Professor Gore, Revisited



March 3, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. Two weeks ago the media swarmed on the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism as Professor Al Gore presented his first lecture -- off the record, as it turned out. Well the glow is off that story and most of the swarm has moved on to such subjects as tax cuts, moles in the FBI and dubious presidential pardons. Not On the Media however. Determined to lead the nation in reporting on the Gore Syllabus, we focus now on Al Gore's third classroom foray featuring a visit from press lord-Rupert Murdoch, chairman of "News Corps" which counts among its holdings Fox Television and the New York Post.

BROOK GLADSTONE:At first glance, Murdoch seems an odd choice for Gore. It was Fox News after all that was the first network to call the election for George W. Bush and many consider Fox the most right-leaning of the networks. Fox Television also hasn't won any journalism awards for its special conspiracy theory -- did we land on the moon? -- so what was Gore thinking? Once again, Bob debriefs grad student Michael Arnone.

BOB GARFIELD: Michael Arnone is a student in Vice President Gore's class. Michael, welcome back to On the Media.

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Thank you! It's great to be back.

BOB GARFIELD: Did Professor Gore stake out a position on this or was he a kind of Socratic broker of discussion?

MICHAEL ARNONE::This was not so much a Socratic give and take as him testing Mr. Murdoch on news events and asking for his interpretation of them. For example he asked Mr. Murdoch, you know Time Warner and CNN was not accused of forwarding the political ambitions of Ted Turner while News Corp and The Fox Newschannel there's a lot of talk in the press about it being a squawk box for Mr. Murdoch's political beliefs.

BOB GARFIELD:How did Mr. Murdoch respond to the implication that he is using his multi-billion dollar corporation as a vanity press for his conservative politics?

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Well he admitted it. I mean he admitted that a-- that as a publisher it's his role, it's his duty to be involved in the operation and the, and the editorial end of his news operation, but he was also equally insistent that, that his news organizations do give a fair reporting of the news.

BOB GARFIELD:Hm. You know if you had to select an obvious guest star for Vice President Gore, it wouldn't have been Rupert Murdoch because if ever there were a politician who has reason to be hostile towards [LAUGHS] Mr. Murdoch it's Vice President Gore. Was there any evidence of that tension there today or--

MICHAEL ARNONE:: None at all. If you didn't read the Post headlines or if you didn't hear the Vice President's you know, responses, you would never have known that there was, you know, blood in the water for most of last year in the national media market!

BOB GARFIELD:Rupert Murdoch has embraced tabloid values in many of his news properties. I suppose that those values are more or less antithetical to the mission of the Columbia School of Journalism. Was the class itself hostile or shall we say just pointed in the questioning of Mr. Murdoch?

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Oh, pointed, yes. Hostile, no. We found out I think last Friday that Mr. Murdoch would be joining us, and everybody's been sharpening their brains and sharpening their pencils trying to think of just the right question to "get" him.

BOB GARFIELD: Well then someone must have asked about the Man on the Moon documentary.

MICHAEL ARNONE::Actually Vice President Gore brought that up, and Mr. Murdoch said that he would take no responsibility for it cause he hadn't watched it. The discussion of tabloidism came at the end of the lecture, and what Mr. Murdoch said is that tabloids are dying in newspapers and rising in television because they appeal to the common man.

BOB GARFIELD:And that gives him license to pander to their sensibilities by making television shows on patently preposterous subjects? I mean the moon thing is just one of the great outrages of tabloid journalism in any medium. Did anyone follow up on that and demand a better answer than "he hadn't seen it?"

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Well, unfortunately since it was at the end of the class, we were kind of going through questions at a rather rapid clip. He did not claim credit for having that run on his network. He even claimed that he didn't even know if it had run on his network, and the class reminded him that it did.

BOB GARFIELD: [LAUGHS] That sounds a trifle disingenuous to me.

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Hey, I'm a reporter! I'm just calling it as I, as I saw it!

BOB GARFIELD: Well reporter, next time follow up! [LAUGHTER] Inquiring minds want to know. Michael Arnone, thanks so much for joining us.

MICHAEL ARNONE:: Thank you. Bye, bye.

BOB GARFIELD: Michael Arnone is a student in Professor Al Gore's class at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. 24:15

BROOK GLADSTONE: These are glorious days for the tabloids. The hottest publication in America right now is