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What journalism was
meant to be By William McKeen, Ph.D. © Copyright 1999 William McKeen |
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| For those
of us under 60, Max Frankel's magnificent memoir is a reminder that our
generations have a hard act to follow. Frankel, former executive editor of the New York Times, began his  life in Nazi Germany, and retired as
editor of the most important publication in the free world. Corny as it is
to point it out, Frankel's life is an American-Dream story of epic
proportions. The Times of My Life is a
tremendously moving and instructive book.In a no-nonsense fashion, Frankel begins his tale with his earliest memories of growing up under Hitler, with a strong bond to his mother, a brave woman who defied the regime and escaped, with her young son, to the United States. Transition to the new world was not always easy. As Frankel writes, "No matter how comforting the refuge, it is vexing to be a refugee. Speech, dress, and manners that were elegant in the old country are suddenly gauche in the new. Hands offered for shaking are left dangling in midair. Naked knees jutting from short pants shout 'alien' to every passerby. No one explains, through weeks of embarrassment, that language doesn't rhyme with sandwich. America offers safety, but not an end of striving." Frankel strove to join the new world, but his mother wanted the security of the refugee ghetto. As he tells the story of this 50-year-old family conflict, Frankel writes with heartbreaking detail of the passing of generations and his assimilation into American adulthood. Frankel fell in love with newspapers at Columbia University and soon after graduation married the New York Times, where he spent the decades covering the Cold War, then editing the paper as it redefined itself for the changing audience. The book offers great insight to the Times' struggles—internal and  external—over coverage of Vietnam, the Pentagon
Papers and Watergate. A lot of those battles, of course, involved a man
who regarded the newspaper as the embodiment of all that he reviled.
President Richard Nixon, in a way, could not have been happier when the
Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, the classified documents that
recounted the prolific deceptions that made it possible for the executive
branch to conduct the Vietnam war. Finally, Nixon realized, he could get
the New York Times, by charging it with violating the Espionage Act and
exposing it for what it was—a newspaper run by traitors.Frankel points out that the Times' relationship with the combative president began on a positive note—which he, as editorial page editor—was responsible for. He writes: "Richard Nixon was a clumsy, graceless, and in many ways despicable man, but he was a cunning politician and diplomat whose presidency profoundly tested our capacity for fair and sophisticated reporting. I believe that Nixon so despised his own warped nature that he found it difficult to perceive virtue in anyone else. But ever so briefly, he tried." In an era when a mindless geek from "Hard Copy" is perceived as a journalist by gullible masses, Max Frankel's career is a reminder of life spent in service of the public and its right to know. Let's hope that the generations to come do their duty with the same sort of honor as Frankel's.
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The Times of My Life: And My Life With the Times
Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay: An Anthology
Dr. William McKeen is journalism department chairman at the University
of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. McKeen writes
frequently for The Orlando Sentinel book page and has authored several
books, including: