Engage Blog

While you continue coming up with great questions for PBS ombudsman Michael Getler, take a look at the answers from our previous "Five Good Questions" guest: Ray Suarez.

Ray is a senior correspondent for The NewsHour. Ray is currently reporting from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He took some time out to answer your questions.

Check out his answers below. Have some thoughts to share about his answers? Leave us a comment and we’ll keep the conversation going.

1. I live in Memphis, Tennessee, where race is unfortunately still a divisive issue politically. You have a lot of experience covering politics domestically and abroad; have you seen a shift in how Americans view race in politics, and do you see any solutions to the current racial issues creeping into the presidential race?
Joel T. Rose

I was at the Georgia delegates breakfast this morning at the Democratic National Convention, and watched fellow delegates file into the room. A middle-aged white man strolled over to a middle-aged black woman, the two hugged warmly, kissed, and talked about the trip up to Denver as peers. Unremarkable… commonplace… and impossible just a blink of an eye ago in our national history.
So while I am not one of those pollyannas who insists that race doesn't matter any more in American life or American politics, I do want to keep in mind that the way scores of millions of Americans "process" race in their own heads has changed significantly during my lifetime.
It has been fascinating during this election to watch Americans wrestle with the idea of a black man reaching for the biggest brass ring in the world, the Presidency. It is true that millions of Americans would not vote for a black man for president, many millions more would.
The social science research that comes out year after year confirms that black Americans see their lives constrained by race much more than white Americans recognize that it happens. For whites, race is not a factor at all in their daily lives, and unfortunately they can't see how it could be for millions of their fellow Americans. Maybe Barack Obama can explain that fact in a way that doesn't threaten anyone… we'll see.

2. Brit Hume says Fox News Channel is popular because it focuses more on the personality of its anchors and hosts – a drastic change from the way news used to be presented on TV. How do you feel about this shift?
Marcus Yeagley

Everything about the news has changed drastically. I've been in the business my whole adult life and can't believe how utterly and completely the business I got my first job in back in 1976 has disappeared.
I would have to disagree with Brit Hume that FNC is popular because of the personality of its hosts and anchors. It is what comes out of the mouths of its hosts and anchors that attracts audience.
I would warn that it's a mistake to romanticize the past: Mike Wallace was a game show host and cigarette pitchman in his earlier career. Before Hugh Downs hosted 20/20 he was a longtime game show host. Edward R. Murrow, remembered today as a patron saint of television news, also hosted celebrity interview and infotainment shows for years after narrating the London blitz from rooftops.
It should be said Murrow also invented with his team of reporters and producers long-form reportorial television, and pushed the medium to the limit of its young and raw technological possibilities, for which people like me are very grateful. But television news has always had an uneasy mix of factual reportage and entertainment for its own sake.

3. You've interviewed everyone under the sun. What's the most surprising answer you've ever received during an interview?
Abe Froman (via e-mail)

Hmmmm…. I guess there are two different kinds of surprises. One is when an interview subject simply will not concede a widely understood truth and just denies it. The other is when an interview subject intrigues you with a graceful and unexpected answer to a question.
The first kind came in a 1993 interview with Margaret Thatcher. John Major had pushed Baroness Thatcher out of Downing Street three years earlier. I asked the former Prime Minister about the overturning of the verdicts in the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six pub bombings after evidence emerged of significant police and prosecutorial misconduct. Lady Thatcher simply denied, vehemently, that anything wrong had been done (though it was voluminously documented in investigations, inquests, and Parliamentary hearings) and insisted all the men involved should still be in jail. I was caught by surprise by both her refusal to discuss the facts of the case or consider that anything wrong had happened.
The second kind of answer came in an interview with Joe Slovo, former head of the South African Communist Party and Minister of Housing in the first elected post-apartheid government. Slovo had spent much of his life under government harassment, on the run, and in exile. The South African security services murdered his wife, Ruth First.
As I sat in his backyard amid flowers and chirping birds, I found a man who was, it seemed, incapable of bitterness. Yes, he regretted the years of struggle and unhappiness, but said they were necessary. Yes, he mourned the loss of his wife terribly, and wished she had lived to see the end of apartheid, but was unable to imagine getting back, getting even, or spending much psychic energy settling scores.
I don't know what I expected… maybe the more usual set of reactions to that kind of life. At that moment Joe Slovo, a fighter, a revolutionary, a radical… seemed to be the most serene man I had ever met.

4. I see a constant decline in the quality of the "NewsHour's" coverage. Why do you use biased sources such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute?
Ron

They are sources with a point of view. And they are most often sitting across the table from experts with a contrary point of view. If it's a point of view you agree with, you are less likely to call it bias.
I would find it difficult to agree with your conclusion about a constant decline in the quality of the broadcast. Over the last two decades, the program has constantly been increasing its reach, increasing the time dedicated to on-scene reporting, increasing the time (and budget) dedicated to overseas coverage.
In those years, the NewsHour has moved from a strictly Washington-based talk show to become a much more comprehensive look at the government, the rest of the country, and the rest of the world. And yes, from time to time we are still going to feature guests from Heritage and AEI. To me that just doesn't equal a decline in quality.

5, Ray, would you run for president so we can elect someone with intelligence to save our failing country? When I vote in November here in Cincinnati, I plan to write in your name.
Nate Solod

I was once asked to run for office by someone in a position to do so. I was shocked by the invitation, and I'll admit a little intrigued. I went home that night after work and told my wife that So-and-So was prepared to slate me for a very high profile and high-responsibility job. Her answer was along the lines of "and who will be married to you when you are busy doing this?"
Seriously, though… People should do what they're good at. I would like to think I am good at what I do, and don’t believe I necessarily have the traits that would transfer well to life as an elected official. It takes a great deal more compromise on a great deal more issues that I think I would be comfortable with to be an effective legislator or executive. And while I would never counsel you to throw away your vote I would still be flattered by your belief that I could be good at it.