PBS: Where incuriosity is an asset

This link is to a interview show called “Greater Boston”, hosted by Emily Rooney. In it she interviews Russ Baker, an investigative journalist who in his research unexpectedly came across evidence that Watergate was not at all what we were told then or are being told now.

The interview is about eleven minutes long, and I don’t know how to embed it (somebody help please!). What struck me about it were three lines by Rooney, to wit:

You’re not a grassy knoller, are you?

Would they have gotten those questions answered?

We let that go too early as journalists.”

Each of the three statements above appear to be mental stops, where her inner parent tells her curious child “This far, no further!

“Would they have gotten those questions answered?” is another way of saying “We won’t learn anything without upsetting them.”

“Grassy knoller” is the edge of ridicule, the standard response to someone who doubts official truth.

“We let that go too early…” is a swing-and-miss in one-strike-you’re-out American journalism.

Rooney sits where she is not in spite of her incuriosity and credulity, but rather because of it. That is the result of natural selection – all the curious ones were weeded out many levels below her position.

Russ Baker wrote the book “Family of Secrets,” a valuable book not because of its content, but rather because of its lack of mission. He did not set out to write the book he wrote. Evidence and curiosity took him there. That is why I like him and why I contribute monthly to his investigative journalism at his website, Whowhatwhy.com. He’s still got a ways to go on JFK, still idealizing the man and imagining that he was battling dark forces inside government. But he’s doing lots of good work on other stuff in the meantime.