Putting the "Izz" Back into Journalism

Myra MacPherson hates television news.

And after more than 40 years in print journalism, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and former Washington Post reporter is not afraid to say so.

"If the president says the sky is orange, somebody will have to write that piece the next day. But if the facts are that the sky is really green, you have to get that in there too, and that doesn't happen. TV is so awful," MacPherson says. "It's so embarrassingly bad. Edward R. Murrow was late to cover [former Sen. Joseph] McCarthy, and Cronkite was late to Vietnam, but at least it really resonated. Nobody does that now."

Those historical times are clear as day for MacPherson. But she's equally concerned with today's historical moments, and how journalists are recording and interpreting those moments. One of the things MacPherson thinks young journalists need today are irreverent role models; tough, hard-working, smart reporters who dig deep, take time to scour through documents and take risks. As a female journalist in the '50s and '60s, she took many.

When she began working at the Detroit Free Press in the '50s, women were not even supposed to be in the newsroom, she said. Officials kept MacPherson out of the press box when she covered the Indy 500 in 1960, the year scaffolds fell and killed people attending the event. She covered the New York Mets winning the 1969 World Series from outside the press box. Hired by Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post in 1968, she became known, among other things, for her insightful political profiles and worked at the paper until 1991.

At 72, MacPherson is still taking risks.

Take for example the title of her new book: All Governments Lie. You gotta love that. On Sept. 12, she spoke at Berkeley's graduate school of journalism about one of her role models and the book's subject, legendary rebel journalist I.F. "Izzy" Stone. In his "I.F. Stone's Weekly," Stone was the first journalist to expose lies about the Gulf of Tonkin that started the Vietnam war, and his reporting helped end McCarthy's communist witch hunts.

MacPherson is sharp. She's got an institutional memory about journalism and has high hopes for its future. She's also quick. She can rattle off an I.F. Stone quote, recommend six top-notch reporters to read and then praise Woody Allen's latest flick all in one sentence. She's hip to the blogosphere, but criticizes uninformed, "axe-to-grind" ranting.

WireTap recently called MacPherson back East to discuss her book, her journalism career and what the future may hold for young journalists.

WireTap: Why did you write this book?

Myra MacPherson: [Stone] was a neighbor. I knew him after he got famous for writing about Vietnam. I profiled him and his wife on their 60th wedding anniversary. He became rich and famous for doing exactly what he wanted to do -- just be his own boss and write and say what he wanted. Izzy was the first blogger, really. He was with a magazine called PM around 1940 to 1948, which was a paper without ads. The idea was to be their own form of social workers and inform the little people, the underdog.

He did the first exposes on oil cartels doing business with Hitler through Franco's Spain. [Stone] speaks to so many issues that are important today, like free speech, government lying, war and suppression by force. His trenchant view sounds so fresh today. He covered civil rights, Vietnam and protesting in such a brilliant fashion. He was a touchstone for me and for others. I thought this was important. This is what journalism should be about. With issues like weapons of mass destruction and everything that's happening now, history is repeating itself. Izzy is the best of the biz and he pushed to do the right things.

WT: How is someone like I.F. Stone is relevant and fresh to young journalists today?