This article is the third part of a series covering free expression events throughout Cornell’s theme year. The prior article describing a panel of Cornell Law professors was posted here.
Background
As part of the Freedom of Expression year, guest speaker Jamelle Bouie spoke on “Constitutionalism, Reform and the Press’ Role in Helping the Public Think About Institutions.”
Bouie is a current columnist for the New York Times, as well as a former reporter for CBS and correspondent for Slate. There were roughly 50-60 people in attendance, with the majority being non-students. Industrial and Labor Relations Professor Tejasvi Nagaraja introduced Bouie and stated the importance of his writing in today’s world.
Bouie’s talk was the 2023 Daniel W. Kops Lecture on Freedom of the Press. The Cornell Review noted that the 2022 Kops Lecture was not on press freedom, and printed an editorial calling for a Kops lecture during the theme year on the topic “Freedom of the press is needed for free expression.” At least Bouie is a journalist, but the intent of the Kops endowment continues to be abused.
Bouie’s Speech
Bouie began by stating that he was going to slightly change the topic of discussion from the freedom of the press to the press’s obligation to the public. He further elaborated that the subject of the talk will be constitutional reform in the press, and the press’s role in helping the American public think about situations today.
Speaking further on this subject, Bouie emphasized that it is part of the media’s job to help Americans perceive themselves as “political actors”, rather than political consumers.
He brought up Donald Trump’s actions on January 6th as an example, saying that the press did a good job of covering his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. However, in the aftermath, there were several missed opportunities in their coverage.
This included questions around the constitutionality of indicting a former president, whether one could hold the office of president while under investigation, and if the former president is disqualified from being president under the 14th Amendment. These are all, “larger discussions about constitutional rules of political order are not really part of our media landscape.”
Bouie spoke of the several constitutional crises that have emerged since 2000, and stated that the, “press has opportunity to explain, inform, provide context for discussion.” One specific example given included that since 2008, the U.S. Senate needs a “supermajority” to pass legislation. “For most of Senate history”, all it took was a simple majority. The press, in turn, took it for granted as “obscured political dynamics.” Instead, explained Bouie, the press should have been diving deeper into what the change was, why it was enacted, and the impact it will have on our republic and deeper constitutional order.
Another example given where the press simply covered the politics of a real constitutional issue was the 2016 blockade of the Supreme Court nomination of now Attorney General Merrick Garland, by then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The press, claimed Bouie, largely covered it as a political tit-for-tat. Yet, under the surface, we were actually watching a battle of scope of legislative and judicial power. The Senate’s power of consent granted by the Constitution was being tested in real time, and Bouie claimed that no one in the media was talking about it.
Speaking on the Trump presidency, Bouie said that there were several missed chances to think seriously about the Constitution, or how citizens should think of themselves as “constitutional actors.” Bouie highlighted the core problem with the press today: “Rather than the substance of politics, the press tends to cover the contest of our politics.”
He then went on to list the three most destructive habits of the press: embrace of false equivalencies, embrace of the “campaign manager” mentality, and going after the clicks and ratings rather than the real news.
Speaking on the second part, Bouie talked about how substance and perspective seem to go out the window entirely in campaign races. He also focused on media shortcomings covering the Democratic Party, pointing out that the press has skirted the age issue of President Biden, instead choosing to selectively focus on other areas.
Getting to his main point, Bouie argued that the political class, the press, and the American public needs to, “see ourselves not as consumers but actual, active citizens.” He further elaborated that he did not mean citizen as the legal construct, but rather citizen as the classical republican tradition, where citizenship carried a “set of obligations to the community at large [… and] active participation in public affairs.”
Bouie made a final point about the importance of the press to reform movements. He argued that through the press, Americans can learn what it means to be an active citizen. The press’s role should be to push readers to think of themselves as actors to shape constitutional meaning itself.
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Bouie provided a number of remedies to reach this ideal state of the press. He started by saying that the press needs to turn away from the obsession with “content” politics and replace it with “substance.” He argues that in order to do so, this will mean convincing readers that the press is not “in it for the clicks.”
He also argued that the press needs to focus more on ordinary people rather than the political elite. His final suggestion is a national movement to revive local newspapers, which he called a critical forum in encouraging people to be active participants in their communities.
Q&A
Bouie took several questions from the audience, including a question asking how we can encourage people to listen to the other side of the political spectrum. Bouie answered that modeling such behavior is critical, as well as for the press to bring more ordinary people onto TV, and reduce the number of pundits.
Another question asked: how do you persuade the media to move away from financially incentivized click bait mentality? Bouie stated that he disagreed slightly with the context, stating that click bait is created more from sensationalist journalism rather than people being drawn to views they agree with. He stated that the way journalism is set up now is driven by market factors. Bouie proposed the investment in a state sponsored newspaper that would not be in it for the clicks, but rather provide substance to the American public.
The Kops lecture was live streamed but not recorded for later viewing.
