A WORD ABOUT THE METRO:

I love the public transportation here out on the East Coast. It’s actually used by everyone, it’s open until late at night, it’s clean, well-signed and most people follow proper etiquette, e.g., no eating or drinking and moving away from doors when people go in or out. I’m not sure what will happen this year, but I remember seeing people riding in their tuxedos and ball gowns the night of the inauguration. It was more fun than actually attending a ball (which my daugher and I did once as volunteers).

It’s been quite a week – between no sleep and the bitter cold, we were all worn down to nubs. A word about the cold here: I hate to admit it, because it does no good for the image of Minnesotans as tough, but I’ve never been so cold in Minnesota as I have in D.C. I remember the wind chill being way below zero at Clinton’s second inauguration; last week was gruesome, especially with the wind. Most of the problem is due to the fact that people here actually have to walk places instead of running inside from a warm car to a warm house or workplace. I end up walking about five miles a day just getting around town here; and to keep up with everyone else, I have to maintain a brisk pace. I actually feel healthier after two weeks here.

But I digress. A couple of statistics: The warmest presidential inauguration day was for Ronald Reagan in 1981, when it was 55 degrees. The coldest was in 1985 for Reagan’s second inauguration, when it was 7 degrees. Pres. William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia after only one month in office because he refused to wear a coat at his inauguration in 1841, when he gave the longest inaugural address in American history – one hour and 40 minutes!

C-SPAN AND STEVE SCULLY

For two mornings this week, our group of 700 was the audience for the C-Span morning call-in show with Steve Scully and for Brian Lamb’s interview show. I think we acquitted ourselves well. So many of our students lined up to ask questions that we could never get through them all. They were a curious and well-spoken crowd. We got to hear Juan Williams of NPR and Brett Baer of Fox News and a husband-wife team who spent three months in Iowa working for the Obama campaign.

Quotable quotes:

“Obama likes to be the Grand Decider.”

“News is now the province of the cable channels. Networks have moved away from it.”

“This inauguration will be a tremendous emotional moment that goes beyond the political.”

Juan Williams

“We finally realized we were too old to live on four hours of sleep, lots of caffeine and Cheetos.”

“We came away from Iowa with a great belief in the caucus process.”

Carol Wheeler about working on the Obama campaign in Iowa

“Three things will happen: The world will look at us differently; we will look at our country differently; and a significant portion of our population will look at themselves differently.”

Tom Wheeler about the Obama inauguration

BRIAN LAMB, president and founder of C-Span

Lamb(once awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom), spent an hour interviewing us. Each student would come up to the mike, introduce him- or herself and he would interrogate each one in his own inimitable style that, as I recall, was brilliantly spoofed on SNL one time. They seemed to really like it. His questions included: What is the most interesting thing you’ve seen thus far? Why did you come here? Why do you study philosophy? What do you think of Barack Obama? Why do you care about Darfur? Do you want to live in D.C.? Why or why not? I gotta ask you about that tie (a Barack Obama tie). Where do you think you’ll be in ten years? What are your expectations for this new president? What do you read? Tell us something about your country (for those from other countries) that we don’t know.

TED KOPPEL, former host of ABC News Nightline

Koppel asked for a show of hands in answer to his question: How many of you think you should consider the consequences of what you do as a journalist? Most people voted yes, of course. And, of course, it was a trick question. His point was that since it’s impossible to predict what the consequences will be, you should focus on accuracy and objectivity. You can’t be responsible for the consequences 99.5% of the time. He gave Rwanda and Somalia as examples of “blowback” from media attention when, in fact, one would think that media attention would have been helpful. Impossible to know.

He also gave his interpretation of television news history. Until 1968 when “60 Minutes” first aired, he said, television news was a “loss leader.” However, when “60 Minutes” started making money, television news became just another “cost center.” He sees the future of citizen journalism as both good and bad – we can all be journalists, but there’s no quality control. He cites NPR radio as a success story. Morning Edition now has more than 14 million listeners, which is more than the three TV networks combined. However, their funding keeps getting cut.

He also had something to say about the war in Iraq. It’s similar to Vietnam in that there were misperceptions by our government about the situation: in Vietnam it was the now discredited “domino theory” and in Iraq it was the WMD theory. The difference, he said, is that we absolutely can’t let the Middle East descend into chaos. But, he added, it’s a mistake to look at all these crises in the world as separate issues. There are “threads” all over the world that tie together.

“No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.”
Ted Koppel quoting Lily Tomlin as Ernestine

CLARENCE PAGE, columnist, Chicago Tribune

“Reuters and Bloomberg News are doing well because they don’t do paper, just content.”

“Yesterday’s news is today’s commentator.”

“Politics is like Wall Street or Las Vegas: you never use your own money.”

“Newspapers will continue to be around – they’re like jazz. You have to be educated to appreciate it.”

“My generation got out there and played by the rules and lost. This generation won.”

“Chicago is the only city that associates Valentine’s Day with a massacre.”

Clarence’s history of the description of descendants of slaves: We went from colored people to Negroes to blacks to African Americans to people of color. We’ve come full circle!

