Posted on 11/30/2004 7:18:51 AM PST by PhiKapMom
An upbeat outlook on the media’s future
David Halberstam discusses past, present and future of journalism
11/30/04
By James S. Tyree
Transcript Staff Writer
David Halberstam Monday night sat in a comfy chair at the Oklahoma Memorial Union for an intimate chat with a few hundred people celebrating the opening of Gaylord Hall.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist discussed his long career that stretched from rural Mississippi to the rice paddies of Vietnam and back to post-9/11 New York.
“For 50 years I’ve been paid to learn,” Halberstam said during a dinner event at the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom. “It’s been a wonderfully enriching life, and I love what it has done.”
Halberstam won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his news coverage of the Vietnam War for the New York Times. He went on to write 14 best-selling books on various news, feature and sports subjects and was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up two years ago for his book “War in a Time of Peace.”
Halberstam said he gained “respect for the complexity of a free society and how it works” through his career. Despite concerns about journalism today, he was upbeat for the first generation of students that will learn at Gaylord Hall, the new home of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“I would encourage people to go in, but with a footnote — it’s different,” he said.
The main differences, Halberstam said, are the explosion of information sources through cable television, talk radio and the Internet, and the media corporations that have brought a corporate climate to newspapers and television newsrooms.
“I believe in their heart of hearts, their customers are not people who buy the paper but people who buy the stocks,” Halberstam said.
As a result, the line between news and entertainment increasingly is blurred and the need to beat the competition — or at least keep up with it — takes precedence over older professional standards.
Halberstam cited an exchange with Judy Woodruff of CNN as an example. Woodruff promised to call him back after a news meeting on how and when her network would deliver some new story regarding President Clinton and an intern named Lewinsky. She called back three minutes later, he said, because other networks already were breaking the story, so CNN immediately had to follow suit.
Saying CNN’s decision that day was based on ratings and not professional standards, Halberstam said, “I think the gap is widening between what we should do and what we do do.”
Yet, Halberstam said good journalism remains and reporters should approach their jobs as students and teachers of society at the same time. In his own experience, Halberstam said what he learned in Mississppi and Nashville, Tenn., during the early Civil Rights era helped prepare him for covering the Congo and Vietnam.
When comparing his experiences in Vietnam and other hot spots, Halberstam said he has even greater admiration for reporters covering the war in Iraq because of the added danger.
Later, a man in the audience asked Halberstam what should be said at the upcoming presidential inaugural address.
“As a nation,” he answered after saying he differs greatly from President Bush, “we need to think of things that bind us together and not just supporting the troops in Iraq, but what else in daily life.”
Halberstam is a Harvard graduate who traded an occasional barb with University of Oklahoma President David Boren, a Yale alum who sat beside him. He basked in Harvard’s 35-3 victory over Yale this month, and when Boren said David Ross Boyd, OU’s first president, saw no buildings or trees when he arrived in Norman, Halberstam said it sounds like Yale.
(NOTE: Remainder of article gave the schedule of today's events)
This article was on the top of the front page this morning and thought it was very appropriate for the discussion that has been ongoing about some of today's media.
George Will will be speaking this evening to close out the events of today for the dedication of the new Journalism Building for the new Journalism College that was recently established here at The University of Oklahoma which removed Journalism from Arts and Science. The new facility is beautiful and has a ticker running along the side of the building with the news of the day.
Thought you would enjoy reading this from this morning's paper -- the Transcript may be liberal but this new writer James Tyree is what I believe a journalist should be -- fair, honest, and tells it like it is! IMO he is the best writer the Transcript has ever had!
Lecture by George Will to Highlight Grand Opening
Two Pulitzer Prize Award-winning journalists – syndicated columnist and television commentator George Will and social/political commentator David Halberstam – will be among the speakers Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 29 and 30, for the opening ceremonies of Gaylord Hall, new home of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Will, arguably the most distinguished of conservative newspaper columnists, is scheduled to give the keynote address at a dinner Tuesday. Following Will’s address, OU President David L. Boren will moderate a question-and-answer session. The evening will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the program and then dinner, all in the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom of Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave.
The two days of ceremonies marking the opening of Gaylord Hall will begin on Monday evening with a dinner and fireside chat featuring Halberstam. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception, followed at 6:30 p.m. by dinner and the fireside chat, also in the union’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.
