign policy to a lack of concern for civil rights.
"He certainly seems more ideological than any of our presidents," Bernstein said.
Even so, Bernstein said he hopes a genuine debate can take place this year about the future of the country, rather than the petty quarrels and meaningless accusations that so often dominate campaign coverage.
"Let's move beyond the absurd name-calling and sound bite journalism," he said. "It is our job ... to force a real debate."
Try as he might, Bernstein could not escape the ghosts of Watergate, even for one night. A man stood during the post-speech question-and-answer session and asked if Deep Throat, the anonymous source used by Woodward and Bernstein, was a real person.
Bernstein smiled and broke into an impression of Nixon, grumbling to an assistant and wondering himself about Deep Throat's identity.
"It is one person," Bernstein said, finally. "We did not make it up."
And when Deep Throat dies, he said, "We will reveal him."
BBB
Right on the money. Thank you for this piece.
Blatham
Blatham, you can tell by now that I get really pissed off at amoral politicians, greedy CEOs, and other charlatans. But I get most angry at the Media, which is failing in its responsibility to the public in pursuit of $$$. I'm beginning to think the Media is at risk of losing its protective rights under the Constitution if it doesn't change and earn it by fulfilling the Founders' ideas of its purpose.
BBB
Re: Blatham
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:Blatham, you can tell by now that I get really pissed off at amoral polititians, greedy CEOs, and other charlatans. But I get most angry at the Media, which is failing in its responsibility to the public in pursuit of $$$. I'm beginning to think the Media is at risk of losing its protective rights under the Constitution if it doesn't change and earn it by fulfilling the Founder's ideas of its purpose.
BBB
I don't think the founders had any particular concept of the media's "purpose". Newspapers of the day then were mostly very sectarian advocates of particular points of view - hardly 'fair and balanced' at all.
Why stop with "amoral politicians and greedy CEO"? How about extortionist labor unions demanding paid employment for their staff personnel (designating them as stewards) even though they do no work at all. How about tort lawvers who look for subtle violations of the exploding library of Federal regulations and use them in class action suits against hundreds of business, always on behalf of the supposed "victims", and who pocket the great majority of the money themselves - and in the process doing great harm to the public in medecine and other fields. How about the public educational establishment with its revolving door of employment between schoolsystems, the NEA, teachers unions and the publishers ot textbooks (a huge industry). I could go on - the list is very long.
Were newspapers/mags etc ever fair and balanced? I don't think so, and I don't think they're meant to be.
Look at the archives - reports of parties, and who showed up at political meetings drunk, and who was found to have paid off someone else. I don't expect balance - I expect to be able to read a variety of sources and pick out what really happened from in between the litter.
georgeob1 - is this really the case in the U.S.
Quote:How about <snip to the judgmental term> labor unions demanding paid employment for their staff personnel (designating them as stewards) even though they do no work at all.
? I know that this isn't permitted here. The union rep MUST work on the line/in the shop or s/he's out (of the union).
georgeob1
georgeob1, I won't respond to your comments about labor unions and their stewards because I don't want to embarass you about your obvious lack of factual knowledge of the subject.
BBB
Consenual Crimes Corrupt The Ffredom Of The Press
CONSENSUAL CRIMES CORRUPT THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
Copyright © 1996 Peter McWilliams & Prelude Press
"A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society."---WALTER LIPPMANN "A man has only to murder a series of wives in a new way to become known to millions of people who have never heard of Homer."
ROBERT LYND "The literature of a people must so ring from the sense of its nationality;
and nationality is impossible without self-respect, and self-respect is impossible without liberty."
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE"The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr."
MOHAMMED "Whenever people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government."
THOMAS JEFFERSON "I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and mature than most of the broadcast industry's planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence."
EDWARD R. MURROW "The media I've had a lot to do with is lazy. We fed them and they ate it every day."
MICHAEL DEAVER, Former top aide to President Reagan "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free . . .it expects what never was
and never will be."
THOMAS JEFFERSON - 1816 "The media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists."
TOM STOPPARD "Newspapers have degenerated. They may now be absolutely relied upon."
OSCAR WILDE
We're entitled to a free press, and the press is entitled to be free from rumor-mongering and reporting on the latest scandal from Gossip Central.
Re: georgeob1
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:georgeob1, I won't respond to your comments about labor unions and their stewards because I don't want to embarass you about your obvious lack of factual knowledge of the subject.
BBB
Please don't restrain yourself. I doubt that I will be embarassed.
I have managed and led companies employing thousands of union employees, all operating under various Collective Bargaining Agreements. I know what union stewards do and I know the difference between the number required and the numbers they usually attempt to negotiate, and, as well, the union (staff) employees they often attempt to force on employers. I have met and negotiated with numerous local union officials and the Presidents, legal staffs and organizers of several national and international unions, Including Laborers, Operating Engineers, Building Trades, and Steelworkers (now almagalmated with the mechanics union). I have overseen the negotiation of at least five long term collective bargaining agreements with the Buildings Trade Unions, The Steelworkers Union, the Laborers Union and other combinations of the Metal Trades.
I have also negotiated disputes between different unions for jurisdiction among various classes of employees in large Federal Government facilities, operated by companies I managed, and have gotten to know up close the politics of Union Locals and the usually timid, feckless ( and occasionally corrupt) government labor officials who allow these messes to develop.
