Transcripts For CSPAN2 Discussion Of The Boys On The Bus 20240713

I am the 113th president of the National Press club and wanted an honor it is to have this is the First Program on my watch. This year. The former general manager of cbs Radio Network news and former managing editor, the boys on the bus is required reading and i have the pleasure in the challenge for one of those boys chamberlin from opi. [laughter] [applause] looking forward to a terrific discussion this evening now i have the pleasure of introducing the chair of the National Press club history the 87th president of the National Press club, bureau chief of gaylord News University of oklahoma and a dear friend. [applause] thank you so much the legacy of the 112 year history of journalism especially in washington we are pleased we have a new book of the new history of the club called tales from the National Press club scheduled to be published by the History Press and those that have had an impact on history. This event tonight was proposed by our moderator who himself is part of the Grover Family founded by eds greatgrandfather Alexander Graham bell. Who by the way now editor and publisher of the American Heritage magazine that has inspired generations of historians and hes also the author and editor of 13 history books and a thirdgeneration club member and is here to introduce our distinguished panel from the campaign not only the book the boys on the bus but also of the 12 elections that have followed. We will have an hour with the panel and then well open to questions on the floor well pass around the microphone so your question can be picked up by cspan. Please ask the synced questions if you ramble that mike may disappear immediately after the program please join us for a reception for our guests. Thank you so much for doing thi this. The floor is yours. [applause] thank you and congratulations on your book that just came out i dont know how you find so many good history stories. Welcome everybody we are pleased we will have a lively discussion about political campaigns and specifically of the experiences of the three distinguished Panel Members when boys on the bus came out a reviewer said it described a whole gaggle of reporters glamour boys fornicators drunks and virtuosos all crammed like monkeys. Phonetically dogging the candidates something to paying their best works so now that may be a little overthetop that the book did provide a fascinating window into political campaigns and the people that bring those stories to us like the distinguished journalists on the panel. For most of you who dont need an introduction Carl Leubsdorf with the Dallas Morning News for nearly three decades covering the Mcgovern Campaign for the ap that gave him a special status with reporters looking over his shoulder. And the past president of the gridirons club it where he had the distinction to be roasted by john stuart. [laughter] he recently published his memoir entitled the adventures of the boy on the bus. Tom oliphant was known as the kid on the bus. Even though he worked for the boston globe already for four years after the 72 campaign to help manage the coverage of School Desegregation in boston winning the pulitzer prize. He was a long time washington correspondent and reported on ten president ial campaigns. A frequent commentator on pbs and is known for his handsome bowties. Hes also written most recently the road to camelot connie chung last but not least were so glad shes come down only the second female coanchor to coanchor a Network Newscast as part of cbs evening news also an anchor reporter for nbc, abc, cnn and msnbc that is in demand. [laughter] and kim krause when heard that kozy disrupted the world of the boys on the bus always showed up well prepared bright and early with microphone ready and never hung over. [laughter] first of all tell us briefly how you came to be on the campaign in 1972 where i spent most of my career in since that day i joined the ap at of Columbia Journalism School after i was assigned there a spot opened up in new orleans and that has to be more interesting than tampa but what i didnt know they were about to desegregate the schools there. So the next three years i did mostly desegregation and in 1963 i got to the Washington Bureau courtesy of my new Orleans Bureau chief. This is how long ago it was this is before kennedy was killed but the day he was shot when i called and i heard what happened and said should i come in they said no come in at 1030 so wasnt significant at the ap at that point. [laughter] but as the world war ii generation of journalists began to retire and die off in spots began to open up and then there were a couple of thousand representatives and then a couple of descendents and then the 68 campaign i spent some of that covering hubert humphrey. And by the time 1972 came aroun around, i was the ap Political Writer and i was assigned mostly to mcgovern i covered him mostly all year. After that i stayed with the ap a couple years but then went to the Baltimore Sun at the end of 1975 they gave me a good offer to cover politics at the white house and in 1981 a former editor from Dallas Morning News hired me to be a Washington Bureau chief after 28 years as bureau chief i retired ten years ago but im still writing the column i wrote all those years. 