By Hart

Gary Hart on blogging, the media and his life's third act.

A A A Comments By Michael Roberts Thursday, Mar 9 2006

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He's just as exercised about the ideological forces brought to bear on media outlets and the willingness of so many to succumb. "The Rocky Mountain News is a conservative-to-right newspaper. They have their own point of view, editorially and otherwise," he says. "But the Denver Post, which was more liberal, has become almost non-partisan, if you will. I think it was intimidated by the right, which has done a brilliant job of that, by the way. The right is always talking about 'the liberal media, the liberal media,' but you turn on KOA and it's wall-to-wall conservatives -- Mike Rosen and Rush Limbaugh and all those guys. So when they're attacking the liberal media, who are they talking about? They dominate the airwaves." Of late, Hart thinks the Post has gotten a bit bolder about folding what he calls "liberal points of view" into a mix that he describes as "realfair and balanced," but he understands why the paper may have drifted from its progressive moorings: "When anybody disagrees with the right, they can generate thousands of e-mails to an editor. And that's very intimidating."

For his part, Hart shrugs off such tactics and speaks his mind -- something he's done to a greater degree than most politicians throughout his career. But such autonomy came at a cost, according to Mike Medavoy, a Hollywood executive who served as the financial co-chairman of Hart's 1984 presidential bid. In You're Only as Good as Your Next One, his 2002 autobiography (penned with Josh Young), Medavoy suggested that Hart's 1988 bid for the White House might not have gone down with the Monkey Business if it weren't for certain aspects of his personality. "Gary was a loner in Congress," he wrote, "and his overly cerebral nature alienated some people." He concluded that Hart "has a brilliant mind but has not been able to fully contribute to the country he loves, which is a tragedy."

Patrick Merewether

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Predictably, Hart doesn't buy this theory, in part because his contributions continue through his books, his upcoming UCD course, his involvement in contemporary politics (he recently endorsed Bill Ritter's gubernatorial push) and appearances during which he espouses his principles to a new generation. "I think young people are, by and large, idealistic," he says, "and they want to find a way to do good for their country."

He'd be proud to think that his example might inspire such youths -- but when it comes to exchanging blog comments with them, that's where he draws the line.