infortunataly LineBetween Fact and Fiction Blurred in ReaganBiography The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Saturday, October 9, 1999 AQ ’ We havea simple respo: those ethics. Onewell-known presidential COKIE ROBERTS STEVE ROBERTS Morris, the authorof Dute Ronald Reagen.Factsdo matter. Call us old-fashioned, even old- (FOUND PREWDENT REMGAN To scholar teld us hic real fear: If Morris’ book sells well, in ars everyhistorian will be copying his technique. But Edmund Morrisis hardlythe only fogeyish. Fair enough, we plead guilty. But webelieve deeplythatjournalists and sinner. In some ways television is worse, blurring the line between news and entertainment to the point where viewers are never quite sure whatthey'regetting. A few years ago a reporter asked one star of “The McLaughlin Group” why they were always yelling at eachother. Everybody knows we're notserious, the fellow replied; they know it's just entertainment. historigns alike have a sacred responsi- bility to aim for a standard of honor and integrity in whatwewrite. Do wefall short of that standard? Often There’s a reason journalism is called the “first draft of history.” We write and publish every day, knowing that the pieture we describe is temporary, that to- morrow will bring new information and Excuse us, but we continueto labor new perspectivesto light. And history it- self is a dynamic process, going through many drafts and versions. No historian UNITED FEATURES SYNDICATE has ever written the last word on any artists always engage in “exquisite distortion,” that they bend and shape reality subject. ‘Theimportant thing is where you aim, what values guide you. And that’s why the Morris bookis so distressing. At the core of his workis a fictional character, the , and the ht with our to maketheir points. Andthatis certainly true forartists. If you want to write a novel, fine. Cail it a novel. Let readers sion andplayroles, when theysay things for effect, when theyplacetheinte of “good television” above theinterests of “good information,” they're guilty of the author himself, who popsup repeatedly at distorting the facts. Just don’t call it his- know, clearly and directly, that you are same sins as EdmundMorris. Let's be clear here. Journalists historiansdo notdeal in perfection. All of friend Haynes Johnson, himself a Reagan tory or journalism. Steve hasa special perspective on this George Washington University. The Morris book wasthe topicof lively discussion in hislast class, and he was struck bythe number of students who thought the author’s approach was justfine. Several ex- word“objectivity” to describe what wedo. It implies there is only one accurate way to write a story whenin fact there are many. Every writer makes judgments every day what subject to cover, what takeliberties with reality, and Morris was Fairnessor impartiality are better words than objectivity. They admit that we make judgments and try to describe how we 'y points in the narrative. But as our biographer,points out, the made-up char. acters are not limited to the pseudo-Morris. There’s a whole fictional network of Morris friends and family who populate the book,but neverexisted. In our view, Morris’ approach adds confusion, notillumination, to the Ronald Reagan story. And that’s exactly the opposite of what journalists andhistorians should be doing. Morris defends himselfby saying that issue because he teaches young writers at pressed the conviction that all writers Just being honest aboutit. It’s tough enough teaching students aboutethics withouta best-selling author out there making a bundle by trashing and us make mistakes and, Lord knows, we've made our share. Wealso don't like the sources to consult, what facts to include. make them. Moreover, there’s somevalidity to the argumentthat history and even news is written by the winner males with a Euroc Newsrooms and univ arefarbetter off if they contain a widevariety of back: grounds and perspectives. Not because of quotas orpolitical correctness, but be- cause they have a better chance of reflecting reality more accurately. Andthat, in the end, the point. The job of journalism and history is to describe this worid, as carefully and as fairly as possible, knowing that a coi plete picture is always beyond our grasp. Teaching students that lesson is a harder job now, after Edmund Morris’ book. The Rougherthe Seas, the Better Captain Ventura Will Look BY CHRIS MATTHEWS. FRAN turbulence was his comment that “organizedreligion is a sham and a crutch for weak-mindedpeople 0 EXAMINER CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Jesse Ventura pictures himself as a ship’s captain in roughseas. Thejob descriptionrefersto his Reaganesque manner of governing the state of Minnesoia. “I real ize I'm like the captain of a ship, a y ship. The captain doe: actually run the engines . . [or] steer the ship,” he said during a rousing public interview at Harvardlast week. “I try to put in the most qualified people that knowmorethanI about that particular department.” The “rough seas” refersto a re- cent interview Ventura did with Playboy. The main cause of the whoneed strength in numbers.” Despite a bit of zig-zagging — “there's not necessarily a bad connotation on being weak minded,” he told the wide-eyed audience of Harvard students Ventura has stuck to that same rough course he set in the Playboy interview. Asked what goes through his head and heart when he walks past a church, he offered this: “I have nothing at all against religion, people's beliefs and the freedom that we're allowed to practice them, What goes through myheart is that it’s a sanctuary that, if people desire or needit, is More Than.2 Yeats In The: Making ‘Millions Of Dollars IN Development The Most Complete Cardiovascular eee there for them. I don’t generally needit.” it's this readiness to shove the establishment, including organized religioninthis country, that provides Ventura his star quality. Aiso his authenticity. Place Ventura’s stark honesty, just to take an obvious example, alongside that of the nation’s top officeholder, a president who hosts “prayer breakfasts” but also has “but also unpopular speech.” “T want to live in a country that supports all the amendments to the Constitution. I think they're very important.” He’s especially vigilant about the Second Amendment, believing that the Constitution protects the right to bear arms not for hunting been known tocaress his Bible, animals but for protection against the government in Washington. “Tt was written to protect we, the citizenry, from an oppressive again for the cameras, on the same Faster he’s penciledin time onhis ever became oppressive, we would calendar for a certain White Houseintern. “Freedom of speechis not there to protect popular speech,” he told the 800 awestruck students surrounding him Wednesday night, government, that if government have the right to bear arms and the right to battle our government if it ever got to that point.” Ventura openly admits his sympathy for any American out there whobelievesthereis a clear and present danger ofsuch op- pression whetherit anassault tigues to from Washington, be the fellow who owns rifle, men whodonfa: march each weekend with a militia group or those armed cult members whostood barricaded at Waco. Hebelieves the second FBI assault on the just the IRS but every alphabet agencyofthe federal government. They see “the government” as an alien force comprised of bureaucrats and betrayers. Now the younger, well educated folk are buying theanti government line. Ventura, for all his warts, impresses them. Why wouldn't he? The old Navy seal charting his course through what hecalls the “rough seas” of his post-Playboy existence, the government “revenge” for the per answerto theslick politi- killing of four ATF agents during cian with blow-dried hair pandering to us with well-groomed, polltested banality. Texas compound was driven by thatfirst tragic rush of the Texas compound. stools of America are packed with Jesse Ventura’s got something, andthe roughertheseas,thebet ter he's goingto look mostof all to those young Americans who middle-aged, undereducated guys are, even now, so blithe to cheer Ventura’s anti-establishment languageis both rough-hewn and unfamiliar. 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