He’s encouraged that Obama’s speech on race is getting many more hits on YouTube than the Rev. Wright.

“Sensationalism? We prefer to call it excitement.”
(Clarence Page quoting Rupert Murdoch)

JOHN WALCOTT, McClatchy News Washington Bureau Chief

We visited Walcott in his office and heard a very smart man with impressive experiences give us sound advice. He told the students they had to learn at least one other language in order to compete in the global job market. He himself has worked in 83 countries.

He led an investigation of how we got into Iraq (the only news agency to do so) when he was still working for Knight Ridder (which was later acquired by McClatchy). They won many awards for their work, and he gave a wonderful speech at the National Press Club that can be accessed online.

He attributes their success with this series partly to the fact that they wrote from military towns rather than from D.C. “We wrote it for them,” he said. He said many of the reporters in McClatchy who volunteer to go work in Iraq are Arab-American women.

He recommended we read two things: a book by Paul Starr called THE CREATION OF THE MEDIA and the series on Guantanamo by reporter Tom Lasseter.

QUOTABLE QUOTES:

“A democracy cannot function without someone standing outside the circle of poer who doesn’t want to be in the circle asking the hard questions.”

“These guys [politicians] are like a bunch of whining children who need a babysitter. Washington is very seductive.”

“To do reporting right, it’s a blue-collar job.”

“ I don’t think the Obama team has been forthcoming [to the news media].”

“We need this president to succeed – we ALL do. . .I think there is a liberal bias [in the news media], but I do not think Barack Obama got a free pass.”

We're Now Dems in D.C.!!!!

Sunday, Jan. 9, 2009
Washington, D.C.

So. . .I'm back in D.C. (I LOVE this city!) -- once again, under the auspices of The Washington Center. The Center has brought more than 700 college students here to gain academic credit for an intensive, 7-day academic seminar preparing us for one of the most historic presidential inaugurations in American history. I, personally, am responsible for seeing that 11 Minnesota students -- 3 from my home institution of Bemidji State University and 8 from the University of St. Thomas -- learn something and have a memorable experience. I think we're on track.

As usual, it's the people who impress me the most, although the architecture, museums, restaurants and cultural life are all big draws. Although we heard some high-profile speakers yesterday, including reporter Dana Bash of CNN; Steve Bell, former host of "Good Morning America" and professor emeritus of Ball State University; and Professor Michael Genovese, author of the book we're all reading ("Memo to a New President"), the person I'll remember most is our bus driver who guided us expertly around DC for the benefit of the newcomers. Richard, a tall, gangly, bald African-American man who joked that we could remember our bus by the driver with the "big afro," was a genius. He not only drove us around effortlessly (or so it seemed) for 3 hours in DC traffic, but held a microphone in one hand and gave us a running commentary on EVERYTHING. I've had this tour about 20 times, but never was it so intelligent, in-depth and quirky. This is the first time I've ever had a guide stop by a section of Arlington Cemetery and show us the unmarked graves of slaves. I never knew they existed. He had stories that never ended. Hurray Richard!

In talking with one of my students, I learned that this is the first time in his life he's using public transportation. Others said they had very little, if any, experience with it themselves. It's hard for me to imagine, since I rode streetcars until I was about 6 (that really dates me!), and started riding busses on my own at about age 10. It's a different world. Hopefully, they will see more public transport in their future, rather than less!

Monday, Jan. 11, 2009

One of today's highlights was an hour-long talk by Marc Pachter, the Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American History. He gave a slide show, with ample commentary, on presidential portraits. He was so good that I was inspired to ask my students if they wanted to spend the afternoon in the Portrait Gallery. I've been there once, and remembered it as worth seeing just for the architecture. Being an adventurous group, they eagerly agreed to my plan, and we had a wonderful time. I went straight for the presidential portrait gallery, and was not disappointed. It's curious to learn (from the portrait descriptions) about how so many presidents were really sort of failed, when we think of most of them as great. Pachter didn't hesitate to give his opinion about the incoming president. He believes in the theory that what you want in a president is a first-class intellect AND a first-class temperament, but if you must choose, the temperament is more important. He suggested that Obama will be only the second president to possess both, the first being Lincoln. I hope he's right. I also loved his description of John McCain's personality -- a "Western straightforwardness."

But before we inbibed culture, we had to imbibe some chili at Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. It may mean nothing to you, dear reader, but this is where our president-to-be dined a few days ago. The place was packed, and Reuters even had a cameraman and reporter there (were they just late or what?) who filmed us, since we were the oddest people in the place. It had the feel of Micky's Diner in St. Paul or Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis. Without knowing it, I ordered the same thing Barack had -- a "half smoked chili dog." Don't ask. Let's just say it was full of many things not good for overweight Americans. I can say that if Barack can eat these and say skinny, he must smoke a lot or work out a lot.

Tomorrow we visit McClatchy News Service and talk to the man who headed up one of the few investigations of why Pres. Bush took us to war -- BEFORE it became the popular thing to do. Stay tuned.