New people
Brown Gives Goldwater Lecture By Stephanie Dembrowski The United States doesn’t suffer from a shortage of opinions. It suffers from a shortage of facts. “And we live in a time when we can’t even agree on what the facts are.” That’s how Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism Aaron Brown summarized the state of the press and politics during the 2008 Barry M. Goldwater lecture at the Virginia C. Piper Auditorium in downtown Phoenix. The topic for the annual lecture, sponsored by the Arizona Historical Foundation and the Cronkite School, was tailor-made for Brown, former CNN news anchor and longtime television journalist who has covered most of the major political developments and breaking news stories of the past two decades. Brown said that while there is a lot of good political reporting, much of it, especially on television, is too opinionated. “Opinions are easy and, compared to reporting, cheap,” he said. “Facts are more complicated. They don’t necessarily line up in a way that supports our hearts.” The result is public disenchantment with the news media and the political system, Brown said. “Too often both TV and many papers have taken the most extreme voices on every issue, faced them off and called them balanced reporting,” he said, “But most of America lives somewhere in between. “The middle, the grayness of so many of our new challenges, isn’t quite as snappy as a sound bite from Ann Coulter or Michael Moore. The impact of this, I fear, leaves too many people disgusted with the process.” Brown suggested that the viewing and reading public have the power to bring about change: They can “vote with their remotes.” Former U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater started the lecture series in his name more than 25 years ago. Each year lecturers speak on topics related to political, legal or business history, reflecting the Arizona Historical Foundation’s policy priorities.
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Brown takes a question from a student at the Goldwater Lecture. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society
The Honors College. “Aaron Brown is a master of the kind of high-quality, thoughtful, in-depth, objective journalism that was the hallmark of the great Walter Cronkite for so many years,” ASU President Michael Crow said when Brown was hired. “We are confident Aaron will be a leading national voice on the future of journalism and play a significant role in helping us reach our goal of making the Cronkite School the finest and most inclusive professional journalism program in the country.” Cronkite himself played an active role in recruiting Brown to the school. “He’s a terrific journalist with high ideals and great integrity,” Cronkite said at the time. “His passion for our profession and his commitment to its highest standards of objectivity and fairness has been the hallmark of his work — and will be a source of great inspiration for our students.” Brown — who never earned a college degree himself — has a newsman’s approach to teaching. He basically conducts class as he would an on-air interview, asking difficult questions with an empathetic tone and coaxing sophisticated and memorable responses from students. “This group, they have been remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is their willingness to talk about difficult things,” Brown said about his spring 2008 class. “That I have created an environment where they can do that and feel comfortable doing that is a huge victory
for me.” Junior print journalism major Andre Radzischewski used to watch Brown on CNN’s “NewsNight” and said it is Brown’s experience at the top of the business that makes him a good teacher. “It takes a certain type of command to engage viewers on a nightly basis,” Radzischewski said. “I think it’s not so different from what it takes to engage students on a daily basis.” While sitting at the head of the classroom is fulfilling, Brown said he sometimes feels a twinge about the stories he would like to report on — for example, the 2008 presidential election. “I miss it some days, but there are a lot of things I miss, you know?” Brown said. “I miss eating really highly caloric hamburgers.” In May 2008, Brown had the chance to return to television as anchor for PBS’s “Wide Angle,” a weekly public affairs series with a global focus. Still, Brown said he is happiest in the classroom these days. “I’m comfortable with the chapter of life that I’m in,” he said. “This chapter is not my fallback position; it’s my plan A. This is what I want to do. This is what I want to get good at. This is where I know I have lots of room to improve. “Life, for me, really is about scaling walls — and this is a good mountain to try and scale.” Amanda J. Crawford contributed to this report.