Embedded and Elitist Left: The Long March through Schools of Journalism

VDH ^ | August 1, 2004 | Bruce Thornton

[quidnunc]

If you want a good example of the "long march through the institutions" undertaken by sixties leftists after they left school, look no further than the career of Orville Schell, dean of Berkeley's School of Journalism.

Since the political program of the left was unlikely to prevail through democratic means — given the innate good sense of most Americans, who can smell a totalitarian rat a mile away — those like Schell endorsing various socialist nostrums could realize their utopian schemes only "by insinuation and infiltration rather than confrontation," as Roger Kimball has put it. Thus they settled in the universities and the media, "working against the established institutions while working in them," in the words of sixties leftist guru Herbert Marcuse.

But there is another dimension of the institutionalization of the left, one also illustrated by Schell — what Tom Wolfe famously called "radical chic," the use of leftist ideology as a fashion marker to signify one's elitist superiority to the bovine middle class befuddled by a false consciousness that keeps them from seeing the horrible oppression and injustice of America. This combination of elitist privilege and ideology has been a pretty good deal for lucky leftists like Schell, for their insidious undermining of democracy's institutions works just slowly enough to allow them to continue to enjoy the prestigious and profitable benefits of those same institutions that their "progressive" ideas are corrupting.

The circumstances of Schell's hiring at Berkeley illustrate just how entrenched the left has become in American universities. Before going to Berkeley as dean, Schell had written for various publications, produced some television documentaries, run an organic farm, and published several well-received books on China, having given up on finishing his PhD. In other words, a pretty good career, but not one that would usually qualify you for being dean of one of the country's most prestigious journalism schools. But if Schell lacked one of the requirements for the position, a completed PhD, he did have impeccable leftist credentials. That was qualification enough for Berkeley profs like Troy Duster, another ex-sixties-radical who was instrumental in Schell's hiring.

We see in this episode one of the effects of the entrenchment of the left in the universities — the establishment of a "good-ole-leftist-boy" network that spreads around institutional goodies to its cronies. (I wonder where the female and minority faculty of Berkeley were when another privileged, prep-schooled white guy was given a job over the no doubt many better-qualified journalists "of color.") Schell himself recently helped out another ex-sixties radical, Robert Scheer, by hiring him this spring to teach a course at Berkeley on "Covering the Iraq War." Given that Scheer and Schell, both Nation contributors, have been outspoken and shrill opponents of the war in Iraq, it's hard to see how the whole notion of journalistic fairness and objectivity, let alone academic critical thinking on an issue, could cut any ice during Scheer's lectures.

-snip-

[Ciexyz]

The entrenchment of leftist profs in America's university system is why I long ago stopped giving to my alma mater.

[Che Chihuahua]

The left has taken over every institution in the last 40 years. This how a minority of less than 20% has taken over most of this country. The Clintons are an arranged marriage by the Kremlin. Anyone who thinks that Communism ended with the fall of the Soviet Union should be aware that Communism is alive and well in the democrat party. Mass media "journalism" is the public relations arm of these neo-Communists.

[steplock]

"Gentlemen, Comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about glasnost and perestroika and democracy in the coming years. These are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep".

Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, to the Politburo in Nov 1987.

[Porterville]

Gramsci... this is classic Gramsci... that is the educated socialist role model on how to enact plans for new structural designs through out society... they almost won, and then Reagan came around :)

[Tribune7]

ping

[Khurkris]

Good linkage there. Ol' Antonio would agree completely.

[Malesherbes]

Why do we have conservative think tanks like AEI, Heritage, and Cato? Because we lost the universities. It will take some kind of cataclysm to rid academia from k thru 12 thru the colleges and universities of this Marxist grip.

[Soul Seeker]

First step is to enable parents to choose the school of their choice for their children. This would go a long way toward dismantling the leftist's control on the mind's of the nation's children.

Public school will either need to compete or watch as their funding takes a dive.

[woodb01]

US House Testimony on Ways and Means Committee programs, Taxpayer Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, FC-8. July 17, 2003, 15 citations and references - exploring the roots and causes of the current culture war and the rise of the welfare state -- numerous references to Gramscian Communism. http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=954

[livius]

What does have a "haunting ring" about this war, however, is the relentless assault of those domestic critics like Schell who attempt to erode our will to pursue to its proper end a conflict democratically sanctioned by Congress. We know the results of their earlier success: an oppressive tyranny in Vietnam, replete with gulags, ethnic cleansing, torture, millions of refugees, and economic backwardness; and the "malaise" of the seventies, which emboldened the Soviet Union in Central America and Africa and kept us from responding to the first attack by the Islamists, the take-over of the American embassy in Tehran.

With someone like Schell running one of the country's major journalism schools, there is little hope that the corruption of the media by its ideological prejudices and preferences can be changed. The "long march" has done its work, leaving our public institutions in the hands of those whose ideology runs counter to the basic principles of American life.

Great article! I snipped out the above paragraphs for people who might not go read the whole thing. It's well worth reading.

[Boundless]

Here's a regional one:
http://www.journalism.ku.edu/school/mission.shtml

Who would punish their own kids by sending them to such a place?

[davisfh]

"Anyone who thinks that Communism ended with the fall of the Soviet Union should be aware that Communism is alive and well in the democrat party."

I couldn't agree more!

[prognostigaator]

bump

[freedom_forge]

It all started to go down hill when they stopped calling themselves reporters and began calling themselves journalists. "Reporter" has such an honest, matter of fact, unpretentious sound.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

INFOWAR ping.

[fatima]

Cannoneer No. 4,Bumo.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

In the end, the educated city room betrayed its promise. When the quick but unschooled working-class reporters were displaced and the well-educated took over the work, that social dislocation might have been justifiable if the news media were going to serve democracy more effectively, if the educated reporters were using their professional skills to enhance citizens' ability to cope with power in a more complicated world. The educated reporters instead secured a comfortable place for themselves among the other governing elites. The transformation looks more like a nasty episode of social usurpation, a power shift freighted with class privilege.

If the promise was not fulfilled, then what was the point of turning a craft into a profession? Aside from personal glory, what was really gained from all the journalists with college degrees, if they decline to use their skills to challenge power on behalf of their readers? Those of us who prospered from the transformation of the city room are burdened with those questions and naturally reluctant to face them. Educated journalists, it turns out, are strong on the facts and weak on the truth.--William Greider

[Defender2]

#16. Read your Article, Cannoneer No. 4.

Very well said, thanks for posting it, and your ping.


Best FReegards, D2

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the link!