The Presidency Gets Too Much Respect

The upcoming State of the Union address is sure to provide a marked contrast with the one a half-decade ago. Then — only a few months after the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001 — President George W. Bush was at a peak of popularity and power. The House chamber shook with cheers led by leaders of the Republican majority behind him, and the news media followed up with accolades that bordered on worship.

Famously, George Washington declined offers to become king of a new country. But regal aspects of the presidency are hard to miss. In modern times, journalists often cite "respect for the office" as reason enough to defer to its occupant rather than get tough with persistent questioning or no-holds-barred news analysis.

Ever since Watergate, the defense of a president who worked his way into a serious political corner has been that the press was in danger of overreaching. While some journalists took inspiration from the Watergate reportage led by The Washington Post during the last two years of Richard Nixon's presidency, a counterattack soon began to deflect media scrutiny and protect the occupant of the Oval Office.

More than halfway through the 1980s, famed Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee mixed pride in his newspaper with a rueful note. He told an interviewer: "You know, initially after Watergate, the public was saying about the press, 'OK, guys, now that's enough, that's enough.' The criticism was that we were going on too much, and trying to make a Watergate out of everything. And I think we were sensitive to that criticism much more than we should have been, and that we did ease off."

A beneficiary of the press easing off was President Ronald Reagan, who basically got let off the hook — by leaders of the Democratic majority in Congress and by the news media. The Iran-Contra scandal involved secretly selling missiles to the Iranian government and then illegally funneling profits to Contra guerrillas as they tried to overthrow the elected leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Exposure of the scam in late 1986 created a huge uproar.

But the news media backed off — often with the rationale that the nation could not afford to have another failed presidency. A typical comment came from longtime network anchor John Chancellor, then an "NBC Nightly News" commentator. "Nobody wants another Nixon," he said.

Today, with the scandalous and horrific war policies of the current president causing widespread political opposition in the United States, the news media are providing largely negative coverage of the man who lives in the White House. Some may interpret developments as indicators of a vigorous Washington press corps. But — far from acting as a brake on the administration's runaway policies — the news media did much to fuel them.

A lot of the problem can be traced to a journalistic default position of reverence for the presidency, which as a practical media matter adds up to undue reverence for the president. But if it's the job of presidential aides to try to make their boss look good, it should be the job of journalists to pursue truth wherever it might lead.

"Hail to the Chief" should not be a religious hymn. Nor should an incoming president of the United States be shrouded in a mist of hagiography by the time Inauguration Day comes around.

Outsized respect for the office held by the president is ultimately damaging to the First Amendment and democracy. The president is supposed to be working for the citizens of the United States, not the other way around. And journalists should not give the president the benefit of any doubts.

Reporters have a responsibility to pursue important stories, not bury them. Whether the issues revolve around war and peace or undue influence of large corporations in Washington, the press is a potential antidote to the poisons of secrecy and corruption in government. If journalism had been functioning vigorously in our country, the current state of the union would be much healthier than it is.

Norman Solomon's latest book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," is now available in paperback. To find out more about Norman Solomon and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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