Photo By Joe Lamb

Diane Rehm says openness to other viewpoints is the hallmark of liberalism.

The Woman's City Club hosted Diane Rehm May 15 at the Plum Street Temple. The host of The Diane Rehm Show has worked for National Public Radio for 34 years.

Her career started at age 36, when she took a class for women seeking new life directions. In the early 1990s Rehm found herself increasingly hoarse with vocal tremors. By 1998 she could hardly speak and had to withdraw from her show, sinking into depression.

She was finally diagnosed with a neurological condition, spasmodic dysphonia, in which faulty nerve signals from the brain cause her vocal chords to clamp shut. The result is her signature voice: a slow, gravelly, grandmotherly rumble.

CityBeat: Some people argue that the information explosion through the Internet is giving rise to a culture reliant on quick-fix news with unchecked sources. Do you think the wide availability of unreliable sources could make for a less informed public and journalistic standards might erode as a consequence?

Diane Rehm: The answer is yes. All of us need to work harder to become better informed citizens, to make better and clearer judgments about for whom we vote. We've got to know who these people are, what they stand for and how they will not only jibe with what our own personal interests may be ... but how that person will lead this country into a better world. That's what we've got to focus on.

CB: Do you think U.S. media's fixation with celebrity gossip and human interest melodrama is expanding to crowd out more crucial issues? Is this getting worse, or has it always been this way?

Rehm: I think it has expanded over the last few years with programs like American Idol, Lost -- those kinds of programs, but ... I have a sense that, as the election draws nearer, more people are going to become really attentive to what's happening in the political arena because they will understand how important it is to the future of this country.

CB: Do you think hard news shows will gain popularity?

Rehm: As the election draws near, people will pay more attention to who is saying what about issues like the war, health care, the environment, social security, education -- all of those things.

CB: You are known for your belief in presenting a balance of perspectives on your show, with the goal of generating a climate of informed public opinion. Do you think that this kind of impartial balance is declining in mainstream media? Are CNN and networks sliding toward editorial and polemic?

Rehm: I think that the public is going to decide whether that kind of opinion-based news presentation is what they want or not. I think Lou Dobbs has ... gone over the edge. He's using his nightly news forum in a way that surprises me. He is no longer being an objective journalist. He's being an opinionated ... something, but I'm not sure I would call that journalism. He is being a very, very strong advocate for one point of view. That's not my idea of journalism.

CB: Do you think criticism of NPR as liberally biased is unfair? Has any of this criticism been directed at your show?

Rehm: If the definition of liberalism is to be open to all perspectives and to all points of view, then I proudly proclaim myself as a liberal. If I am being tarnished because I am open to all points of view, something's wrong. The idea of closing myself to someone's point of view simply because it's different from mine makes no sense to me at all.

I think we all need to be liberals. We all need to be open to other points of view and to hear, to listen to what other people have to say and then to make up our minds. There is a perspective that somehow there is one liberal point of view. I don't buy that at all. I think that being a liberal is to be open to all perspectives.

CB: Do you think large-scale, sweeping purchases of media conglomerates like the Tribune Company will affect the content of print and broadcast as a whole?

Rehm: It worries me. I think that having print newspapers particularly and broadcast entities in the hands of commercial entities doesn't bode well for presenting a broad perspective. My worry is that the perspective presented may be that of the person who has the money. If that's the case, journalism per se is doomed because it will mean that the board room dependent on profit for the investors becomes the deciding force rather than the importance of maintaining integrity in journalism, maintaining a truthful presentation. I'm worried about all of that but most especially as far a newspapers are concerned. I can tell you that, in National Public Radio, there are many, many underwriters but I have never ever had one come to me and say, "This is what I want you to put forward."

CB: Do you think the mainstream news media was complacent or not aggressive enough in questioning the Bush administration's premise for invading Iraq?

Rehm: Yes.

CB: In your book, you make an analogy about the early days of talk radio, comparing it to a backyard discussion between neighbors, where disagreements arose but were kept at bay by the shared interests of the neighbors. Do you think that these kinds of "common interests" we have in America are being strained by the political and cultural divides over issues like the role of religion in public life, the war in Iraq, immigration, friction with the Muslim world, etc.?

Rehm: I do, but I do believe that through listening we can get back to the kind of understanding that we had earlier. We've been influenced by the yelling heads, the "If I talk louder than you do, then my voice will be the one that prevails." I think that we have reached the limit of that, and that we are now coming to a point where we understand how the loss of listening to each other has affected our country.

CB: Of all those you haven't interviewed, who would you like most to do?

Rehm: I'd like to interview President Bush and ask him how he sleeps at night.

CB: What was your most interesting interview?

Rehm: The person I love most and shall always for the rest of my life remember is Fred Rogers. ©

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Diane Rehm says openness to other viewpoints is the hallmark of liberalism.