1972 is my second of 11 president ial campaigns. I had covered the above kennedy and George Wallace 1968. But i started in New Hampshire where i met this one. I am pretty sure. So that was my second. Tom and i are about the same age. But that is off the record the number. [laughter] but he had a lot more experience. And i was in my mid twenties suddenly i was assigned to cover the mcgovern president ial campaign so i was the third string and that was bruce martin primarily. He was smart and respected the preacher did not respect any television truly. For someone who would talk about talk for a living and sick about what we were saying but i think most people expected him and then i was bumped down to the third banana so that i covered race obviously i did not know what i was doing. [laughter] but i persevered. There is a lot of interesting details in this book what did you think when it came out quicks why do you think theyre still reading it today quick. I was just happy my name was in. [laughter] im not sure but i think it captures a time and a place that somehow has a romantic atmosphere about it. And the Mcgovern Campaign one thing he didnt do very well so almost up to the point where he died. But there was a change in some way with Timothy Crouse says he quotes joe to say you have to pay because of Middle America to go really cracks. [laughter] one of my favorite moments toward the end in the general that came to be known as big feet. As the most Senior Network people i did not come out all that much during the general in fact one of the things i learned about that part of the trade is how little they worked. [laughter] but for some of us who had correspondent responsibilities in those days the arrival of bigfoot was much appreciated because they could do your job for a day and file and you could rest so it was kind of nice but toward the end i remember two of the most hawkish of the washington columnists joe was famous for his association with kissinger at that time and the mcgovern people, god bless them had that sort of thing and then they showed up thinking it was 1960. But they said they would be writing on what we called the zoo point. [laughter] and then to explain what that was like. There was an elite group that could fly on the mcgovern plane and often they were part of the group but then there was the rest of us. [laughter] we were the scum we were animals and not to be respected. [laughter] i think carl was the bigfoot. That the ap had a couple of people that were on the plane every week but really they had journalists and then the backups and the tv crews third person with an organization but the funny story shows in some ways one of the people sent out to the zoo plane was bob novak. [laughter] mcgovern didnt write like anything hero and put him on the zoo plane if you think anything has changed i remind you of the story the other day of the npr reporter not allowed to travel with pompeo. I traveled with spiro agnew some and the Washington Post and the baltimore post couldnt go with him so that part has not change changed. I will never forget on mcgoverns plane it was called dakota queen to. Because the first one was a world war ii plane and for those Bombing Missions during world war ii but the dakota queen pulling away from the tarmac in cleveland and everybody waving by out the window. [laughter] a lot of younger people today must be difficult to fathom what it was like for us to file articles with no computers or internet or email not even a fax machine or a cell phone. The most technologically advanced person covering the nominee was the ap guy. It shows what a different world that was for example i remember coming back from south dakota with senator mcgovern and then he announced and told everyone he would dump them. We will get to that. That the ap reporter had them from the morning papers we wrote separate stories for the morning and afternoon. I said get me a copy and i will find a phone. You had to find a payphone somewhere so you could call it in your story. I said dont worry i will find a pay phone. Sometimes the secret service would find you want. What did you do quick. Yes. The receiver part you had to unscrew it and do the alligator clip for a phony recorder it was really hard to unscrew. I mean really hard to. [laughter] i recall being asked. [laughter] yes i can. [laughter] that connie you have to get that film back well before 7 00 oclock you have to send your film back in the morning you have to send your film back in the morning my husband told me you have to tell them because it just shows how aggressive and brutal you were. [laughter] little old me . [laughter] it is true in those days you had to fly your film to a location where it could be developed or literally flown back to new york in these rickety planes. I cant do this. [laughter] i was always accused of trying to go around the big guy with their first or Second String guy one said he was supposed to show me around and show me the ropes but then i kept going around his back calling new york for my stories directly. But this time my father had a heart attack and they said you can come home and i said great so im flying to the location with the film and then i said why dont i do it . And they said no. You are outrageous it went all through the bureau and it was everyone was appalled. You ever hear of Andrea Mitchell . It still isnt easy. First of all in the world of printer there were portable typewriters. Yes. I had an underwood i had to the late 1930s. You had these little typewriters and the tape recorder was just beginning to be miniaturized that you can hold in your hand in 1968 they were ridiculous because they got in the way of taking notes but there is something that is long gone because of the