Abolish "Reform"
Wilson, James Q.
"Abolish "Reform" On learning of Samuel Johnson's remark that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, Roscoe Conkling, a New York politician widely acquainted with scoundrels, remarked that Dr. Johnson had...
...Odds are he will be called the "reform candidate," which is to say he is the good guy and the mayor is the bad guy...
...Naturally, the sun will stop rising...
...Nor do we mean, by "Reformed Church" necessarily a more—or less devout—one, but only one that follows the teachings of Calvin...
...To call one set of proposals "reforms" inheadlines and "straight" news stories is to prejudge the issue...
...Now such presumption is understandable in politicians whose vocation requires them to be propagandists, but is unforgivable in journalists, whose craft enjoins them to be fair...
...But all changes are not called "reforms...
...Then the papers, with the aid of columns by Mike Royko, will speculate as to the process whereby the integrity and good sense of the electorate could have been so foully corrupted...
...instead of "party reform," they can refer to "party rules changes...
...Prisons were originally heralded as reforms...
...Journalists and politicians understand none of this, however...
...a reform" is a change for the better, an improvement in social, moral, or political conditions...
...Who could be against it...
...Or take "party reform...
...as it turns out, a great deal wrong with those campaign finance plans that have been labeled "reforms...
...It is all so simple and reasonable...
...My criticisms would be beside the point if "reform" had become a synonym for "change...
...Some proposals are good...
...increasing the powers of the congressional leadership to formulate and enact a party program would probably not be called a reform...
...Increasing the control that members of congressional committees have over the chairmen of those committees is called "congressional reform...
...instead of "reform candidates," "opposition candidates...
...To reform" means to improve by alteration, to abolish abuse or malpractice...
...Given what many reporters now think of these institutions, all praised by the best and brightest reporters of the past, can they be so confident of their ability to tell a "reform" from a nonform, unform, or antiform...
...Would journalists who label this a "reform" also so label a proposal that anybody could make any public speech he wanted as long as he did not spend more than $1000 to rent a hall...
...so were the juvenile court system, aid to families with dependent children, urban renewal, the Federal Reserve System, the state police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the civil service system, prohibition, and building trades unions...
...reporters can tell which they are...
...and reporters have the "right" (no doubt even the duty) to tell their readers, even in news stories, what is true, beautiful, and just I ask them only to remember that most practices they now denounce were once considered to be reforms...
...We all understand and follow this usage in everyday conversation, as when we speak of the reformed drunk...
...Yet both are "tax loopholes...
...The press has made it quite clear that reducing the special tax treatment of capital gains is a "reform...
...I intend to make here no judgment on the plans of the two Georges...
...Why not just get rid of the word, or use it only in inverted commas or when it can be attributed to a spokesman who is directly quoted...
...Were it not for the "reforms" of the past, the advocacy journalists of today would be unemployed...
...Few are, and those politicians that have expressed some doubts have been castigated...
...To them, any change that is broadly liberal or participatory in intent, and some changes that are libertarian in intent, are "reforms...
...Some journalists may make the bold defense that they: are aware of the value implications of the word "reform" and, far from employing it by accident or because of an unconscious preference for a political cause, they use a deliberately and correctly...
...in fact, because Reform Jews are less observant of the traditional customs...
...Naturally, journalists will follow my advice...
...If the voters prefer Daley to his opponent—as they have, by increasing majorities, for the last twenty years—the press will of course conclude that the voters of Chicago have rejected "reform," which is to say they have rejected "good government...
...Would they label as a "reform" a law that restricted to $1000 the amount that could be spent on an ad in the New York Times that attacked General Thieu, supported school busing, or denounced oil company profits...
...For one thing, the new federal statute is probably an unconstitutional infringement of free speech because it tells citizens they can spend no more than $1000 on any candidate however much they may wish to endorse, by advertisement, his cause...
...The villain of the piece is not the reformer, but the reporter...
...Well, I object...
...There is...
...But these are the rare exceptions, clearly described as such by the dictionary...
...Whatever was proposed by the supporters of George McGovern at the Kansas City midterm convention of the Democratic Party was called a "reform" while whatever was proposed by the followers of George Means was called "resistance to reform.- The subject of party rules is a complicated one...
...Newspapers for some time have been writing of "campaign reform...
...My object here is not to attack those proposals labeled "reforms" but to criticize the labeling of all proposals as reforms...
...the Orthodox might well think of them as worse Jews...
...Instead of "campaign reform," they can write of "campaign spending laws...
...And that is precisely the point...
...Johnson had overlooked the possibilities in the word "reform...
...The mood of the citizens and voters is remarkably sensitive to what the media tells them is important, and though there is not much evidence on this, it is probably also sensitive to what the media suggest all "right-thinking" people should regard as desirable...
...I admit there are some exceptions: when we refer to "Reform Jews," we do not mean Jews who are better than the Orthodox variety...
...But the word "reform" has become so ingrained in journalistic usage that many newspapermen and broadcasters wouldbe surprised to be told that anyone could object to the word...
...As a result, many people believe the wrong things...
...Some good things and many bad things have been done in the name of reform, but the worst thing of all has been to cloak any proposal for change in the seductive disguise of that ill-used word...
...eliminating the special tax treatment of gifts to schools and churches is not a "reform...
...It would cost the press not a single reader, it would not preventthem from saying editorially whatever they liked, it would not take away a single by-line...
...Finally, consider the candidacy of anybody who challenges Mayor Daley in the Democratic primary in Chicago...
Vol. 8 • May 1975 • No. 8
