Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 12, 1994 TAG: 9410120100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He didn't disappoint.
The story goes that Nixon ordered a FBI investigation of Schorr, who was CBS's Watergate correspondent at the time. The investigation was done so openly that the White House had to say they were considering Schorr for a job, Schorr said.
"A year before Nixon died, I made up with him," said Schorr. "I asked him if he remembered me, and he said, 'Yeah, you're Dan Schorr. Damn near hired you once.'''
Schorr's talk Tuesday night was both a sentimental and humorous stroll down memory lane and a biting criticism of today's politicians.
"When I graduated from college 55 years ago, there was no nylon, no Saran Wrap, no nuclear bombs or credit cards. Grass was something you mowed, and Coke was something you drank," said Schorr, whose journalism career has spanned more than half a century. "And we didn't have television."
Despite having spent more than 30 years as a broadcast correspondent for CBS, beginning as a protege of the legendary Edward R. Murrow, he unflinchingly indicted today's television media.
"Television has done something both to voters and to candidates. ... Television makes people angry, and that anger transfers into the political realm," he said.
The result is political campaign advertisements rife with name-calling, he said.
"Candidates are programmed so you don't know who they are. ... In those half-minute sound bites, you cannot express yourself. You can't do anything but spit at someone in a half-minute."
Although he said his intent wasn't to talk about Virginia politics, the temptation apparently was too great.
"Any Boy Scout can tell you that magnetic North is not the same as true North," said the National Public Radio senior news analyst. "On television, you can make up statistics, if you sound sincere. ... No one does more of that than Oliver North. He'll say whatever comes to mind, and if it doesn't work, he'll deny he said it."
Schorr was the first of four speakers in Roanoke College's Community Lecture Series. Originally scheduled for Nov. 15, Schorr swapped places with his ideological opposite William F. Buckley, who canceled because of illness.
by CNB