Echo Chambers Don't Foster Sound Thinking
Agnew's 1969 warning in Des Moines now applies to Iowa congressional delegation
As a cub political reporter for Iowa’s Dallas County News, I was in the audience on November 13, 1969, and heard Vice President Spiro Agnew launch his famous - some say infamous - attack on the news media. The speech was delivered in Des Moines at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines. The TV networks were there to cover it live, in prime time. No speech by an American Vice President had ever received such treatment.
America had just three TV networks back then. Their great sin, at least as President Nixon and his Vice President, Agnew, saw it was that the networks weren’t Fox “News.”
This was years before there was an actual Fox “News” of course. Even then, however, Republicans ached for news media that would shout a cascade of hosannahs after every pronouncement Republicans made rather than simply report the facts, think for themselves, and independently report and comment on the news.
What raised Nixon’s and, therefore Agnew’s, ire in mid November 1969 was that the President had recently given a nationally televised address on ABC, CBS, and NBC - during free broadcast time the networks gave to him, by the way (as they did for Agnew’s speech in Des Moines, too) - on the war in Vietnam. After the speech, the yearned for hosannahs were not forthcoming. Instead the reporters and news analysts who followed the President’s speech did their jobs. Professionally. They summarized what the President had said and what he did not say, and then shared their informed and independent thinking on it.
The Constitution guaranteed them the right to do that. It was good journalism to do so. The President made his case. The analysts then discussed what he’d said, not as cheerleaders, but as informed reporters who could put things in context.
That’s what prompted Agnew’s attack. His head on, vaguely threatening, verbal assault was unprecedented and chilling at the time. In retrospect, it is laughable to think that the party that would later build Fox “News” to be its own partisan cheering squad could have once been outraged that TV commentators would commentate. But that’s where things were in 1969.
In his indictment of the network analysts, Agnew threw one dagger their way that always stuck in my mind, and that I imagine he thought would be particularly hurtful to them. He noted they all lived on the east coast (so did Agnew of Maryland). He said of them, “We can deduce these men read the same newspapers. They draw their political and social views from the same sources. Worse, they talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoints.”
I remember that line drew particularly loud guffaws from some of the Republican party leaders gathered in the Hotel Ft. Des Moines ballroom to hear the speech. Republicans have hated on the media - a free and independent press - for a long time, and Agnew’s attack on the press that night was the opening salvo of an offensive campaign that continues to this day.
One thing that has changed, however, is this: as Republicans gather around their Fox “News” oxygen tent and the Republican echo chamber today for their daily dose of partisan diatribes, misinformation and manipulation, it is clear that Republicans are now the ones who are drawing “their political and social views from the same sources,” and “providing artificial reinforcement for their shared viewpoints.” It is highly doubtful Agnew’s complaint ever fit the news analysts he was trying to smear, but it is undeniable that is exactly what Republicans are doing today.
Iowa’ all Republican congressional delegation to Washington needs to guard against adding its own layer of special “group think” to all this, to avoid becoming new practitioners of Agnew’s lament: “Worse, they talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared views.”
Today, when Iowa’s all Republican congressional delegation gathers in the nation’s Capitol, there is no longer a second opinion to be heard, just reinforcement of one another, based on political and social views coming from the same sources.
Iowans need to pay close attention to this because the early signs are that the state’s delegation is a lot more concerned about Republican ideology, which gets reinforced daily in Republican circles and on Fox “News,” than they are about finding solutions to big, real and urgent problems.
The first month of a new Congress is when most House and Senate members introduce or co-sponsor legislation that reflects their most urgent priorities. The Iowa delegation this January? They’ve served up a lot of red meat for their Republican base. There has been a lot of partisan and ideological showboating. But there has been very little that can accurately be described as attempting to solve any actual urgent crisis.
Take for example, the crisis of mass shootings in America. Hardly a day goes by when there isn’t one or more mass shooting somewhere in America, usually more than one. Over each of the past three years in America there have been more that 600 mass shootings. Each year! The last I looked, there were nearly 40 so far in January 2023, and the month is not over.
Des Moines joined the early-in-the-year list last week. It was certainly not the first case of deadly gun violence in the state - not by a country mile.
Are Iowa’s members of the US House doing anything about it? Does their list of priority legislation - early bill introductions and co-sponsorships - reflect any concern at all about this crisis?
