Karl Rove "The Polarized Press: Media and Politics in the Age of Bush," Richard Harwood Program in American Journalism
Audio/visual
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MS 0058-2005-001
2005 April 18
Karl Rove's lecture "The Polarized Press: Media and Politics in the Age of Bush" as part of the Richard Harwood Program in American Journalism. President Tipson began the program reminding George Washington's value on civility. John Harwood introduced Rove. Rove began with a story Richard Harwood once told reference Leo Rosten. The lecture was about the oppositional nature of the media when comes to politics. Rove cited four causes of this change in press coverage: the explosion of channels of communication; demand of content; increased competition; and the oppositional attitude of the press. He brings up several books in his talk including Primary Colors by Brent Furnas, Out of Order by Thomas E. Patterson, and The New Politics of Old Values by John K. White. In talking about Primary Colors he brings up how the press need more empathy for the complexities of serving in Public Office. Rove also talks about how the media focuses on the "horse race" of politics, focusing on arguments rather than motives. He also says that political polls are misleading and generally false citing the coverage of the No Child Left Behind legislation. A question and answer session begins at 00:36:10 and covered topics including Social Security, the Southern border, John Bolton's ambassadorship, campaign spending and 527s, the Bush daughters joining the campaign, liberal media being less of an issue than oppositional media, the Terri Shiavo case, and the lack of humor in American politics. at 01:09:00 Student Government President Greg Schaefer '07, brings up a pie to Karl Rove which he presents to him along with Washington's Rules of Civility. Rove then gives the pie to the Washington Post's Daniel Milbank for attending the event.
VHS
1h 11m 8s
[item identification], Washington College audiovisual collection, MS 0058, Archives and Special Collections, Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland.