Freedom of the Press

On Thursday and Friday this past week, I left the Capitol early to return to Georgetown for a "Freedom of the Press" Symposium organized by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation and the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum. The Freedom Museum is a new museum in Chicago designed to help visitors better understand the five freedoms in the first amendment. As part of this symposium, the two organizations invited famous scholars and reporters to give a series of lectures and then debate different points of view on freedom of the press. For me, the highlight of the symposium was getting to hear Pete Williams and Victoria Clark. Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. In 1986, Pete Williams worked as Dick Cheney's press secretary and legislative assistant when Cheney was a Congressman (before he became Vice President). In 1989, when Cheney was named Assistant Secretary of Defense, Williams was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Victoria Clark succeeded Williams in that position. In the past, she has served as the press secretary for former President Bush's 1992 re-election campaign and as an advisor to Senator John McCain. Victoria Clark is also originally from Sewickley, PA.

Pete Williams and Victoria Clark spoke about journalists covering the military. Williams began by explaining how he sponsors a "social responsibility" point of view and not a "libertarian" point of view regarding freedom of the press. For example, he told the story of how one newspaper found out that the military had figured out how to monitor cell phone communications during the hostage crisis in Lebanon. Williams, who was at the Pentagon at the time, discouraged this newspaper from reporting this information. They did it anyway (claiming freedom of the press) and guess what? The military was no longer able to monitor the cell phone communications. However, he also told the story of how another reporter did wait to reveal information. This was during the Persian Gulf War. The reporter heard that the U.S. military was planning to drop missiles in a certain location. This reporter decided to wait to print his story until after the missile strike had begun, and so didn't compromise the mission.

Victoria Clark was the person who essentially came up with the idea of "embedding" news reporters with the troops. There aren't a lot of journalists with military experience. In the past, many news reporters ended up being injured or killed while covering the troops because they entered dangerous situations on their own with little knowledge of what they were facing. As Pete Williams explained, "whatever blows up near the troops, blows up near you too." So Clark developed the idea of "embedding" the news reporters. What this means is that now, there is a program where journalists will be assigned to a specific military division. The journalists might go through a similar "boot camp" as the troops so they'll know what to do in a combat situation. Clark's idea behind this was to reduce the number of casualties among journalists (since there wouldn't be random journalists trying to go on their own into dangerous situations). Her other thinking behind this program was that "if more people could see young men and women perform in combat, we'll have meaningful public support even when things go wrong." They put together this embedding program so carefully that they even knew which military vehicles had lighters and which didn't (they needed these lighters in order to recharge their equipment). The secondary effect of this program was that the military had more confidence in the press since they saw that the press was now taking everything more seriously and planning more carefully. For example, the military now was not as likely to need to go rescue a journalist who struck out on their own and ended up in a dangerous situation.

To continue this theme of exploring Freedom of the Press, a few other history teachers and I decided to visit the new "Newseum" on Saturday. This is a new museum that just opened this spring. It is dedicated to freedom of the press and showing the public how the news and the media have contributed to our world over the years. The part of the Newseum that I liked the most was their exhibit of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. Next to each photograph, they had an explanation of the story behind it. Many of the photographs were hard to look at, but very powerful. You've probably seen two of these photograph before -- the most famous one is the photograph of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima and the similar one of the firefighters raising the flag on 9/11. As the exhibit explains, each of these photographs "record the defining moments of our world and our time." The Newseum also had historical newspapers that covered pretty much every major timeline going back to the invention of Gutenberg's Printing Press. If you ever have the opportunity to come to Washington, D.C., I would definitely recommend visiting this museum. It's not a museum for kids, but it was four floors of fascinating information.

After the Newseum, we walked over to the National Gallery of Art. I got to see the original Gilbert Stuart Painting of George Washington -- the one that was put on the $1 bill. George Washington's cheeks look funny in this picture because he had lost almost all of his teeth by that point, so they stuffed his mouth with cotton balls.



I also got to see the only da Vinci painting in the United States . . .




. . . and the originals of the most famous Monet paintings.










On Saturday night, I went to see the Capitol Steps, which is a comedy group that sings songs about current politicians and current event. Though not always politically correct, it was incredibly hilarious. Every year, the Capitol Steps records a radio show that they play on NPR on July 4. Well, they recorded the radio show Saturday night while I was there! So if you listen to it on NPR on July 4 (in Pittsburgh the station is 90.5 DUQ), you might hear me laughing in the audience!


Today (Sunday) I went to an organ concert at Washington National Cathedral. This is the Cathedral in which they hold the services for major heads of state. So the service for President Ronald Reagan was held here.



Also, President Woodrow Wilson is buried in this Cathedral. I have included a picture. If you look carefully, you can read his name.

The organ concert was beautiful. The sound filled the entire Cathedral as the light streamed in from the gorgeous stained-glass windows. The organist was Douglas Major, who used to be the Organist and Choirmaster of Washington National Cathedral but who now lives is Rockport, Massachusetts, gives concerts, and is Director of Music at St. Michael's Church in Marblehead.

I go back to Congress tomorrow morning for my second week. This week, the Congress is in recess until after July 4, which means most of the members are back in their districts and holding events to speak with their constituents. So things will be a little more relaxed in the office, but everyone is also looking forward to getting a lot done this week. I hope everyone's summer has started off well!


This is a picture of me with the Capitol Building in the background, taken from the balcony of the Newseum.