Politics, the Press, and Leadership

If the hearings from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol are not enough of a political “fix” for you, here are a couple of recent books whose authors have long experience in Washington:

SUPPRESSION, DECEPTION, SNOBBERY, AND BIAS by Ari Fleischer is subtitled “Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong—And Just Doesn't Care.” Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary and Fox contributor, stresses that the media today is itself too insular and therefore too focused on young, college-educated, Democratic-leaning readers and their concerns. Although it is hard to reconcile that position with my own experience listening to well-respected 75 year-old Judy Woodruff on PBS, his book does devote roughly twenty percent to notes and may therefore aid researchers interested in the media and its influence. Unfortunately, Fleischer himself takes a very biased and combative tone. He rightly notes that “many newsrooms have abandoned objectivity for subjectivity,” but he continues to criticize CNN (there is an entire chapter) and The New York Times (another chapter) while seemingly annoying Fox’s failure to broadcast the recent hearings in their entirety or the many rules imposed by Sinclair Broadcast Group on local affiliates. There is a failure overall to look at established media across the entire spectrum; just this last week, so many Wall Street Journal readers objected to their editorial which – without proof – implied that the story of a 10 year old being raped and needing an abortion was not true. Fleischer’s argument would be stronger if he offered a more balanced set of examples.

We do need an active, free press capable of addressing the many critical issues we face: women’s reproductive rights, climate change, voting rights, gun control reform, health care, war in Ukraine, plus its impact on the world’s food supply, and other economic factors like inflation and employment. But, as Fleischer points out we do not even agree on how to describe current circumstances; he cites data that 50% of Fox viewers say that America is probably not or definitely not a systemically racist country; comparable figures for CNN (13%) and The New York Times (7%) reflect a very different perspective. Fleischer could also have spent more time discussing how the loss of local newspapers and reporters has likely fueled the feeling expressed by Pew Research Center survey respondents that news media “don’t understand people like them.” As the Pew summary notes, the reasons for feeling understood vary with subgroup – another nuance that Fleischer does not develop fully. SUPPRESSION, DECEPTION, SNOBBERY, AND BIAS missed an opportunity to more neutrally document the media’s role.

HEARTS TOUCHED WITH FIRE by David Gergen explores “How Great Leaders are Made.” Gergen has an impressive set of credentials: a White House adviser to four US presidents of both parties, over two decades as a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a senior political analyst for CNN. Drawing on work by Joseph Campbell about the hero’s journey, Gergen encourages readers to look both inwardly, evaluating their own strengths and weaknesses, and outwardly, building relationships and forming teams. Thus, he examines both leadership qualities and how a leader deals with others. Highly relevant for our students are the many examples of leaders in action which he includes, particularly since many of them are young (Malala, Greta Thunberg, and Parkland students like David Hogg). A key point is the importance of preparing young people for lives of service and leadership by unleashing their idealism. Many of our sophomore students complete a project about what makes a leader and they would likely benefit from reading and discussing Gergen’s Executive Summary with 20 key takeaways (e.g., “Try hard things, Fail, Move on”). Extensive notes make up roughly twenty percent of HEARTS TOUCHED WITH FIRE; for more on this text, here is a video of Gergen discussing it recently on PBS NewsHour: