Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist Speaks on Election Implications

By TERESA WINCHESTER
ONEONTA

On Monday, November 18, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Shribman spoke at Hartwick College. His talk was sponsored by the Hartwick Institute of Public Service.

Shribman embodies a lifetime of work at leading newspapers (“The New York Times,” “The Boston Globe,” “The Wall Street Journal”), holding top positions at each one. As Washington Bureau Chief for “The Boston Globe,” he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for “Beat Reporting” on American political culture.

In 2019, following the shooting massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Shribman, then executive editor of the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,” published a front-page, full-width headline, in Hebrew-Aramaic, of the opening of the Jewish prayer of mourning. The Post-Gazette subsequently won a Pulitzer Prize for “Breaking News Reporting” for coverage of the massacre.

Shribman is currently executive editor emeritus of the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” and the J.W. McConnell Professor of Practice at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He also writes a weekly column, “My Point,” syndicated throughout the United States, and a biweekly column for “The Globe and Mail,” a Canadian daily newspaper.

Shribman’s talk, relatively brief and rapidly delivered, nonetheless revealed his encyclopedic knowledge of American history and the American political landscape. He easily drew upon more obscure historic occurrences and pithy quotes to make a point, for instance, when he quoted German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) as saying, “The Lord gives his providential protection to drunkards, the mentally ill, and the USA.”

During the course of the evening, Shribman often equivocated on the impact of the recent presidential election both in his talk and in taking questions, to which he offered responses such as, “You guys must think I know everything,” or, “You’ll notice the skill with which I evade most of these questions,” and, finally, “I’m just talking to answer the question, but I don’t know the answer, really.”

However, his talk began powerfully, when he stated, “An earthquake rumbled through the United States a couple of Tuesdays ago, and the world is feeling its aftershocks.”

His metaphorical language eerily evoked a 1919 work by American journalist and socialist John Reed, “Ten Days that Shook the World,” a first-hand account of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising that led to the overthrow of czarist Russia and the ascendency of Vladimir Lenin as leader of Soviet Russia.

In reference to the global tremors caused by the election results, Shribman named four other historical events, the implications of which were felt worldwide—the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and Adolph Hitler’s election as chancellor of Germany.

“It’s too early and too facile to suggest that Donald Trump’s imminent return to the American presidency is one of those events. But the significance of this election and the prominent and surpassing role that the United States plays in global economics, trade, geopolitics, and culture renders that a plausible notion.”

Drawing again on the earthquake metaphor, he asserted, “It’s incontrovertible that major tectonic changes in the character of the United States are in motion.”

To this point, Shribman named the “pinions and structures behind world order” established after World War II—the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, NATO, and Marshal Plan—pointing out that “Trump is against most of them.”

Trump’s election for a second, if non-consecutive, term, Shribman maintained, sets in motion questions about major issues: civil liberties, economic policy, national defense, abortion, the status of minorities, and Trump’s own legal status.

Shribman also gave examples of how Trump has tested the limits of power—his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, his convincing of an entire political party and a good portion of the American public that he was robbed of that election, his incitement of the mob on January 6, 2021 which stormed the Capitol to prevent certification of the election, his four criminal indictments, including 34 felony convictions, for which he is unlikely to be imprisoned, and his vulgar language and bizarre behavior which seem not to have at all phased his supporters.

Trump may, however, encounter boundaries with his cabinet appointees, “who are nothing short of political outlaws,” Shribman said.

By appointing Trump loyalists rather than qualified candidates, Trump is showing his “contempt for conventional politics” and his “hostility toward government institutions.” Shribman described Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s appointee for secretary of Health and Human Services as a “fringe gadfly in the matter of public health, “whose positions are at odds with most health professionals.” According to Shribman, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, “faces questions about her friendly views toward the leaders of Syria and Russia.” Matt Gaetz, nominated by the president-elect for attorney general, has, since 2021, been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for a claim that he had sex with an underage girl, has used illicit drugs, accepted bribes, misused campaign funds, and shared inappropriate images on the House floor.

“He has the contempt of his peers,” Shribman said of Gaetz, speculating that “it is unlikely that Gaetz will be confirmed.”

Shribman’s prediction was validated three days later, when on November 21, Gaetz withdrew his nomination, stating, “While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition.”

Whether Trump is the cause or consequence of negative attitudes toward women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and cultural polarization in general, was an underlying theme of several questions from the audience.

“There must have been tinder on the ground,” Shribman speculated, adding, “He did it brilliantly [flamed the fires of cultural populism], but he didn’t know what he was doing.”

In an evening of dire historical analogies and anxious uncertainty about the implications of Trump’s 2024 election, Shribman did manage to offer a ray of hope. He pointed to a poll taken by Harvard and Tufts universities which showed that young people agree on the issues of abortion, immigration, and LGBTQIA+ rights.

“I can’t wait for you to grow up. Your generation will bring us back to the center,” he said.

Audience reaction to Shribman’s talk was consistently positive.

“I’m honored that he took the time to hear me out. Hartwick should be grateful to have this opportunity,” said Colleen Long, a senior music education major, who had asked whether Trump was causing or reflecting cultural trends.

“It was a great talk. It’s great to see how interested and engaged our students are,” said Laurel Elder, co-director, with Zachary McKenney and Matthew Chick, of Hartwick’s Institute for Public Service.

“It was an excellent presentation. He captured the historical significance of this election, an election that mattered,” said Bill Simons, SUNY Oneonta professor emeritus and former chair of its history department.

Perhaps Silence Baggesse, a Hartwick sophomore majoring in criminal justice and sociology, best summed up the major take-away from Shribman’s talk.

“We have no idea how Trump is going to act. It’s going to be different these next four years,” she said.