monopolies but once you had a nominee the candidates always had a guy from a sponsor called at t whose job was to make sure wherever you stopped there were several rows of telephones that worked so we didnt have to fight for pay telephones. And you could write your story a couple of times i wrote the stories in the middle of nowher nowhere. I didnt once with a pen and the Western Union guy with those operators waiting at the next stop. And all of that is gone today. That your life for you but one of the things about that perhaps is different from now but this was at the dawn to let women in. 1972 saw the arrival of three people one a fabulous correspondent at cbs was marvelous Michelle Clark who we lost in a plane crash the following year. She was africanamerican when i was hired the equal Opportunity Commission was putting great pressure to hire women and minorities. Cbs news which was in the neanderthal years and still kind of is. [laughter] hired for women and one smell one one fell swoop me chinese, a black person leslie stall and sylvia chase also had blonde hair. [laughter] it looked like a ticket of the old democratic party. [laughter] you have one of everything. There was one other woman that year who broke through and was a print reporter for the Hearst Newspapers and also arrived on the scene during the primaries who lit up the set at the convention and she is gone sadly in the early eighties but really that is all there was. And then to go to a stone wall through a story but then it was generational at that time. We had grown up with television and were totally comfortable with it. Those in personal life or political life for the Womens Movement that was gathering steam. And those who had trouble with women or television. Tom mary Susan Spencer who is a force to be reckoned with on her own as a Television News correspondent long time at cbs news. But trying to think of her career if there is some way to have meaningful professional life to see them that long ag ago, it was the breakthrough and sadly it is very male in a lot of respects there were a few women covering the campaign. But elizabeth rarely came out and at that point and mary was there. When she wrote for the star i used to watch her that she was an incredible writer. I was such a poor writer i would just be sitting there we would be the only ones there and i was just trying to come up with something mundane just so i could convey what had happened and she is toiling away in the middle of the night working and i would watch her out of the corner of my eye to give her vibes. Please. [laughter] she had already achieved that status but she was a character. I remember the night of one of the primaries i will take a wild guess and say it was wisconsin. We were in the press room and since she is not here to jump down my throat she may have had a couple at dinner before the returns came in. [laughter] she was boston tough talking gal but very fastidious about her appearance and her hair was always done. There we were in the newsroom and return started to come in that night and she was a little off but she had a cigarette. She was on the phone and a bunch of us were watching the cigarette getting closer and closer to her hair. [laughter] and all of a sudden it lit up. [laughter] no. And mary liked young men to carry her bag so they sprang forward and put her out. [laughter] me being the only woman, woman, there was a lot of gameplaying but i was used to that because it was an everyday affair. Every day. If you see the Metoo Movement today but back then it was a daily occurrence in all of you know what im talking about. You just deal with that. Are you going to make me tell the story . [laughter] tell me yours first. [laughter] remember there were all these things the pioneers helped to establish the idea of women. And one of the things they really were one of the boys. Especially this one. I remember one night during the general election, we were somewhere and sometimes after we filed we would go have a couple before we would turn in connie was pretty good about hanging out with us. But then i realize thats we were getting your story. [laughter] but i was always in bed in my room. So he said when i realized carl was breaking stories right and left how did this happen i realize they go down to the bar you get whoever you can on the campaign then they may be able to tell you something. So there are three or four of us including connie. And how many times have you see this happen . That someone in a leisure suit. [laughter] started to hone in awkwardly making passes in connies direction. I was struck first of all how calm and cool she was that she really didnt notice the guy. He did not understand and he kept circling again coming back. And finally he was coming back and i started to get up out of my chair to shoo him away but then connie gave him one of the most withering stairs i have ever seen in my life and said a line that has stayed with me forever. Honey look you dont want to go to bed with me you will just be horny 20 minutes later. [laughter] then we knew she was one of us. [laughter] he said he had a story but i had forgotten it. But i had to develop a little repertoire because there were so many coming out. So roger mudd reminded me when he was writing his book he said jim and the New York Times and another one who at that time was working for the l. A. Times and then i was at the biltmore on the phone on a pay phone the actual with the accordion glass door and a seat so i is sitting there i was talking to someone