Turn on any cable news station right now, and everyone seems to have an opinion on the state of political discourse in America.
Few of them qualify as optimistic.
For veteran newsmen Bob Schieffer ’59 and Roy Eaton ’59, this is not all that new or extraordinary. The TCU classmates were on campus to open the Eaton Roxo Agency Suite at the Bob Schieffer College of Communication and weighed in on the role of the Fourth Estate in this politically divided moment in America.
On the level of political discourse right now and how can we improve it …
BS: “Well, we need to start by trying to base our arguments on truth.”
RE: “And it’s mean. That’s one of the things. When people can be anonymous, set up fake
accounts and say some of the meanest things in the world … that’s one of the real
problems.”
BS: “The goal seems to be to tell off the people in the other party, whichever one that
might be. They are not solving the problems that are affecting Americans.”
RE: “You see very little of that now. They just want to tell each other off.”
BS: “Our politics has become so toxic, and we’ve got to find some way to make that better.”
On the role the press plays in democracy as the Fourth Estate, on both the local and
national level ...
RE: “It’s what it has always been — to ask good questions, tell the truth and make sure
that the audience understands that you’re not the enemy. You are here. You’re the
messenger. And it’s our job, as good reporters, to find the truth in any situation.”
BS: “I think the most important thing is to present a narrative based on truth that our
citizens can compare to the government’s version of events and then make up their
minds what they want to do about it. I think that's the most important thing that
we do. I think presenting citizens with an accurate history is maybe one of the most
important things.”
On what they’d tell students who are hearing that our country has never been more
divided, never been in worse shape …
BS: “Well, it got pretty bad in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, in George Washington’s
presidency, in FDR’s presidency.”
RE: “…don’t forget JFK’s presidency. His assassination.”
BS: “Each one of those presidents had more serious problems, more serious challenges,
than we have in anything that’s happened in modern times, and yet we gained strength
out of that. We overcame it and went on. And we just have to remember where we came
from. We’re not the result of fearlful people. We faced up to the challenges. We didn’t
try to rewrite history, and I don’t know what else you do?”
About Schieffer and Eaton
Bob Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News for 20 years and hosted Face the Nation for 24. He almost exclusively covered national politics during his long and storied
career. Roy Eaton and his wife, Jeannine Eaton ’60, are longtime owners and publishers
of the Wise County Messenger in Decatur, Texas.
