James Riswick
Assistant A&E Editor
With my tour of duty finally coming to a close here at the Graphic, I thought I would reflect on how things have changed since I first strolled into the now forgotten Communication Division trailers four years ago. Back then, Pepperdine was the 47th-best school in the nation, Democrats were still cheesed over their stolen election, Britney Spears was not yet a living punch line and the most discussed news item was Sen. Gary Condit’s involvement with an intern’s disappearance — my first opinions topic.
Then, as they say quite often, everything in America changed on Sept. 11, 2001. George W. Bush was transformed from the idiot son of a former president into a determined war-time president who rallied a nation, but who soon divided it deeply and angered those abroad. At the heart of both these internal and international divides is the president’s conservative beliefs that are a rallying cry for so many in America and at Pepperdine, and yet so backward, offensive and downright confusing to many here and around the world.
Therefore, I see the biggest story in these four years as being the added influence of the conservative Christian right on nearly everything in our lives. Maybe this is because (unfortunately and strangely) I have lived in a Christian conservative epicenter. With a Republican-controlled national government and wacko liberals like myself pushing the envelope on such taboo issues like gay marriage, it’s been hard to ignore the sizeable conservative anchor that has been dropped into the liberal river of cultural evolution in these beginning years of the 21st century. We crazy and evil liberals (yes, evil, ask Sean Hannity) are apparently moving too quickly for roughly 51 percent of the nation who is either happy with the way things are or wanting to go back to a simpler, more repressed Christian conservative time. Basically, a Pepperdine life for all.
Because of this conservative revolution of sorts, Pepperdine has found itself right along side Ned Flanders as one-time right-wing weirdoes who are now very much mainstream. Strangely enough, while the Christian values that Pepperdine holds so dear continue to fall in line with the beliefs of President Bush and the conservative mainstream, our national rankings (and therefore the value of our degrees) keep going down. Many would say that it is these same strict Christian values that muddle our standing as a nationally honored university because of the administration’s insistence on weekly Convocation, curfew, limiting what musical acts can come here and, of course, any opinion regarding sex and alcohol.
I would like to note, however, that the dropping of K-Waves radio’s all-Christian format and their continuing hands-off approach to the Graphic is commendable and most definitely a great thing.
Speaking of media, in these four years TV news channels have increasingly become nothing more than endless hours of partisan talking heads and opinion-riddled news. Subsequently, people can’t tell the difference between news reporting and editorializing, and just look for the biased news cast that makes them shake their heads in agreement rather than search for new information or perspectives.
I once heard somebody say that Scott Withycombe was their favorite Graphic reporter because he takes a conservative slant on things. Even Scott would tell you he isn’t a reporter — he’s an opinion writer. The problem is, if this was Fox News, Scott would do the same thing, but be called a news anchor. And to be fair and balanced, this would happen with me at CNN, too.
And now my friends, the end is here. With more than 100 articles written for all five sections of the Graphic, I have appeared in 80-consecutive standard-run issues (I missed our Sept. 11, 2001 special edition), which I am convinced is some kind of record. But this is the final Graphic article I will ever write and the final issue I will ever help produce. It is time to move on and share my random thoughts elsewhere, but I will never forget these four years writing about and experiencing this wonderfully wacky place by the beach.
3-31-2005