who i was stating. Dating and they came up impress their noses and were asking me. I that they were sexually harassing me. So they push their way in i was sitting here so i could see their belt buckle so to get rid of them i pull down there flies. [laughter] and they said did you do that . I said i think so. [laughter] on that note. [laughter] that is a hard one to follow. Did you feel you had a lot of access to mcgovern . And all the journalists covering the campaign because they would get kos on close to the candidate and the journalist knocked down five rounds of whiskey. And thats one of the things that was most different and with the candidate or the staff there are no barriers. But i remember being in New Hampshire i wanted to do a story about mcgovern so i dont know if you want me to tell this at the 1000 percent. It is so good. I wrote this story that prompted mcgovern to say he is 1000 percent behind eagleton. They had had a press conference with a announced they had treatments for depression including electric shock treatments. After that story what is the next cycle and the followup . I saw the postdispatch say he has an interview i found out somehow he was playing tennis. So i went over to the tennis court and asked if i could write up to his cabin and talk to him. He said sure. You couldnt get within 10 miles of a candidate today. In most cases you dont fly on the same plane with them. And went back to the press room i had a little tape recorder because the ap could not afford it we had one between the two of us sparkle i got it from my colleague and not telling him why wanted it because i didnt want to tell anyone what i might have. And i interviewed mcgovern. In the course of the interview i asked him what do you think is the public reaction to his announcement he was supportive of eagleton and said we will have to wait and see. A lead. Mcgovern is still supporting eagleton but we will have to wait and see how the public reacts it was totally innocuous but i filed it. You have to understand half of mcgovern staff is in washington they barely have phone communication. They dont have a wire. They dont have internet so they are only see my story for hours and hours and then they go crazy. Now we have to do something about it. They have a hurry up meeting and mcgovern says i will deny it. The press secretary said i dont thank you can do that because i had it on tape. The solution was to put out a statement in response to the ap story i am 1000 percent behind eagleton. And by the way the statement was put on the wall at the press room. [laughter] and the person who did it is sitting in the third row. [laughter] [applause] she had red hair then and went on to join our racket after the election that was her moment in history and pulled it off beautifully. But heres the more serious point. We all got it wrong he got it right. So the established way to cover politics was full of it. And it created a two dimensional linear reality easily manipulated by politicians. On the Eagleton Mcgovern issue his point was overall we had blown the story because we failed to transmit i love eagleton but how manipulative he was to stay on the ticket and then how skillful manipulative mcgovern was to grease the skids to get rid of it without having a Dramatic Press Conference to say im getting rid of the guy. You had this confusion but the point is it was all a farce and not genuine drama. And that is the larger point he was trying to make in the book. And that is one reason it is still studied today but there is something wrong with two dimensional journalism. In many respects, the hero of the book but not sex and drugs but it is hunter thompson. Who could make a campaign more real by going off to pluto. Our favorite in New Hampshire he had discovered he was a lousy candidate was is boring as hell and stiff as a board but if somebody had smuggled up to new england and even had a name for it and it made you boring. [laughter] and then we would go on to describe the appearance that would be like this. With a real guy was funny and profane and worried about his stature. But anyway hunters description was more real than ours. And that was the message. I dont think its true with every single reporter. No no no. One of the questions we were wrestling with it would come up repeatedly all the way through today is how could the whole institution been dead wrong about muskie . But just the situation. Practically on the eve of the New Hampshire primary there was massive structure. Everyone was wrong about hillary also. But we were just beginning to have a debate in 1972 among ourselves about whether our coverage was about candidacies and what they were about or here it comes the first time you hear that term is 1972. In our daily stories yours as well as mine, the nominee went somewhere and said something that was the story. And it was usually one new paragraph in the standard speech and that gave you your lead with something to write about. But the speech with him we could hear one new part. We would sit there and mouse the speeches they were giving i it. One of mcgoverns traveling gurus 1972 was a guy who was central to president ial politics since 1960. And later went on to become the washington government for the operator of saudi arabia. [laughter] but he was marvelous at his craft and all of the candidates he was advising to personalize the stump speech that everybody could have a laugh. There was one example that involves you and me. Mcgovern would have lines about the classic liberal every day the big rich businessman candid that the price of his three martini lunch and it was a the poor working guy cannot deduct. So what he would do to lighten things up and the poor working stiff like Carl Leubsdorf. [laughter] so why did he do this and then i realize i was talking to mcgovern on the plane just before we got on so i was probably slightly on his mind plus he was losing the election and having a little fun because it wasnt going to end well. And bob kennedy always closed his speech im sure people see things as they are and ask why but i dream and ask why not. And several times Robert Kennedy would say and so , lets get to the press. [laughter] and the mood would lighten. Accesses very different. And the contrast was so profound because he wasnt visible and was nowhere to be found. It finally became a story. I think all of us that nobody was pressing the president from that side to come out of the bunker and meet with the press. He just was not. And this was before 721 of the boys on the bus who at the time but is representing baguette net newspaper chain was jacked your mind jacked germ on. But that had not happened but it was the chain at that time but usa today had not happened yet and they did a column so anyway jack had the idea that people who did politics regularly needed to have regular access to the people who are running just to talk to get to know each other. So he organized something it was called Political Writers for a democratic society. [laughter] maybe there were seven or eight of us. We would have supper at somebodys apartment or house and the candidate and one aid only would come and this would be off the record it would be in what they call deep background you could not attribute anything or allude to the fact to even talk to them there is a quotation there are ways you could say it but you cannot say it directly and of course no pictures. And no wires. The did you ask gingrich once on camera . [laughter] my wife had some dumb congressman in upstate new york who everybody was thinking of endorsing kennedy for president and he was batting that tennis ball back and forth one day and my wife finally said off the record as the cameras are running will you endorse the candidate . [laughter] the cameras are rolling there was a microphone on. [laughter] but these things were incredibly newsworthy. I was very young then and im very old now but i felt like i knew these people and in a pen in a pinch you could have a conversation it do you thank you were more irreverent than . At one point gordon comes out to give a talk on the bus to the new economic plan and then to say but it kept going so we threw gordon off the bus in effect. [laughter] there was another moment that was very illustrative and was an early proponent every citizen has a certain account they start off in life with. It is more common today but nixon had a version of it 1969. But it was all new it wasnt clear how much it would cost but then a month in suit of almost aroundtheclock of this examination of this proposal. But nobody had ever gone into an issue like this with the campaign that deeply. And then to remember which Journalism School did it. There were more exposing the deficiencies of the economic proposal and had been extended on watergate at that time. Oh my goodness. Of course with his book it wasnt written about you could say things off the record and talk to candidates off the record and it would not be quoted if a reporter today turns to another reporter at the White House Press room assuming they have one still. [laughter] and says something cometh likely to be on the internet two minutes later. The Eastern Liberal establishment was alive and well. They probably did not vote for nixon but yet all of us believed very strongly as they believe as the individual citizen we would bend over backwards to be critical. And i thought every reporter went overboard to be critical of mcgovern just because they did not want to be accused of soft peddling him or his message. It also happened with the times coverage of Hillary Clinton 2016 and biden today. Look at the times every day there is a story about something biden is doing wrong. I assume he will finish number eight in iowa. I was going to pick up on what connie was saying. When you are out there, when you were out there, with the microphone, how did you know what to ask . You were not just sticking the microphone in peoples faces. You were one of these people who prompted people like mcgovern to Say Something to get some fresh sound but it would require you to be completely up to speed first thing in the morning so when he came out of the hotel to get in his car in the motorcad motorcade, if you had a news type of question you were likely to get a new type of answer. And that is what you did. Write . Yes. Thank you for knowing that. The way that it was done then is that everybody didnt travel on the ground particularly in the general elections after the conventions. Reporters are divided up into shift of morning and afternoon and evening. And seven or eight of them represent all of their colleagues where they cannot fit everybody in. So i would have that duty every other day but you got it 24 hours a day. [laughter] we are almost out of time and we have a couple of questions. And talks about trying to cover a campaign from 30000 feet a lot of the reporters got it wrong from the Mcgovern Campaign because you said you saw a large and enthusiastic crowds but pulling was really in its infancy. They were up 20 points in the field pull in