Who elected Aemerican news media?
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By Tom Plate
LOS ANGELES ― Benjamin C. Bradlee, who has died at 93, was a far more thoughtful editor than he appeared to be.
Sure, the Harvard graduate and friend of John F. Kennedy was well caricatured by the virtuoso stage and screen actor Jason Robards in the 1976 film ``All the President’s Men.” Hilariously, a joke then making the rounds in The Washington Post newsroom was that the flamboyant Roberts, known as one of the great stage scene-stealers of all time, had in fact underplayed the newspaper editor, who as everyone in the media world knew was the very definition of macho flamboyance and gung-ho decisiveness.
Bradlee’s most famous success as the storied editor of the U.S. capital’s most politically influential media force was of course the paper’s role in the Watergate Scandal of 1974. The Post’s coverage of the affair brought about the abject resignation of Richard M. Nixon as the United States’ 37th U.S. president, but in Bradlee’s mind, the gold dust of Pulitzer recognition and worldwide renown hid potential pitfalls.
With Watergate, the power of the American news media had overcome the might of the presidency. Was this too much power for the media to have, even allowing for America’s expansive First Amendment statute? What assurances could the people have that a Hearst-like media monster would not abuse such power? Was it even conceivable that America could be covertly governed or at least led in some willful direction by the combined power of its media, instead of its elected representatives and constitutional institutions?
Though such questions were rare in the U.S. at the time, they were common elsewhere. In the American political system an unfettered press was woven into its fabric and, to a significant extent, into law and judicial rulings. But almost elsewhere else around the world, The Washington Post was widely and correctly viewed as undeniably Democratic and liberal in its political views, whereas Nixon was a Republican president with an illiberal past. It had therefore pulled off something of a media coup d’état.
Was this not a kind of raw politics? The power of the pen seemed mightier than the sword in this instance. American journalists cheered; but not everyone did.
For example, the international reaction was mainly one of incredulity, astonishment and to some extent, fear. The Post’s success inspired countries with greater media control to tighten the handle on their own domestic media, terrified that the Watergate achievement might spread like a virus.
Something that was not widely known was that Bradlee - who was more than just Broadway flash and press pizzazz - was quite sensitive that there were two edges to the media sword. In fact, after the Watergate coup, many believed The Post had tried to pull back and re-sheath its sword almost in horror over its bloody political assassination. This is despite the fact that in all likelihood, not a single reporter or editor in its newsroom would ever shed a tear for the hated and disrespected Nixon.
Bradlee shared those concerns, because he understood how power could be abused, not just by government (as Nixon’s people had done fragrantly) but also the news media - a profession to which he would devote his entire distinguished career.
At that same time, younger generations all over the globe looked to the American news media with admiration and even awe, inspiring many to plot a career as a journalist.
I well knew the feeling. I was once one of those young and idealistic people; in 1965 Bradlee had just became lead pilot of The Post and I was a very happy summer intern on its city desk. By the end of the summer, before my return to college for senior year, I was actually being assigned national stories. The reason for that was Bradlee, who wanted to shake up The Post, and who believed in young people.
The best examples of his confidence in them was his insistence a few years later on keeping the young and relatively untested Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein assigned to the dramatically and dangerously unfolding Watergate story, an assignment far above their then pay grade.
Before that, Bradlee had recommended I join The Post after my college graduation, but my mind was set on graduate school for a master’s degree in public policy. Yet, for many decades, my career never strayed from journalism. I somehow could not escape the spell. That is true even today, and I don’t have to wonder why: it was the Bradlee effect.
Columnist and journalist Tom Plate, a former editor of the Editorial Pages of the Los Angeles Times, is Loyola Marymount University's Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies. He is the founder and editor in chief of ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL Web: www.asiamedia.lmu.edu.