The Golden Rule of Journalism
(Second of a two-part series)
I would take a bet that you didn’t know there was such a thing as a Golden Rule in journalism. But there is. At least there is, according to a dozen-plus journalists writing about what they believe in. It all comes from a book produced by Edward R. Murrow more than 60 years ago titled This I Believe.
And it’s based on this: Matthew 7:12
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
I would take another bet that you didn’t think that verses from the Bible would be part of an article on journalism. But they are. In part that’s because so many of the 100 people writing in the book — including the 14 journalists — cite some very strong religious beliefs.
More on that shortly, but first a little background. This I Believe was a radio program that ran for three years from 1951 to 1954. Most people are more familiar with his See It Now television series which ran from 1951 to 1958 and few would know much about the five-minute radio show. At the time though it reached one out of every four Americans and with its huge international distribution was the most listened to radio program in the world. In 1952 Murrow agreed to an avalanche of requests to publish a book based on the series.
As to the journalists in the book, these are reporters straight out of the classic movie, His Girl Friday. Many of the journalists tell stories to illustrate their point. My personal favorite is that of Quentin Reynolds, a sports reporter turned war correspondent, who was told that because of French regulations that he could not go to the front in World War II. His solution — he composed a cable to his “Uncle Franklin” at the White House, signing it, “your loving nephew, Quent.” He got to the front. I like this one, too, from Ward Greene, editor and general manager of King Features who wrote that all he ever wanted to be was a ‘newspaperman.” He told people that he wanted his epitaph to simply be: Ward Greene, A Good Reporter.
The most ardent of the religious group was probably Louis B. Seltzer, editor of the Scripps-Howard Cleveland Press. He wrote that every day since he was a child he kept a “special appointment… to meet my God.” That same Quentin Reynolds quoted earlier wrote that if he were a dictator, the first thing he would do would be to ban the Bible because it “gave us the philosophy and the way which we all call democracy.”
“Don’t confuse conformity and loyalty. Jesus’s choice of twelve men… he didn’t select a group of rubber stamps. Peter the impetuous, Andrew the plodder, John the poet, Simon the fiery zealot, Thomas the melancholy. He put a premium on their infinite variety.” — — Quentin Reynolds
That strong current of religious beliefs was just one of the many surprises that came from reading the various statements. On the flip side of that, some of the statements also were a reminder of the strong anti-Catholic sentiment of the time. Julien Bryan, a documentary film maker and foreign correspondent, recalls how “suspicious (and) condescending” he was to the French soldiers who were Catholic until he eventually learned “that the peoples of this world have much more in common with one another than they have differences.”
Murrow’s only reference to religion was about a sign he saw in London during the war. It read — if your knees knock, kneel on them. He was more interested in the people. As he wrote — in his usual blunt manner — introducing the broadcast version, “Except for those who think in terms of pious platitudes or dogma or narrow prejudice (and those thoughts we aren’t interested in), people don’t speak their beliefs easily, or publicly.”
In his equally blunt introduction to the book version, Murrow wrote, “in a time when dissent is often confused with subversion, when a man’s belief may be subject to investigation as well as his actions… Any belief worthy of an individual must be hammered out by that individual on the anvil of experience and cannot be packaged and delivered by print, radio or television.”
With his radio program and this book, Murrow provided the anvil. On that anvil, many of these journalists hammered out some common themes. Yes, The Golden Rule, but with many an interesting twist in definition in what that means.
For example, Carroll Binder, a foreign correspondent who became director of the foreign service of the Chicago Daily News, defined it as one of the secrets of friendship: “to regard each person with whom one associates as an end to himself, not a means to one’s own ends.” Those sentiments are echoed almost word-for-word by Lucy Freeman, a reporter for the New York Times who wrote that she learned to like herself more after she learned to “like others not for what they could give me but for what I could give them.” Interestingly, both of them also echoed another sentiment that parallels the Golden Rule and is also, oddly, match up word-for-word — Know Thyself.
Ward Greene who wanted that simple epitaph had a broader and more pragmatic definition of The Golden Rule calling it “unselfish selfishness… simple acts of kindness and understanding and compassion practiced in the hope that they will be shown to me.” Pat Frank, a war correspondent and part of the Overseas News Agency, writes similarly, “it is fundamental that kindness will be repaid with kindness, and hate by hate.” Leland Stowe, a foreign correspondent who won a Pulitizer Prize for his reporting, was lyrical in his definition saying it was all about understanding the other person’s point of view, adding, “understanding is a flower blossoming… but you have to water the plant.”
Part of the challenge, according to several of the journalists, in knowing yourself and in following The Golden Rule, is people’s split personality or ‘dualism’ as Norman Cousins, editor of The Saturday Review, put it, writing that man “is both good and evil, both altruistic and selfish.” Others put it in religious terms calling it a matter of “Heaven and Hell.” Journalist and political science professor Saul K. Padover used that analogy saying that, “man everywhere, regardless of race or region or climate, is his own worst enemy or best friend… (creating) their own heavens or hells.”
“Free will and determinism (I was told) are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism. The way you play your hand represents free will.” — Norman Cousins
I wrote earlier that I was somewhat surprised by the number of religious references the journalists made. I’m almost equally surprised by the number of literary references made. Cousins talks about the perspective provided by the Socratic dialogues in Plato. Elmer Davis, an analyst with the ‘American Broadcasting Company’ refers to the sculptures created by artist Gustav Vigeland in Oslo. Author and self-described ‘newspaperman’ David Loth headlined his essay, ‘Diogenes Didn’t Need A Lamp,’ a reference to the Greek philosopher’s search for an honest man. He makes the point that while the news media may have a “preoccupation with evil,” that there are many times more “honest men.” Foreign correspondent and radio commentator William L. Shirer writes that he often goes back to read Plutarch because “reading history gives you perspective.” He recommends doing that along with developing an ‘inner life’ through ‘reflection, contemplation and self-discipline’ to cope with the changing world.
I admitted earlier that I was not familiar with many of the journalists writing the essays. One of those I am embarrassed to say was a woman named Rebecca West. I say embarrassed because she was named ‘the world’s best reporter’ by the Women’s National Press Club back then. She coins the phrase that I’ve never heard before — ‘competitive freedom,’ arguing that “every man shall be able to say and do what he wishes and what is within his power… (even though) sometimes letting a man say and do what he wants interferes with the liberty of someone else.” Then in classic reporter fashion, she adds, “if I wanted life to be easy I should have gotten born on a different universe.”
Joe Williams, a sports journalist, talks about a sports saying that you can’t “rule a man off for trying” and sometimes that winning is a matter of a batter who is lucky getting a ‘hit’ and an outfielder who is unlucky getting an ‘error.’ He cites another saying, this one at the race track, that “the red board is up” meaning the race is over. The implication is that when your ‘red board’ goes up, how will you stand.
Lastly two quotes that may speak to us today even though they were written 66 years ago:
“… freedom of the mind is suppressed… by very earnest men… who say and perhaps believe, that they are actuated by patriotism, but who are doing their best to destroy the liberties which above all are what the United States of America has meant, to its people and to humanity.” — Elmer Davis
“The problem confronting us today is far more serious than the destiny of any political system or even of any nation. The problem is the destiny of man: first, whether we can make this planet safe for man; second, whether we can make it fit for him.” — Norman Cousins