california. We thought he was losing but he had enormous crowds everywhere. I got on the plane one week out to go back to ap headquarters and i was stunned to discover nobody thought he would carry anything. You dont have the same information everybody has today. Now i would say thats another story about one last quick question what was the best prank . Because there were some on the bus. Yes. [laughter] one of the things that was different about 1972, he started to get something that is a common feature of the president ial Campaign Today which is the arrival of somebody from vanity fair , gentlemens quarterly, esquire or a magazine bigshot. Sometimes they come out now to write about the press i noticed there was a big story in the style section this morning of the Washington Post of who was screwing whom. [laughter] and in iowa i did not know they did that. [laughter] they werent doing that 1972 and in iowa i did not know they did that. [laughter] they werent doing that 1972 quickly ask you about the nixon spy. Lucy. Lucy and was on the plane and later reappeared as a friend of monica lewinsky. She was there every day we thought she was writing a book and then she had her cigarette holder and a drink more often than not talking into a tape recorder supposedly she said she was doing a book and she would mumble these ridiculously detailed things that mcgovern looks tired. [laughter] ridiculous. It turns out it was going to the office every night and it didnt come out until the hearings the next year. So one of these fancy magazine reporters showed up and dressed beautifully. Had a designer and a handbag that had to have cost for figures. In those days, campaign buses, press buses didnt come equipped with restrooms. One of our members had an emergency as we were driving in from the airport. I wont say who and he just couldnt wait any longer. From the backseat he tried to use a beer can and mostly failed and this is San Francisco see you have hills and all the rest. Do you remember this story . It began to make its way down the aisle and pretty soon the entire bus is cheering everyone on. Then there was a huge cheer like welcome to president ial politics, this bigshot. [laughter] [applause] will give the audience the chance to ask some questions. Dont make a campaign speech. Yes, sir greg sherma sherman with thet bureau. Back in the days when this was written, the three of you but david broder, johnny apple i think sort of got to decide in a way who ran for president and if you thought they were a serious contender or not. In the last couple administrations, we have a president that only have two Years Experience and since then we ha have a president that hado experience whatsoever. In the days since the boys on the bus, with any of those have been taken seriously, what theyy have gotten enough coverage to have been elected . Obama and trump, not the problem. Remember when 1972 started to happen, for all of this way over the top concentration everybody covering this campaign has been through the earthquakes of 1968 when the same thing had happened also in New Hampshire with gene mccarthy. There was never the one thing that i thought was fortunate looking back is that there was not much attention paid to what was a historical change. I dont think any of us understood what the big deal that was. They had to use two tables and had them stacked up on top of each other this crazy guy that threw the rest on the table and said theres not enough being done about hunger. They had them stacked up like this and it was New Hampshire but must be dominated. Before i shut up, there is a message behind the question but im not sure i accept. People have their own way of figuring out what is going on. We play a role that i think most of us tend to exaggerate and its true people dont get mentions who showed they dont drop out of the democratic race so far. The mistake that you can make is that thinking that the impact is colossal. We really dont matter at all. The new paradigm now the television and network news is actually it lacks relevance today because of the internet. Information zips through the cloud. There were some stories about all the things he had done and all the stuff he did a. Nixon was an early believer in that and his observation is the first one to be structured that way. They learned some of it with television and 68 but in terms of content and schedule he beheaded down by reagan did it in 84. In contrast for nominations i think the experience shows its a freeforall and verified. He was going all around the country and no one was paying any attention to him. What should he do about this. The first thing that came into my head i said its very simple you have to do is win the New Hampshire primary. It marked another moment with 1972 there was attention paid to the following word, expectatio expectations. When you have a frontrunner, there would be a game in the 60s and into 72 how much does he have to win with the expectation and every night in the campaign setting, i credit jules was coming and a lot of us would write a song about some event or theme in the campaign and in New Hampshire it was to the tune of the rock of agents and if i remember balearic it is david broder right for me, tell me what is victory and the number that they fastened on those 55. The famous quote is marie curie and if he doesnt get 55, she says i will beat my hat. What was it, 47. And mc govern one with 46. People didnt learn what that was the first moment to just dont fall over. Werthewerther stories being n today