I do indeed know whereof I speak. I didn't have the bad manners to question your competence in the very broad issues you raised - you did that. However, now that the question has been raised, the only remaining question is, do you know what you were so archly talking about?
georgeob1
georgeob1, how about 35 years of labor union work?
I might add that in addition to representing employees against their anti-union employers, I also sat on the other side of the table representing management associated with my corporate responsibility via board election and/or avocation involvement for small groups and over 1,200 employees.
I've represented people ranging from office clerks to physicians and dentists. I was successful and respected no matter which side of the table I represented.
I'm also a certified mediator-arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association successfully handling a large variety of cases, some of which became well-known case studies for training purposes.
I would never have made the kind of degrogatory statements you made about working people.
SHAME! 
BBB
I made no derogatory statements about working people: none whatever. Read the posts. (We had an acronym in the Naval Aviation for one who didn't get his facts right and was wrong a lot --- WEFT.)
I did make a reference to "extortionist labor unions" with respect to their bargaining tactics. My reference there is to things I have directly, and repeatedly, observed at the bargaining table. (You may also wish to refresh yourself with some of the felony charges against the leaders of the Laborers Union, and, of course the recent furor over Bob Georgine's antics in the AFL/CIO insurance stock scam.) You may also be interested in a read concerning the recent plea bargaining of the past President of the Washington Teacher's union (plus two deputies) all of whom copped pleas for extorting over six million dollars from the local union over the past five years. The national union explained its failure to ever audit the books of the local during the last eight years (despite affirmations in both the union charter and the contract with the School District that it would do so annually) by asserting there was no binding legal requirement for such audits.
The point is in my original question - Why stop with "amoral politicians and greedy CEOs"? This point still stands, though your ill-considered rebuke and evasive defense do not.
georgeob1
georgeob1, your remarks certainly were derogatory against working people. Who do you think make up labor unions? Working people or fence posts? I would have ignored your biased remarks had it been for such an offensive statement.
I'm amused that you want to start comparing your version of bad apples with the corporate bad apples examples I could list. Enron is only a start. I won't engage in mud throwing with you by listing the greed and crimes of the corporate world, I'm sure you are well aware of them, but apparently wish them not mentioned here in your attempt to paint working people as the problem.
No group is more closely controlled and regulated by government and law than labor unions. One might wish that corporations might have the same restraints. Then so many millions of people might not have been hurt so bad financially during the last decade---and throughout capitalism (and royal) history.
I'd also like to return to the topic of this thread before you threw a verbal hand grenade into it.
BBB
I suppose the officials, organizers, and negotiators of Labor Unions are working people, but then so are CEOs and CFOs. Neither are working people in the sense in which I believe you used the term. Certainly you spared no criticism of CEOs. Your thought process here is - hard to follow logically.
Not all working people are members of labor unions. Indeed most aren't. Except for government workers, union membership has been declining for some years. Criticizing unions is not the same as criticizing working people, though unions usually style it that way.
One would have to look very hard to find examples of labor unions that have constructively aided the productivity and health of the companies that employ them - except by occasionally yielding to the necessity of relaxing a bit the generally obstructionist work rules they work so hard to promote. That is merely an unpleasant fact.
Of course unions are regulated. The National Labor Relations Act gives them monopoly power in certain labor markets. No company enjoys such protections. I think you know little about the legal requirements that publically traded corporations must meet.
georgeob1
georgeob1, I know quite a bit about about labor law as it relates to employer-employee relations having been educated in it. As I informed you, I've represented both labor and management over the years, a perspective you appear to lack.
However, I see no point in continuing this debate because your's is a one-sided perspective bias that will produce nothing but heat, not enlightenment.
BBB
You started it badly and are ending it badly as well.
Georgeob 1
Georgeob 1, I didn't start the anti-union attack. I would rather end it than continue to give you a platform to spew offensive virilent anti-unionism and anti-worker rhetoric.
BBB
George, shouldn't you be arguing this in another thread? What do labor unions have to do with the media? Or are you deliberately trying to change the subject, as a polite version of an ad hominen attack?
On newspapers, Jefferson wrote: "I deplore, with you, the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity and mendacious spirit of those who write for them
are rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless, by forfeiting all title to belief. That this has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit, I agree with you
Both of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree conscientiously in the same object - the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good
.One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time
will tell."
The conservative Federalist feared the ignorance of the people, while the liberal Democratic-Republicans, of which Jefferson is the Father of, feared the selfishness of rulers independent of them.
These fears, as well as the mendacious newspaper, are still very much alive and well.
George's anti-labor stance, i.e., the gall with which they demand to be respected and valued properly, reveals to us that George is in fact one of those conservative Federalists that fears the people having power.
Thanks George for the side-bar point in fact here. You may have thought to throw off the subject under discussion, but you in fact helped illuminate it, well, a little bit anyway, which I am sure was not your intention.
Georgeob1 exist on Abuzz.com as well, and he is definitely not a pleasant poster over there either. He is in fact, quite vile. This is not an ad hominen attack. It is the truth.
Umbagog
Umbagog, I fear the loss of Media independence and public common good advocacy as one of the greatest threats to democracy clearly evident. Only now is the Media beginning to have the courage to stand up to this presidency and search for the truth---just barely---after a shameful three years. I would feel this way without regard to the political party controlling the government.
The great public interest protectors, like the Washington Post during Watergate, have become political wimps of late. That's why I say the Post's investigative journalism torch has been passed to the Knight-Ridder reporters, who are one of the few main-stream news organizations doing really good investigative reporting.
BBB
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