Presswatch/Androgyny and Dr. Broder

...What do they say on the squash court or at the McPherson Grill—or even in the West Wing of the White House...

...Broder is wrong about a lot, yet he does have a point: Coziness between politicians and journalists can corrupt journalism—but only when it is defined in Broder's terms...

...But it is not necessary to come up in the business to have such an attitude...

...In any event, prudence argues that whatever you do, do one or the other, not both at the same time...

...So he worked with James Madison to bring Philip Freneau to Philadelphia (now the seat of government, to which Fenno had also moved) to start a rival partisan newspaper, the National Gazette...

...Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, political men of strong views who did not think of themselves as exclusively wise...

...This happens to be the proposition for which the dictum of Broder's judge actually provides analogical support...

...But Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state at the time and the man often sainted by some modern journalists as an advocate of freedom of their kind of press, didn't like the Federalist Gazette...

...Broder's point applies with much less force to opinion journalism, which is political though not partisan (at least THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 1989 not obviously...

...Broder also noted that a judge had written him as to how the revolving-door controversy "parallels the separation-of-powers issues now so often litigated...

...28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 1989 Finally, on January 11, Broder, who makes part of his living reporting news, revolved through the newsroom door to the editorial office, where he took up the issue again in his syndicated column...

...But the Constitution does assume that you can work in more than one branch, so long as you do so at different times...

...In early January the Post's Charles Trueheart wrote a Terry Eastland is resident scholar at the lengthy piece in the Style section reportNational Legal Center for the Public ing and analyzing the views of various Interest...

...Coziness can grow in that passageway, but it need not, and in any event it can grow in many other places...

...The two "Fourth Estate Award for lifetime fessional—is a healthy check on govern- by ombudsman Richard Harwood, endeavors should be kept separate, he distinction in journalism," commented ment...

...tended his kind of journalism—the Outsider kind—to be a sort of fourth branch of government, unelected by but still accountable to the people...

...29...

...For this reason, media independence and integrity are "best preserved" if "the tone of journalism—including commentary—is set by those who are never too certain of the exclusive wisdom of their own viewpoint...

...Smarting from Freneau's attacks, Hamilton wrote an anonymous letter in the Federalist Gazette, questioning the ethics of a newspaper's "vilifying" an administration from which its editor received a salary...

...The smart money is on the latter...

...And get this: Jefferson hired Freneau as a State Department translator...

...We" in the media "enjoy a siders:' "we" will "lose our freedom...

...Consider the story of Messrs...

...Broder said he privilege" because "the Founders of this On December 4 the Post published blurring of the lines" between jour- has "a little list" of Insiders and, in his nation took a gamble that a free press— the relevant text of the speech as well nalism, on the one hand, and politics speech accepting the Press Club's even when it is irresponsible and unpro- as a piece titled "Tainted Journalists" and government on the other...

...My parents will be New Republic, did a non-Insider, Morpleased to learn that I, too, am an- ton Kondracke...

...This creature labors for a while displease them, he said, but they have journalists are easily interchangeable Rosenthal, among others) while exas a public official or political pressing his agreement with Broder...

...Insiders and Outsiders...

...operative before doing journalism, or "The incessant bed-hopping" between perhaps he does journalism first and politics and journalism is "doing government second...

...After all, true journalists question things...

...ton Post's David Broder decried "the at least to this column...

...Broder's view of opinion journalism is worth noting...

...One of the great preoccupations of modern journalism is governmental conflicts of interest...

...Opinion journalism ought to be political...

...The job paid and required little, giving Freneau enough time to publish...

...O nly in Washington, capital of politics, journalism, and the United States, could such a discussion occur, not to mention the bed-hopping that has resulted in the androgynous creatures Broder finds to his horror in the Fourth Estate...

...But when it has become a problem, the public has proved itself quite capable of making discriminating judgments...

...Reviewing two media books in the January 9 & 16 issue of the New Republic, Nicholas Lemann observes that it is "ahistorical to have [the Founders] spinning in their graves over the work of big, reportorial, nonpartisan organizations that they never dreamed would exist...

...But perhaps more interesting is whether Broder is speaking for a class of journalists whose influence both within the business and upon the nation is diminishing...

...The fact is, integrity is where you find it, and the issue is whether you abide by the contemporary standards of the position you're in, whether it's in government or journalism...

...It's easier to move from government to opinion journalism, since both lines of work involve expression of political views...

...Emphasis is mine...

...He should have questioned that...

...And what did exist...

...Broder took this as a useful "warning we in the press need to hear and heed," and chided door-revolved journalists for being "thin-skinned" and failing to question "the pattern of which they're a part...

...The most famous op-ed pieces in American history—tone-setters indeed!—were the Federalist papers written by Messrs...

...Or, especially given television's influence, will journalism become more and more a mixed bag of outsiders, insiders, inbetweeners, and all sorts of creatures who are unclassifiable but who have views to express, under protection of the First Amendment...