about the expectations next monday in iowa . Before i forget, tim krause said of nixon, no president has ever worked so lovingly or painstakingly to emasculate reporters. [inaudible] i did have one small measure of advantage and that was that i had covered mcgovern in south dakota fresh out of iowa and found myself in south dakota. They kept mentioning about this Young Democratic politician named George Mcgovern. He was about to run for the house against the World War Two flying ace and so that was a small advantage that i had. They said something we will have to talk about what it was like to cover that govern. One way the bureau in sioux falls was a rundown Office Building the elevators didnt start running until Something Like 8 00 and every morning during the campaign, many mornings during the campaign, George Mcgovern without an elevator would stop by without a handout that he woul he would py get written and typed himself before going off to sales but it was quite so articulate or moving. They drove themselves around in a beatup Station Wagon and builbuilt the party all by hims. Im going to test the motor skills by making a brief statement didnt have my question be whether you come along for the ride or if i am working up the wrong tree. Weve heard about the importance of things created as a reporter. Districts is interesting to look at the amount of money journalists are willing and able to pay for what they drink and what kind of establishment. So going from a time when somebody dressing and expensive attire on a bus would be looked down at a time now people have immense debt to corrupt journalism and are having different kinds of drinks at different bars. I wonder if anybody has thoughts on the challenge to connect with readers and viewers and a bigger gap. The campaign to provide liquor and charters. The i think that it was provid provided. There was difference is today the reporters dont drink as much, simple as that. You notice during the campaign over the years when i would switch from bloody mary i marye morning to mineral water and youve got to the mid80s or the early 90s and there were only two or three. It was expected that you always go to the table and pick up checks. I was trained in expense living dont leave a check on the table so somebody would object and say thats all right. Its only money and its not mine. [laughter] it was first involving and what you see is news. You know his background. What you feel is opinion. With increasing frequency, we see reporters on cnn, msnbc offering opinions 24 7. Is this living journalism forward . As the husband of a distinguished journalism page that often appears on television, i think its something of a problem many people into susan is one of them that could find themselves to analysis and explanation of what they see us coming and many others. The reporter from the Associated Press where i worked expressing opinions on morning joe morning after morning but it seems like the news organizations like the prominence on tv and clicks on the website means somebody is paying attention. And the line has been very blurred. The. The platforms [inaudible] you think that influenced the cover going after the press thats why the New York Times is going after joe biden or Hillary Clinton. If they have more perspective than either of us i lost you a little bit there. Honestly i think that they are just normal people. If we have a personal bias in one direction or another direction, they would try very hard to push the personal bias out of the way and be fair so if we were at that time appalled with the spirit of agnew said, i think we tried very hard just to be objective. We are all products of our own experience and we cant help but being slightly subjective. There is a fact worth putting on the table here. I didnt know many nixon or agnew people that believe all that. It was a way of doing politics that they had discovered could work and there were times that it was almost a game. After that speech there were games played at night with them to come up with other alliterative phrase is and they all indulged in this and there was a feeling that it was more of a game then it was something serious. Even today it strikes me as something otherworldly. I think that is bending over backwards to show that in the times of case they are not for the democrats and against trump so you do that by being as tough as possible on the other side, and i think sometimes they carry carried to an extreme. You mentioned people dont have the direct access they used to have and direct conversations but at least political journalists are on the campaign trail with the candidates and it seems we have an intermediary layer not from those in direct contact with the candidate but through a articles they are compiling stories and become the intermediary. A. Do you study all this . Here is what i would like, take a 24 hour toko and somehow get it all into stream some events if a handful of these, what is the thing that has the circle with a line in it and then you can only write hundred 50 words were something. Give me a day in the life of 21st Century Media and tell me what its like and if you learned anything, if it was all just a bunch of gibberish after and here is a picture of my lunch or something because it is so diffuse i cant learn very much a. Im having a hard time trying to figure out what is accurate and what is true. Or getting videos o that you can watch a candidate to find out what they are saying and whats going on that the horse race which was three