During a Q&A session following Gregory's talk, a broadcaster in the audience suggested network news execs themselves might be guilty of only looking at a sliver of the country. He said one of the issues he had with networks, particularly as they continued to shrink, is that the decisionmakers had a world view limited by their schooling in the "Boston-to-Washington axis." Covering issues of faith, for example, was one place where they "had no concept of this reality of the rest of the country."
The broadcaster asked whether NBC was doing anything to "stop and realize that they have to look outside the small cocoon that they see as normal."
Gregory said the point was important, but one that could be "overmade." He said he thought NBC was doing a good job in its political reporting of covering "both ends of the spectrum" and had made "pretty good strides absorbing and reflecting different points of view."
Gregory conceded that the point about being East Coast-centric was valid, but he also said that NBC tries to keep in mind the "multi-background point of view that has to enter into our decisionmaking about what we cover and how we cover it."
That’s not the feeling you might get from hearing the rest of his message: that it’s unfortunate there’s no "common purpose" in Washington – that is, no agreement on passing Barack Obama’s legislative agenda. The story began:
Talking to broadcasters in Washington Tuesday at a National Association of Broadcasters' annual state leadership conference , Gregory suggested that Washington, with the aid of the media, has divided itself into disparate streams that eschew common ground.
The theme of his talk, loosely, was community. That included the community broadcasters can create with the Olympics, the kind of appointment TV broadcasters do well. But he was also talking about the community spirit that seemed to be lacking in Washington. "There is no sense of common cause or common purpose," he said, and "no willingness to compromise. "
He suggested that the current media climate has made it easy for people to seek out only the news that fits their views. "We see in our media as well such a polarized environment that there is this connective tissue on the left and on the right to bond everyone together in a national way. So, you can seek out familiar viewpoints on demand. You can go throughout your whole day in your news consumption cycle without really hearing any contrary points of view to what you believe. And it has led to a very difficult environment in Washington."
He cautioned against misinterpreting the ease with which information can be accessed or disseminated to the weight it should be accorded. "Sometimes we forget how big and vast the country is," he said. "I got on twitter early on and have a lot of followers. I'll go on there sometimes, though I will try to stop doing this now because you read several pages of venomous attack and you think: "maybe I won't do that next week.' But you can also get trapped into thinking, 'Oh, yeah, this somehow represents what is really going on out there." And I'm sorry, it doesn't. It represents a sliver of what is going on."
Speaking of Obama's legislative agenda, on last Sunday's Meet the Press, it stuck out that Gregory seemed insulted that former Rep. J.D. Hayworth would use the words "socialist" and "Obama" in the same sentence:
GREGORY: You are in a, a primary battle for re-election against former Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. And on the issue of health care, this is what he says on his Web site, on the issues, "Nowhere is the Obama administration's socialist agenda more evident than in their attempts to grab control over 17 percent of our nation's economy." Socialist agenda, do you think that goes too far?
McCAIN: Look, you'll have to have Mr. Hayworth on to explain the things he says.
GREGORY: All right.
McCAIN: I'm, I'm not ready to do that.
GREGORY: Do you think that goes too far?
McCAIN: Oh, well...
GREGORY: That this is a socialist agenda from the president?
McCAIN: Look, look, there is no doubt in my mind America's a right-of-center nation and this administration is governing from the left. That's why the president's approval rating's continued to, to decline. And I know you want to get off health care, and I will. But I want to say again--and Eric Cantor who's coming on later will affirm this--we want to sit down and have negotiations, and we have a positive agenda, and we would love to see that agenda...
GREGORY: But--OK, but...
McCAIN: Yes.
GREGORY: ...my question is do you think that kind of--because you've heard that description before, not just from J.D. Hayworth but others. Does it go too far to say the president's agenda is a socialist agenda?
McCAIN: I, I think I gave my description. I think they're governing from the left on a broad variety of issues, but I'll let others speak for themselves. I, I have enough time taking care of my own misstatements.
