"Can the President Think?"...Continued

Readers respond to REASON's November cover story, and author Edith Efron responds to the readers.

From the March 1995 issue

(Page 4 of 8)

Little Rock, AR

Since none of the writers are the president's psychiatrist, any conclusions reached are obviously subjective and only useful to defame the person.

Robert A. Turk

Rockwell, TX

To Ms. Efron's credit, she has obviously read extensively the published accounts of Mr. Clinton's life and times, but these sources are at best second-hand, and most likely third-hand. This reliance on second- and third-hand sources of information greatly diminishes the credibility of Ms. Efron's article and her conclusions.

I did not find the article totally, blatantly offensive because, as Ms. Efron notes, Bill Clinton is a public figure of no small significance. The article did have many interesting insights, which, if they are true, could serve to explain Bill Clinton's psyche. Unfortunately, these insights rest on shaky foundations, those second- and third-hand sources. Because Ms. Efron has no personal knowledge of Bill Clinton (even if she has met him, I seriously doubt whether she is his confidant in any way, shape, or form), her information regarding Mr. Clinton's mental processes comes solely from other people who may or may not have axes to grind against Bill Clinton, may be lying, or may simply be faulty judges of such matters. Ms. Efron's conclusions, tightly reasoned and well documented as they are, are merely speculations on the inner workings of Mr. Clinton's mind.

Jason Smith

Ms. Efron comments: My thanks to Philip Martin, the Arkansas journalist whom I quoted in the article as the writer of a youthful hymn to Clinton's glory, describing him as the Sun King. I'm particularly pleased to have someone who has covered most of Bill Clinton's political life find my article "wonderfully perceptive."

Martin's note, however, would have no meaning to Robert Turk, since Martin is not Clinton's psychiatrist. According to Turk, any conclusions Martin may have reached "are obviously subjective and only useful to defame." Nor would it assist Jason Smith, who is determined to settle only for first-hand sources. It is not just Martin whom Smith would judge in this fashion. It could be Meg Greenfield, editorial page editor of The Washington Post, or it could be the Post's David Broder, dean of America's political journalists, or it could be Maureen Dowd of TheNew York Times, or Joe Klein of Newsweek. Smith is appalled by the very notion of settling for second-hand, let alone third-hand, sources and a number of other REASON readers were similarly outraged. I could understand why they might balk at trusting conservative and libertarian journalists, on the ground of bias against a liberal president, but I am disturbed by the inability of such readers to recognize that the overwhelming majority of the journalists I quote in my article are liberals and that this means that my sources were biased in favor of the president, not against him.

I was totally unprepared, given REASON's demographics, to find highly educated people--academics, professionals, and business executives--who have no idea how to evaluate my sources. I yield to no one in my reverence for first-hand sources. In my last book, on environmental cancer and carcinogenesis, I had about 1,500 references, all first-hand sources, which fattened the book by another 100 pages. But there is something bizarre about this passion for first-hand sources in dedicated readers of a magazine which does not publish footnotes. And their demand for first-hand sources for information about a president of the United States is far more bizarre, because it tells me these particular readers do not have the faintest idea how political journalism works or how citizens acquire their information about the inhabitants of the White House.

In my article, sources were, with a few Arkansas exceptions, among the most authoritative political journalists in the United States. The list could be expanded, but those whom I cited are luminaries of the American press. They write for the national newspapers, for the national newsweeklies, and for nationally read political and opinion journals. Some appear frequently on network TV, on CNN, on C-SPAN, on CNBC. Among the politically literate, the people I quoted are household names. And they should be, because such stellar journalists are among the most powerful and influential interpreters of the American political scene. To put it plainly, they tell the political classes what to think. I haven't the faintest idea whether those who expressed their craving for first-hand sources actually want to know how to assess my sources. But for those who do, I offer some information and advice.

The information is this: Despite the overpowering illusion of intimacy created by television, citizens do not and cannot know very much about an American president. There is a chronic and overwhelming shortage of first-hand sources of information. An American president plays a symbolic role in our society and may not make a blithering fool of himself in public if anyone can prevent it. Thus, almost nothing that the reporter or the citizen sees is spontaneous. All public speech is rehearsed. Even gestures are rehearsed. P.R. techniques are used as a barricade against the prying eyes of the press and the citizens.

Even when a private interview with the president is granted, and a journalist is allowed to pass the public barricade, the reporter immediately hits a private barricade. Questions must be submitted in advance, and only a fool would submit provocative questions. The situation produces self-censorship. The interview itself is monitored by an aide or press secretary, who will terminate a line of questioning curtly if a forbidden subject is broached. What is forbidden? Everything that might conceivably embarrass the president, which in Clinton's case is almost everything.

There are exceptions to this rule, of course--quid pro quo arrangements offering the president advantageous coverage in exchange for exclusivity. But for the most part, an interview with the president is primarily useful to the working journalist because it permits him to say, "I was at the White House and the president told me...," which causes people to think they are hearing the inside dope.

That is not usually how journalists get the inside dope. They get it by talking about the president with others--which is to say, from second- and third-hand sources. By the time a citizen hears it, the information is fourth-hand. And this is to describe the best and most meticulously done presidential journalism in the United States.

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