At the risk of over-summarizing, I will attempt to briefly report on the first two days of academic activity.
June 6, 2004
The day was taken up with orientation session for the elective leadership scholars program.
Session One
We began the morning with a political leadership lecture by Steve Hayward, an author and Reagan expert. Mr. Hayward is currently working on his second book about the Reagan presidency. In his lecture he compared the exceptional political leadership of Lincoln, Churchill, and Reagan. Mr. Hayward emphasized the importance of insight and imagination over the current proliferation of political science theory. (“If you get to Washington it won’t matter that you can do voter regression analysis three different ways.”) In light of current events the lecture was particularly interesting.
Session Two–Color personality profiles.
Session Three–Political ideology profiles
We explored whether the traditional left-right political distinction is really adequate. Kris Ullman introduced us to a proposed model that has two axes—one measuring attitude toward personal freedom (drugs, school choice, etc.) and the other for attitude toward economic freedom.
Lunch on Healy Lawn
Healy Lawn is the yard in front of the Georgetown’s flagship stone administration building. Years ago before sidewalks crisscrossed this space it was home to Georgetown’s ivy league football team, the Hoyas.
Monument Tour
After supper we went out for an extended trolley/walking tour of DC. I was able to visit the newly-dedicated WWII monument for the first time. Appropriately my first visit landed on D-Day. The weather was nice and the sunset beautiful.
June 7, 2004
Today we began with opening meetings for all of the Fund for American Studies programs. We were introduced to the faculty/staff of all of the institutes. Following introductions the president of the Fund asked Mike Collins to come to the podium and speak a few words of welcome! Thankfully I knew that the dean of Georgetown shares my name (or vice versa?) so I stayed in my seat. I’m still trying to figure out how I could take advantage of our shared nomenclature.
Before lunch I had my Georgetown GoCard made. A GoCard is a souped-up ID card. It allows access to buildings and works as a debit card for laundry and other vending.
After lunch I traveled into my intern office via Georgetown bus and subway. Knight Ridder Tribune Direct is located in the National Press Building which was not hard to find. KRT has a large office on the seventh floor. With the exception of the photography and animation departments, KRT Direct is made up wholly of editorial staff. There are not any reporters in the office. Instead, reporters and correspondents reside in the Knight Ridder bureau across the building. In two weeks the KRT and the Knight-Ridder Bureau will be combining their offices and moving to a new location a few blocks away. Before I left the office I was given a pass that gives me key access to the office, bathroom, etc. Tomorrow I should get the letter that will get me a press pass. I was glad to find out that KRT will cover my travel expenses.
This evening we had our first leadership scholars class. We had a Marvin Kalb, a long-time journalist as a guest speaker. Mr. Kalb has written about changes in the journalism industry—primarily TV news. He favors the journalistic oligopoly of 40 years ag over todays proliferation of ‘entertainment news’. Mr. Kalb feels the profit motive has ruined journalism by driving it to sensationalism.
Foundational to his presentation was a quote by the founder of CBS, William Paley. When Paley was warned that his plans for a news department were going to be expensive he replied, “You guys cover the news. I’ve got Jack Benny to make money for me.” Paley knew he would lose money on news, but the respectability it brought made it worthwhile. For Mr. Kalb this was the golden age of news because it was oblivious to the necessity of profitability. Mr. Kalb did not discuss whether golf, cooking, and history coverage has also declined with the proliferation of specialized 24 networks and the internet.