For his Reporter’s Notebook segment on Friday’s CBS This Morning, co-host John Dickerson took the journalistic equivalent of Facebook’s ten-year challenge, fondly looking back at the “hope” and “good relations” of Barack Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009. He then lamented how “grim” things were in Washington a decade later, under President Trump.
“Like many of you, I spent some time this week in January of 2009, I took the ten-year challenge. I posted a picture from ten years ago and one from more recently,” Dickerson told viewers. Reflecting on his career as a reporter, he recalled: “My notebooks say that ten years ago I was covering the inauguration of the first African-American president.”
Dickerson eagerly touted the positive feelings at the time:
A snapshot of January 18, 2009 shows that the most popular story on the internet said Republicans were giving the new guy the benefit of the doubt. President bush called Obama’s inauguration “a moment of hope and pride.” And that snapshot of good relations in Washington looks nothing like today.
Moments later, he lamented the contrast to 2019: “If you took a snapshot of Washington today, it would be grim. We hope that the picture in ten years will be brighter and that leaders will focus on that picture and not the next tweet or photo op.”
Following the taped segment, fellow co-host Gayle King congratulated Dickerson for providing a “nice perspective” on the past decade.
If instead of taking a ten-year challenge, Dickerson just looked back six years, to Obama’s second inauguration in January of 2013, he would find himself demanding that the Democratic president “Declare War on the Republican Party” and “pulverize” the GOP. So much for the era of “good relations.”
This was not the first time that Dickerson used his Reporter’s Notebook series to deliver a hypocritical sermon. Back in August, he lectured on the importance of people doing “the right thing when they don’t think anybody is looking.” While managing to bash Trump White House staffers for failing that character test, he somehow forgot to turn the mirror on CBS News and its handling of the sexual harassment scandals involving his This Morning predecessor Charlie Rose and the network’s former president Les Moonves.
Perhaps Dickerson should take the time to give viewers the complete picture if he’s going to insist on reading from his “notebook.”
Here is a full transcript of the January 18 segment:
8:43 AM ET
JOHN DICKERSON: This morning, we’re taking the ten-year challenge in our Reporter’s Notebook. A lot can happen in a decade. We compile and lose memories and gain lines on our face with each new candle on the birthday cake. But when we think about our lives a decade ago, there’s more to ponder than simply how we used to look and what we used to wear.
Like many of you, I spent some time this week in January of 2009, I took the ten-year challenge. I posted a picture from ten years ago and one from more recently. It’s not really a challenge to post pictures of yourself on social media. You don’t need grappling hooks, it’s not that hard to climb Mount Vanity.
A lot has changed in those ten years. The t-shirt I’m wearing is for a band that no longer exists. The girl I’m holding, my daughter, was recently mistaken for my wife. Social media usually distracts us with the immediate, but this challenge injects perspective.
My notebooks say that ten years ago I was covering the inauguration of the first African-American president. A snapshot of January 18, 2009 shows that the most popular story on the internet said Republicans were giving the new guy the benefit of the doubt. President bush called Obama’s inauguration “a moment of hope and pride.” And that snapshot of good relations in Washington looks nothing like today.
Though the story also quoted a congressman from Iowa who said Obama’s inauguration meant, “Al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th.” That congressman, Steve King, was sanctioned this week by his Republican colleagues for questioning why terms like white supremacist should be considered offensive. Steve King did not pass the real ten-year challenge, which is, “Will my actions and my words today hold up ten years from now? And if not, am I purchasing wisdom that will guide the next ten years?”
That’s the challenge I see in those pictures, and it’s the challenge for Washington, too. If you took a snapshot of Washington today, it would be grim. We hope that the picture in ten years will be brighter and that leaders will focus on that picture and not the next tweet or photo op. Otherwise, they will have failed their challenge.
GAYLE KING: What a nice perspective, John. Because it’s so much more than how you look. It’s really how you think and how you move in the world.
DICKERSON: And I hope I’ll be here for the next ten years.
KING: You and me both.