No. Not a peep.
If you have loved ones, friends or colleagues - and we all do - that ought to bother the heck out of you. We are all at risk. The crisis is real, urgent and everywhere. It has been for years.
Yet, according to bill co-sponsorships and introductions, and floor speeches, so far this year there has been nothing from Iowa’s Republicans in Congress on the mass shooting crisis. The closest they get to it is co-sponsorships that makes it easier to carry concealed guns from one state to another (H.R. 38 co-sponsored by Reps. Mariannette Miller Meeks (IA-1), Ashley Hinson (IA-2) and Randy Feenstra (IA-4).
It gets worse.
HR 173, co-sponsored by Rep. Hinson would make it easier to own and transport short barreled rifles. It would over-rule and bar local governments from taxing short barreled rifles, or keeping records on such rifles, making it impossible for local governments who wish to do so to have a record of who has short barreled rifles to make it easier to apprehend those who use them to commit crimes.
The famous “sawed off shotgun” was a favorite of bank robbers back in the early part of the 20th Century, until outlawed. Apparently some Republicans think we need to bring them back.
The Justice Department would also be required to destroy registration records for certain rifles.
If any of this looks like an attempt to find a solution to gun violence in general, and mass shootings in particular then you have a much more vivid imagination than I do. There is literally nothing on the priority list of any of Iowa House member about sensible gun safety law reforms. Keep in mind that such reforms are supported by the vast majority of Americans and Iowans, Democrats and Republicans, and gun owners themselves.
Republicans, however, are hard at work on the gun lobby’s wish list. Gun lobby campaign contributions and support are at stake, after all.
It is a complete abdication of duty and responsibility.
Iowa Republicans may be thrilled to have the first all Republican Iowa delegation in Congress since the 1950s. But that dominance comes with its own risks - chief among them, the risk of the kind of hubris that can grow when a state’s congressional delegation all thinks the same way, especially when it is chasing political ideology rather than crisis solving, when it is drawing “their political and social views from the same sources,” and providing “artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoints,” as do today’s Republicans.
Iowans at large should be on the watch for it and call out members of the delegation when they see signs of ideological “group think,” and a partisan echo chamber at work.
The delegation was elected to serve all Iowans. That is their job now. They need to leave the echo chamber and ideology behind and work to solve problems for all Iowans. That requires a solid, thoughtful approach to issues by all members of the delegation, regardless of what other members of the delegation are thinking or saying, and regardless of partisan clamor.
“Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains” is part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, which links some of Iowa’s best and most thoughtful writers directly with readers. The effort and the columns are reader supported. Here’s a list of the writers publishing as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Check them out and subscribe for delivery right to your email inbox.
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Iowa and California
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Macy Spensley, The Creative Midwesterner, Davenport/Des Moines
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
To receive a weekly roundup of all Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists, sign up here (free): ROUNDUP COLUMN
We are proud to have an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch
Good points, Ralph. Thank you.
I will address some of those questions in a future column.
A good place to start, though, to switch the TV channel every now and then. If you are watching the same news network all the time, you are only getting one network’s take on the news. The news channels often cover different aspects and perspectives on a story.
Making sure you understand the difference between journalism and propaganda is also important, essential, in fact. Increasingly, too many don’t.
For a one party congressional delegation, having some colleagues who are friends they can talk things over with is a must. That used to be the norm on Capitol Hill. Not so much any more. Tip O’Neill and Bob Michel used to play golf together regularly. Can anyone imagine today’s Speaker doing that with his Democratic counter point?
For elected officials in general it means listening to constituents, really listening, door wide open, listening, rather than hand picking the audience so they only hear reinforcement of their views. When I worked for Members of the House and Senate, I always thought doing that - and reading mail sent in by constituents were both essential for my employers and they did too..
It also means making yourself available to the press.That’s not always fun, but it is vital in a democracy. Iowa Republicans, increasingly, don’t want to do that.
What suggestions do you have, Ralph, that come from your experience in public office - things you saw colleagues doing right, as well as opportunities missed to breaking out of the echo chamber?
I suspect this is even worse in the Iowa Legislature. We can see over and over with the legislation being introduced and passed that their philosophy is not about solving problems and more about ideology.