paragraphs is now the story and believe me it still reads to me like 90 pallone and it doesnt have anything to do with educating me about anything going on in the country or whatever. It just if you get this much in iowa can be translate you transw hampshire and nevada. I was in shock. All of the polls that you have seen from New Hampshire, nevada, South Carolina and nationally would be worthless next tuesday after iowa votes. Every word that has been written about them and what was happening in those states will change. I dont want to criticize journalism today because i think through such Investigative Journalism weve seen since th they. It runs across the print but also some of the broadcast networks are doing great Investigative Journalism so i dont want to dump on the media in a wholesale way because a lot of people do. Information that gets disseminated very quickly with nobody checking it. The oldfashioned way is weve had editors and producers and we need layers of people making sure that what we reported was accurate, and i was afraid of being fired because it was a question of whether or not i got this right. A, but today its not because people are not dedicated, there are certain outlets that allow him to mind out of mouth or on the paper and disseminated instantly and thats where i have a problem. I cannot spare out the truth, so i have to read all kinds of things to sort of come to my own conclusions of what might be the truth and probably the best whatever is going on you watch it yourself and come to your own conclusion. On the democratic side i would say 90 of what i know about the race comes from watching each of them in a couple of events a day beginning to end that i used to get from my buddy. There is too much coverage everything is returning everything is restless and saying this is important in this. The post has done a wonderful job and they have a traffic bunch theyve hired every reporter that doesnt work for the times. God knows what is going to happen, but in any case there are so many stories about so many people i dont know where the truth lies. Someone that has worked on both sides of the bus and my name is bill outlaw. These two work as a reporter on the bus for the jimmy carter campaign. I then worked the other side of the bus. It wasnt very successful but my question is in todays world with a focus and the use of the term fake news hell do you think the media are dealing with that and what would you advise the media to do with the . There are people in the journalism world that can take on the forums and seminars that we have to make sure we dont fall into the traps and start doing things to cater to do the. Most people in the room have a good sense of what makes Good Journalism and for their own purposes when they do wit what e president has done you cannot counter except to do your job the right way. Every few weeks however often it is the president goes off to one of these shows ive been able to find pictures about an hour before the event and you see the children and grandchildren arriving and you see the taunting and at times it is almost physical. The people that just go in and do their work and leave and dont pay any attention to whats happening. I think it hurts. It hurts those of us that believe in what we are doing that we pursue a worthy profession. We were trying to right the wrongs of the government or society or social ills and we considered an honorable profession. Even though others dont consider us pursuing an honorable profession, there are plenty of reporters today who still have that mindset granted there is a whole section of people who dont come and they engage in perpignan and biased reporting. But my old friends, my own colleagues, the people i knew they were just pursuing the truth. Know one thing, shes being very wise and eloquent, but i guarantee if anybody in 1972 treated connie the way that some of these do today, she would have spotted them flattened than. [applause] [laughter] do you have any final words . I cant top that. Thank you for coming. [applause] the bar is open here and there is cheese and other things to eat so please, stick around. [inaudible conversations] this important issue for me as civil rights and Civil Liberties like voting rights, reproductive rights, promote Justice Reform and reproductive freedom. These are more important now than ever because we are seeing them being violated but cant write. They are as important as every other issue. The issue that is most important to me right now is the fact that our veterans dont have housing. I feel as though New Hampshire since it is one of the 50 states should do more than right now that are as tough to leave and n go to vermont or massachusetts to get the benefits they need. I dont think that is appropriate. These people make a sacrifice for the country and they should be able to have the services when they come home. [inaudible] the most important thing to me is the truth, we need to work on gun violence, healthcare, college education. We have a lot of things to work on that when the senate is openly against the truth and in a partisan manner, it is time for us to return to our roots and face back and listen to witnesses. Its just time to face the truth and move forward and we can do that if we dont open our eyes and pay attention. The most important issue to me in the 2020 election is education including the current cost of education for post graduate and graduate work and also the legislation that has been coming out at the Trump Administration with k12