Penn Commission panel tackles media ethics

Last week, a Boston TV reporter asked presidential candidate George W. Bush a series of questions he could not answer: Who are the leaders of Pakistan, India, Chechnya and Taiwan? Yesterday, three participants in a roundtable discussion entitled "Improving Public Discourse" responded to another stumper. Was the reporter's pop quiz for Bush appropriate and illuminating? Or was the question irrelevant to important issues and seen as another attempt by the media to embarrass and attack a political figure for the sake of a good story? Former Texas gubernatorial candidate Tom Luce, former Clinton strategist Paul Begala and Bush campaign manager Karl Rove broached this topic before about 25 members of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture and Community yesterday morning at the Inn at Penn. The discussion, moderated by Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, was one of the final events of the commission's two-day session. The "three white males from Texas," as Jamieson introduced them, voiced different opinions on the Boston reporter's question for Bush, but all agreed that the state of public discourse is in disarray. According to the panelists, politicians today are not engaging in constructive discussions and debates -- and provocation by the media is a major part of the problem. "The media is more interested in covering an election as a sports event rather than as a high-minded political debate," said Rove, who blamed this trend on the proliferation of tabloid journalism. Luce said he learned the "food-fighting mentality" of the media firsthand in his Texas gubernatorial race against Clayton Williams. "I would have reporters come to me and say, 'Luce, you'll never get on the front page if you don't attack [Williams],'" he said. Luce attributed the sparking of personal attacks by the press to the "alienation and disconnect that Americans feel with politics." "People think political debate doesn't make a whit's bit of difference to [their] daily lives," he said. So instead of asking politicians questions related to current issues, media personalities instigate irrelevant but perhaps more interesting conversation. Begala explained muckraking by referring what he believes to be the media's lack of accountability today. "If CBS makes a major mistake, it won't lead on the NBC news," he quipped. As for solutions to the problems in public discourse, all three panelists agreed that mediating institutions are needed to "galvanize robust debate." Also, because the costs of campaign ads and television air time are so high, the panelists agreed that candidates should have free or publicly financed air time to express their views. "But it would have to be creative, entertaining, an open format," Begala said. "If it wasn't just talking heads, you could get an audience to watch it." After 1 1/2 hours of discussion, the panelists stepped down and the session took a quick break before beginning the next event of the day, "Exemplary Discourse Programs." The Penn National Commission, a group of 48 experts from various disciplines and specialties, includes among its members Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley and novelist E.L. Doctorow. University President Judith Rodin first convened the Commission in December 1996 to discuss the lack of opportunities for people with conflicting opinions to converse with one another in an organized, non-confrontational manner. This was the commission's sixth meeting, and the third to be held in Philadelphia.