Daniel Schorr's Induction Remarks

Cambridge, MA, October 5, 2002 - Call it elitism if you wish, but I find it simply awesome to be admitted into this impressive society of American luminaries. Yet, in candor I must say that I may be sailing under false colors. Presumably the fellows are chosen to epitomize the professions and disciplines they come from. If I am supposed to represent the world of journalism and communications, this may be a big mistake. Over the years I have developed serious reservations about an industry in which I have worked for the past six decades. I have now come to feel alien to the Media that once used to be the Press.

Having experienced journalism in its print, radio and television incarnations, I have come to mourn the way my beloved profession has become progressively oriented to entertainment, scandal and profit. I have become aware of increasing public hostility to an institution supposed to monitor the Establishment, but now itself a vast establishment. A public that finds the media insensitive and exploitative is no longer willing to forgive us our press passes.

It is a long way from Hildy Johnson and "Hello, sweetheart, get me rewrite!" to the multi-million dollar blow-dried television star of today. Sometimes it seems to me that our whole profession is crowded into a small corner of a vast entertainment stage, obliged to borrow the tools and values of entertainment and live by its standards in the grim struggle for ratings that denote profits to the corporate nabobs who now control journalism's destiny.

Edward R. Murrow, our idol at CBS, in a famous speech to news directors in 1958, warned that television "insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live." Time has borne him out. From O.J. Simpson to Monica Lewinsky the "media" have displayed an inexorable attraction to scandal, along with violence, and the hot pursuit of celebrities.

In the rush for ratings, no one is spared. Recently I saw CNN dump out of a live speech by President Bush in order to switch to Los Angeles for the latest word from the Sheriff on the investigation of a child kidnapping. I am not aware that the White House even complained about this insult to the presidency.

The Internet has introduced a new dimension of unedited irresponsibility in journalism. Do you remember how the Clinton scandal that led to impeachment first got started? Self-styled gossip-monger Matt Drudge posted on the web the rumor that Newsweek was working on some story about the President and his relationship with an intern. In fact, Newsweek was working on a story and holding it for further fact-checking. Drudge didn't see the need for checking. From gossip on the web the story quickly escalated to the so-called mainstream media. So a gossip-monger started the ball rolling to impeachment.

Our networks have displayed a willingness to take dictates from the government that once would have been inconceivable. Remember when, in the wake of September 11, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had a conference call with news executives of the five networks and asked them to play down a videotaped statement by Osama bin Laden? They all agreed to do so and were praised by the White House for their patriotism. In the 1930s I heard a lot of Adolf Hitler on the radio. It never occurred to anyone that Americans might be unduly influenced by hearing him.

The definition of "journalist" has changed. A journalist can be a pretty face and pleasant manner of reading from a teleprompter. (A Pew Research Center poll indicated that 77 per cent of viewers like news anchors who deliver news in "a friendly and informal way.") Journalists can be talk show hosts, skilled at getting guests to yell at each other. A journalist can be a celebrity who came through the revolving door from government. (Of the five Sunday television hosts, two - Bob Schieffer of CBS and Wolf Blitzer of CNN - are career journalists. Three - George Stephanopolous of ABC, Tim Russert of NBC, and Tony Snow of FOX News - came from government.)

Occasionally our news media measure up to their responsibility at a time of national tragedy. Television displayed its capacity to bind Americans into a community at moments like the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy. It reached new heights on September 11, and then the anniversary of September 11. I was impressed by television's willingness, on those occasions, to cancel millions of dollars worth of commercials.

But the Ground Zero coverage is the exception. For the rest I am sad about the state of journalism, a profession I have loved not always wisely, but well. So if you want someone who can speak for the Media, you have the wrong fellow.

I hope you don't take my fellowship back. I was just getting to enjoy it.

For more information about this year's new class or about the Induction Ceremony and other Academy events, please call Phyllis Bendell at (617) 576-5047 or email pbendell@amacad.org.

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