...Fenno was cozy with, among others, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, who also contributed to the paper...

...That's where the arrogance lies...

...As for the door between journalism and politics, Broder takes passage through it as conclusive evidence of coziness...

...Or do they in effect recuse themselves from those stories and let other reporters write them...

...Because news reporting of mainstream media today represents itself as Broder-likeskeptical, questioning, independent—the coziness Broder decries can damage the image of this kind of journalism, if not its substance...

...Voters can and not part of a Washington Insiders Moyers, Tom Johnson, Diane Sawyer, journalist called The Washington In- always vote out the politicians who clique where politicians, publicists, and Jody Powell, John Chancellor, Jack sider...

...B assumes the Founders in- -1...

...What did the Founders support...

...Broder also invoked the First Amendment, which, he wrote, "gave journalists a special immunity from government regulation and placed us outside the system of checks and balances . . . because the Founders believed that a free press, even if fallible, would be a healthy check on government...

...In Right From the Beginning, Pat Buchanan notes that some members of the White House press corps—and they were non-revolved types—encouraged him to run for president...

...Whether or not the Founders intended journalism to be that kind of fourth branch, they certainly did not intend that the journalism be Broder's variety...

...He says the tone of such journalism should be set by people like himself, who "came up" in the business and are, by virtue of that background, "never too certain of the exclusive wisdom of their own viewpoint...

...Do they protect political friends when they write stories involving them...

...Because few opinion journalists represent themselves as apolitical, independent commentators, I am skeptical as to how concerned readers are about coziness between a politician or government official and a columnist...

...Fenno and Freneau...

...Hamilton was right to raise that question, yet as historian C. Vann Woodward has written, both Hamilton and Jefferson "habitually supported" the kind of journalism that prevailed at the time, which plainly was partisan...

...And whatever they do, do these journalists advise politicians...

...So, on the back page of the McLaughlin...

...That's a mistake...

...In their syndicated Carter, Leslie Gelb, Pat Buchanan, Carl columns, Carl Rowan and Pat BuchanRowan, Henry Grunwald, Mark an also filed strong-worded dissenting Shields, George F. Will, and John opinions...

...In 1789, at the urging of Federalist leaders, John Fenno established an administration newspaper, the Gazette of the United States, in the capital city of New York...

...Indeed, unless "we" remain "out- ' Club last November, the Washing- nalism to government and back again, press...

...So it's not surprising that journalism itself should now be scrutinized for its own conflicts...

...Our democracy, the judge wrote Broder, "depends largely on the integrity of our system of both formal and informal checks and balances," and "any unnecessary or excessive confusion of roles is dangerous to the institutions and individuals involved...

...All over Washington there are non-revolved reporters who have friends in politics and government...

...If we are to defend that who actually named names (Christosaid, but in recent years "a new hybrid that "they never will be missed...

...Under the Constitution, you can't hold office in more than one branch of government at any one time...

...Introducing what might be called the argument from function, he said politicians package things, while journalists question things...

...Broder's speech basically goes to this end, and his point about coziness deserves notice...

...But in wanting to rid the Fourth Estate of those awful androgynous creatures and leave it to his own kind, Broder has adopted a priestly role in which he defines what journalism should be, using the royal "we" and fitting sacred history and principle to suit his ends...

...George Reedy notes in The Twilight of the Presidency that the column written by William S. White, a close friend of LBJ's, lost readers during the Johnson presidency and then gained them back after 1968...

...And when it offers a variety of strongly expressed and deeply held views, it's making its finest public contribution...

...In any event, the damage to the image of independence door often revolves more than once, we cultivate and cherish," concluded with the politician-turned-journalist Harwood...

...Given the aspiration of news reporting to be thoroughly independent, I think it's harder to move from government to that kind of journalism, if for no other reason than image...

...Consider Article I, Section 6: "No person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office...

...While acknowledging that government experience does not necessarily diminish the quality of journalism, Broder stuck by his guns...

...People started to read him for what he was saying," wrote Reedy, "rather than for what they thought the president was saying...

...Broder did not view, noting how government service name, but did unmistakably describe, can enhance a journalist's understandsome of these creatures: Hodding ing of officialdom...

...Shortly thereafter, New York returning to politics or government, Times columnist William Safire wittiand the journalist-turned-official going ly disagreed with the Broder-Harwood back to journalism...

...Even so, it's nice to see media opposition to promiscuity, however defined, and it's interesting to discover that not just Richard Nixon but David Broder keeps lists of journalists...

...To put it differently: Will journalism become more "Outsider...

...privilege, "we damn well better make it pher Matthews, Hendrik Hertzberg, creature" has appeared, "an an- Broder concluded his remarks by clear we are not part of government, David Burke, David Gergen, Bill drogynous blending of politician and discussing accountability...