Ignorance, Power, and LibertynTom Wicker: On Pr^i^/Viking Press;nNew York.nby Jeffrey St. Johnn””Most of the evils that continue tonbeset American journalism today, inntruth, are not due to the rascality ofnowners, nor even to the KiWaniannbombast of business managers, butnsimply and solely to the stupidity,ncowardice, and Philistinism of workingnnewspapermen. The majority ofnthem, in almost every American city,nare still ignoramuses and proud of it.”n—H. L. MenckennJournalism in America, 1927n1 he passage of half a century mightnappear to make this jaundiced view ofnjournahsm outdated. Mencken wasnwriting about a breed of newspapermennhe thought a step up from streetwalkersnand a notch below a precinctnpolice captain. The majority of newspapermennin Mencken’s day wrote forna largely immigrant audience and, as anconsequence, a college education wasnnot only unnecessary but regarded withncontempt. Mencken himself, for example,nnever went beyond high schoolnand acquired his extensive learning andnscholarship from the Baltimore PrattnLibrary and a life-long love affair withnthe printed word. Mencken nevernwanted to do anything else with hisnlife. “I find myself more and more convinced,”nhe wrote a few years beforenhis death, “that I had more fun doingnnews reporting than in any other enterprise.nIt is really the life of kings.”nMencken was perhaps one of the firstnto realize that the newspaper professionnfaced two fundamental perils: anmilitant prejudice toward liberty andnlearning by most journalists, and theirnseduction by politicians promoting thenall-powerful state. “If experiencenteaches us anything at all,” he wrote,nJeffrey St. John is a Washington-basednsyndicated newspaper columnist, networkncommentator and author of books.n””it teaches us this: that a good politician,nunder democracy, is quite as unthinkablenas an honest burglar. Hisnvery existence, indeed, is a standingnsubversion of the public good in everynrational sense. He is not one who servesnthe commonweal; he is simply one whonpreys upon the commonwealth. It isnto the interest of all the rest of us tonhold down his powers to an irreduciblenminimum, and to reduce his compensationnto nothing. . . .”nThe advent of the FDR New Deal inn1933 found Mencken upholding thisnview while much of the press in Washingtonnwas romanced, flattered and seducednby Roosevelt. “”The New Deal,”nhe wrote, ‘”will be doomed the day thennewspapers of the country cease to fillntheir columns with official propagandanin favor of it, and devote their spacento the laborious amassing of truth aboutnit.”nTom Wicker’s work is largely an exercisenin denying the sinful relationshipnthe liberal national media has had withngovernment power since the FDR NewnDeal. One has doubts, however, thatnWicker is even aware that a relationshipnexists between the current growingnhostility toward the national news me­ndia by the public and the simultaneousngrowing hostility toward politiciansnand bureaucratic big government. Instead,nWicker sets out to prove twonthings. First, that the hostility towardnthe press or national news media todaynis hopelessly wrong-headed by Americansnwho don’t know any better. Second,nthat the press is really an adversarynof government while maintaining nonvested interest in political power andnno influence in shaping the events ofnTom Wicker’s time. This book becomes,ntherefore, a massive exercise innevasion of evidence and experience.n1 he problems for the Americannnews media, in Wicker’s warped perception,nbegan at the Republican NationalnConvention at the Cow Palace innSan Francisco in 1964 when formernPresident Eisenhower electrified thatnaudience with a denunciation of thenpro-New Deal, anti-middle-class biasnof the liberal national news media. Thensubsequent characterization of the GOPncandidate, Barry M. Goldwater, innthose news media as one who wouldnrepeal the gains of the New Deal manifestednitself in the extraordinary spectaclenof the media portraying the Ari-n'”He is an old-fashioned Southern liberal. His heart bleeds and burns. Hisncapacity for indignation is inexhaustible. He is the nag of conscience in antime of torpor and cynicism and greed and stupidity, a kind of ambulatorynreproach. He seems determined in his column not to let us get away with it,nwhatever “it’ is.”n— New York Timesn”A searching assessment of the present state of journalism.”n• Newsweekn”‘Thoughtful, highly readable . . . important for anyone concerned about thenhandling of news and its impact on American life.”n— Wall Street Journaln’Charm and honesty …”nnnNew York Times Book Reviewn15nChronicles of Culturen