OU President David L. Boren said, “The opening of Gaylord Hall is an important milestone in the history of journalism education in our state. It signals that the University of Oklahoma has taken its place among those universities with the strongest journalism and mass communication programs in the nation. None of it would have been possible without the incredible generosity of the late Edward L. Gaylord and his family.”
Whenever, David Halberstam finallys stops writing and talking, America will be a stronger nation.
He is part of the current core of the left wing. He and his peers turned our Nam Victory into defeat and the hatred of our warriors and a strong America became the core of the current rat party.
The Halb is the best.
He made some good points thought about today's media and ratings which shocked me -- never thought I would see him go after CNN and Judy Woodruff or the media in general for getting away from journalistic standards. That was the shock of the day.
Looking forward to George Will this evening -- great balance and Will is an excellent speaker.
Come quick y'all!!
Come see what "the future" of urinalism is gonna look like according to one of the brainstems directly *&* indirectly responsible -- ie "Halberstam won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his news coverage of the Vietnam War for the New York Times." -- for creating the mockery we're seeing, today.
That was just the *beginning* of this quisling's run, though: "He went on to write 14 best-selling books on various news, feature and sports subjects and was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up two years ago for his book 'War in a Time of Peace.'"
I'm not going to waste my time looking into exactly what context the bilge this clown extruded had across all the "various news, feature and sports subjects"; but, given the tone of what he had to say in this piece, recently?
I can just imagine it was rife with a Liberal-Socialist slant enough to gag a maggot even in today's skewered political climate.
And so where do these kinds come from, one might ask?
"Halberstam is a Harvard graduate who traded an occasional barb with University of Oklahoma President David Boren, a Yale alum who sat beside him. He basked in Harvard’s 35-3 victory over Yale this month, and when Boren said David Ross Boyd, OU’s first president, saw no buildings or trees when he arrived in Norman, Halberstam said it sounds like Yale."
So disconnected with mainstream America as to be simply stunning.
And *this* person & those like 'em are held up as examples to all with a major influence on our culture?
We're reaping the bitter harvest.
...of what we've sown.
David Halberstams book "The Best and the Brightist" was a classic of how Johnson was overawed by all the ivy-league leftovers from the Kennedy Administration who eventually ran his Presidency into the gorund.
The Powers That Be...brilliant book.
Reading what he said about Judy Woof Woof, he was saying that she and CNN should have spiked the Monica story and never gone public with it.
Did he combine a trip to the Clintoon liebrary with this speech?
He's from a different generation of journalists. Would Henry Luce have gone with the Monica story?
Journalists everywhere are complaining about corporate ownership and "When MBAs Rule the Newsroom." I think, though, the complaint is a fallacy. Journalists are insulated from that in their reporting - though they may have to worry about layoffs like common folk.
The problem with journalism is the same as the problem with teaching. There are schools of education and schools of journalism where liberal college professors teach idiot college students to be liberal journalists. They teach them that they must get both sides of the story, even if one side is clearly lunatic. They teach them that the best stories are those that question or challenge the standards (read "values") of society.
Add to that that every journalist is still looking for a Watergate to be a Woodward and Bernstein and you have liberal elitists making something out of nothing: The New York Times.
"George Will will be speaking tonight."
"George who>"
"George Will."
"Great. But who's George?"
"George Will!"
"I know that! But George Who??"
...
He was so impressed with the Ivy League that it made me want to barf. David Boren may have gone to Yale but he is so in touch with Middle America as he has balanced this writer with George Will.
It must have pained this writer to have to write about Judy Woodruff in the manner he did which I thought was funny!
I was waiting for someone to pick up on that aspect! He is right about getting a story on the air as quickly as possible to beat everyone for ratings ala Rather.
What is funnier is the fact that David Boren was the first person to call for Clinton to resign the night the story broke and here is this writer saying the story shouldn't have broken when it did.
That is what the OU Journalism and Mass Communication is all about. When Edward Gaylord donated all the money for this facility one of the stipulations was that this College would teach ethics and lean to the right. The Oklahoman is an example of what Edward Gaylord was all about.
LOL!! That's good!
I hope it's successful, though I have to wonder where they will find people who teach "ethics" in journalism. I took a couple of journalism courses in college where ethics came up, but the professors were inadequate to deal with such subject matter. I took classes from a professor who was fairly grounded and pretty much taught by the old Mark Twain quote: The duty of the press is to print the truth and raise hell. A few years later, after she'd obtained a doctorate in journalism, I took another class from her and she had changed her philosophy on journalism and now taught that the duty of the press is to advance the socialist agenda.
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