Walter Lippmann was an American journalist, political commentator and public “intellectual”. This recording was made in late 1967 and aired on national television. College students were selected to interview him live on TV. In this discussion, students ask Lippmann what he saw coming with the American involvement in the Vietnam War. His comments on the future from a 1967 perspective are fascinating in light of what we now know occurred between 1967 and the end of the war in 1975.
In this incredible discussion, Lippmann also discusses hippies and drugs, what a good American President needs to do to lead the country, other wars of the 20th century - World War I - World War II, civil rights issues and black power and more.
Who was Walter Lippman?
He was known for his support of progressive causes such as civil rights, social welfare, and international cooperation. Lippmann was also a strong advocate for the American democracy and believed in the importance of a free and independent press as a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.
The Vietnam War was big news at the time and it was uncertain what President Lyndon Johnson was going to do and whether or not he was going to run for president again in 1968. Lippmann was a critic of the conflict and the way it was being prosecuted by the Johnson administration. In his columns and writings, he argued that the war was a mistake and that the United States should find a way to extricate itself from the conflict. He speaks to what he thinks will happen in this video clip.
President Johnson was the primary architect of the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson took office after the assassination of President Kennedy and was initially hesitant to escalate the conflict in Vietnam. However he ultimately decided to commit significant US resources to the war effort and oversaw a significant expansion of US military involvement in Vietnam. Johnson's handling of the war was highly controversial in Americans were debating the rights and wrongs of our involvement daily in every public forum.
I admired Walter Lippman because of his view of the difference between an individual reporter's view of truth and "truth". Though a journalist himself, Lippmann did not assume that news and truth were synonymous. He wrote, “a journalist's version of the truth is subjective and limited to how they construct their reality. The news, therefore, is ‘imperfectly recorded’ and too fragile to bear the charge as ‘an organ of direct democracy."
To Lippmann, democratic ideals had deteriorated in America and that voters were largely ignorant about issues and policies and lacked the competence to participate in public life and cared little for participating in the political process. The basic problem of democracy, he wrote, was the accuracy of news and protection of sources. He argued that distorted information was inherent in the human mind. People make up their minds before they define the facts, while the ideal would be to gather and analyze the facts before reaching conclusions.
By seeing the news first, he argued, it was possible to sanitize polluted information. Lippmann argued that articulating stereotypes subjected the American public to partial truths. Lippmann called the notion of a public who was competent to lead public affairs was a "false ideal." He compared the political savvy of an average man/woman to a theater-goer walking into a play in the middle of the third act and leaving before the last curtain.
Lippmann was also an early influential commentator on mass culture. Lippmann said that mass mankind functioned as a "bewildered herd" who must be governed by "a specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality." The elite class of intellectuals and experts were to be a machinery of knowledge to circumvent the primary defect of democracy, the impossible ideal of the "omnicompetent citizen".
From the 1930s through the 1950s, Lippmann became even more skeptical of the "guiding" class. In The Public Philosophy (1955) he presented an argument that intellectual elites were undermining the framework of democracy. The book was very poorly received in liberal circles.
Lippmann was also an informal adviser to several presidents. On September 14, 1964, years before Lippmann disagreed with the president on the Vietnam War, President Johnson presented Lippmann with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He died in New York City in 1974.
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David Hoffman filmmaker
6 янв 2023
