HOW HE SEES IT Oprah emerges as a great moral force

By JAMES P. PINKERTON
LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
The media illuminate the political choices we make. Yet, increasingly the power to guide that bright light is shifting.
Two media stars of different eras, the late Edward R. Murrow and the alive-and-thriving Oprah Winfrey, illustrate this power shift.
The new movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," directed by George Clooney, takes us back to the 1950s, when network news was the sharpest arrow in the quiver of liberalism. The hero of this biopic, Murrow, the dean of CBS News, made no secret of his political advocacy.
As the film opens, Murrow is being extolled for his crusading coverage of civil rights, apartheid and the plight of migrant workers. But the centerpiece of the movie is Murrow's 1954 showdown with Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., which helped cement McCarthy's image as an irresponsible demagogue -- and cemented the halo on Murrow's head.
In those days, it seemed obvious to all that broadcast television news existed to advance the beliefs of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party -- and in fact, in 1961 Murrow went to work for the new administration of President Kennedy.
Yet, as the Big Media focused on some stories, other stories were inevitably neglected. One such story was crime, especially violent street crime. In the liberal view of the world, crime is mostly a function of poverty and racism -- which are, of course, greater evils than any mere crime. All of which has led liberals to argue that the only sure cure for crime is the eradication of "the roots" of crime, namely, poverty and racism.
Indeed, in this liberal view, it is actually something of an injustice to fight street crime without first addressing the root causes, since criminals are themselves victims of systemic poverty and racism.
But of course, there's another view of crime, which holds that criminals aren't victims, but victimizers. According to this view, no social injustice permits another injustice; two wrongs don't make a right. This other view -- call it conservative, or populist or simply common-sense -- has been gaining ground in recent decades.
Sex offenders
So in America today politicians are busy increasing jail sentences, security cameras are sprouting up everywhere, and, yes, even TV is now full of crime-fighting shows. And other kinds of media are in play, too. Instead of the wanted posters of the past, we now have Amber Alerts and the Net. In New York state, for example, anyone can go to the Web site of the Division of Criminal Justice Services and find a list of the registered sex offenders living outside of custody -- 22,122 in all, at last check.
That so many potentially dangerous people are still walking around might help explain why America is still so dangerous: According to FBI data released this week, in addition to 16,137 murders in the United States last year, there were nearly 100,000 rapes -- an increase of 5 percent in the last five years.
Obviously the hot light of the media needs to shine down even brighter and harsher upon criminals.
Enter Oprah Winfrey. Regarded today as the queen of daytime talk, Winfrey will someday be remembered as a great moral force. Her entire career points to the importance of such virtues as hard work and tolerance.
But now, at the peak of her success, she is preaching intolerance -- for sexual criminality against children. Americans must unite, she says, "to stop a sickness, a darkness, that I believe is the definition of evil." And so she has launched a new feature on her syndicated show in which she offers rewards for catching fugitive sex offenders -- and she has nabbed several already.
Might an admiring movie be made about Winfrey a half-century from now in which her crusading against sexual predation is hailed, as Murrow's crusading against McCarthyism was hailed?
The current media-cultural establishment might not see the kinship between Murrow and Winfrey, but a future establishment might see it -- and perhaps even conclude that Oprah made more of a contribution.
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service