|
|
| |
| |
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Robert L. Bartley
Robert L. Bartley
December 3, 2003
Awarded by
George W. Bush
Robert L. Bartley is one of the most influential journalists in American history. As a reporter, author, editorial page editor, and columnist, he helped shape the times in which we live. A champion of free markets, individual liberty, and the values necessary for a free society, his writings have been characterized by profound insights, passionate convictions, a commitment to democratic principles, and an unyielding optimism in America. The United States honors him for his contributions to American journalism and to the intellectual and political life of our Nation.
Statement on Bob Bartley
December 10, 2003
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Bob Bartley was a giant of journalism. His extraordinary contributions to America as an author, editor, and columnist helped shape our times. I was pleased to award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our highest civil honor, in recognition of his enormous impact on the intellectual and political life of our Nation. Laura joins me in sending condolences to Edith and his daughters, family, colleagues, and friends.
###
 In January 2003 Robert L. Bartley became The Wall Street Journal's editor emeritus after more than 30 years guiding the paper's editorial pages. He is author of the weekly "Thinking Things Over" column, which has been written by three previous Journal editors, starting in 1934.
Over his career, Mr. Bartley won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, a Gerald Loeb Award and a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America. He is author of a book on Reagan administration economic policy, "The Seven Fat Years: And How to Do It Again," published in 1992 by the Free Press.
Mr. Bartley joined the Journal in 1962 and served as a staff reporter in the Chicago and Philadelphia bureaus before joining the editorial page staff in New York in 1964. He was appointed editor of the editorial page in 1972, editor of the Journal in 1979 and a vice president of Dow Jones & Co. in 1983. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Iowa State University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin. He has received honorary degrees from Macalester College, Babson College and Adelphi University.
Wall Street Journal editor dies at 66
By Ralph Z. Hallow
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 11, 2003
Former Wall Street Journal editorial-page editor Robert L. Bartley, described by President Bush as one of the most influential journalists in the country, died of cancer in a New York hospital yesterday. He was 66.
Over the past 30 years, Mr. Bartley had shaped the Journal editorial pages into a daily, highly entertaining classroom for already educated readers.
He further advanced their knowledge of economics, domestic policy and world affairs through a writing style that made it seem as if he and his editorial staff were sitting down to chat, and even share a few laughs, with the reader over breakfast.
"Bob Bartley's legacy will endure, because without him, there would have been no Reagan revolution," said former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, a longtime friend and admirer.
As the largely anonymous purveyor of clearly worded, often-biting opinion, Mr. Bartley advanced that revolution, the hallmark of which was sweeping cuts in individual and corporate tax rates that many think produced the longest economic growth in the country's history.
In the 1970s, he used his newspaper's editorial pages to explain the advantages of what came to be called "supply-side" economic theory, which held that lower tax rates yield higher tax revenues, as well as faster economic growth and more jobs.
President Reagan embraced the theory, as has Mr. Bush.
Last week, Mr. Bush called Mr. Bartley "one of the most influential journalists in American history."
"He helped shape the times in which we live," said Mr. Bush in awarding Mr. Bartley the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian award in the nation.
Elected politicians and those who served them read Mr. Bartley and didn't mind acknowledging that their policies and actions often were influenced as a result.
"I doubt there is a thinking conservative under 60 whose understanding of conservatism, free markets and liberty has not been guided or shaped by Bartley's writings over the decades," said Tony Blankley, editorial-page editor of The Washington Times and former aide to Mr. Reagan and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"Bob was a personal friend and professional colleague who helped conceptualize our Index of Economic Freedom," said Heritage Foundation President Edwin J. Feulner. "His commitment to the free society was extraordinary, and the Heritage board of trustees unanimously recognized his contribution by awarding our Clare Boothe Luce medal to him next Monday. We mourn his passing."
His views, while always emphasizing freedom, were not predictable. For example, he infuriated some fellow conservatives and gladdened others in 1984 by endorsing the idea of a constitutional amendment establishing "open borders" for the United States. For Mr. Bartley, the free flow of people across borders in response to market forces was as important as the free flow of ideas and products.
A strong supporter of Israel and a friend -- and on some issues an ally -- of prominent neo-conservatives such as Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, he nonetheless abjured, as he put it, "the 'national greatness' crusade" of two editors of the Weekly Standard magazine.
In 1980, his editorials earned him the Pulitzer. He authored a book about the Reagan economic policy, "The Seven Fat Years: And How to Do It Again."
When Paul Gigot succeeded him at the editorial-page helm in 2001, Mr. Bartley continued to write a weekly column, "Thinking Things Over."
Freedom's Best Friend
Bob Bartley was conservative when that took courage.
Thursday, December 11, 2003 12:01 a.m.
What a great man Bob Bartley was. He had guts and he was honest and independent and he worked hard. He was living proof that journalism doesn't have to be a vanity production. It can be big. It can change history. He did.
It is hard to convey, in the age of the conservative ascendancy, what it was like 30 and 40 years ago for conservatives of Bartley's generation. There was no Rush, and no hundred conservative magazines, and no top 10 conservative radio shows and no cable. It took guts to stand where you stood. There was a Democratic Party lurching left and a Republican Party dominated by pale and chubby men who had reluctantly or eagerly embraced liberalism because, as they used to say, they knew what time it was. They knew liberalism was the unstoppable future, and they understood that a good blow-dry haircut is more or less what you need to lead in the modern era. They liked being liked by what was then Georgetown.
There were a few strange-o's like Barry Goldwater and his fans, and Reagan running for governor out there in California, but otherwise nothing was happening within the conservative movement. As a matter of fact the phrase "conservative movement" didn't exist, because there really wasn't one. Only hardy Bill Buckley's witty and impassioned National Review, which was not only the gold standard but just about the only conservative organ grinding out ideas and observations.
Until Bob Bartley. And the cluster of economists, firebrands and policy intellectuals who gathered to him, and who lit the pages of The Wall Street Journal's editorial section with a light so bright it became a beacon. Under Bartley, true freedom of speech came and reigned in a great modern American newspaper. The new supply-side economic theory? Tell us your facts. An argument for the end of post-Vietnam era American defeatism? You can talk about it here. The culture getting coarser? Pull up a chair. You didn't have to be a standard doctrinaire liberal to find a voice here.
That sounds like common sense. But it was an achievement. It was Bartley's.
A s a personality I've never seen such a disjunction between manner and status. He did not take himself seriously but took the great issues that roiled our country seriously, and he took it on himself to be a combatant, and then a leader. And he was honest about it. Startlingly honest. He didn't respect liberal journalists who made believe they weren't liberal, and he wasn't going to go that route. He declared what he was--a supply-sider, a conservative, a believer in the legitimacy of American prestige and power--and allowed the reader to judge his views and opinions through an honest lens. That was something kind of new, too.
He was by nature mild, soft-spoken, and possibly shy. I was never sure. When you sat and talked with him he was direct, humorous, probing, unself-conscious. That doesn't sound shy. At the same time he maintained a certain reserve and wasn't given to the spontaneous spilling of emotions, secrets, insights or gossip. I always thought it interesting that he didn't care if anyone knew who he was. He didn't care if you were impressed. Part of this, I think, is due to the fact that he thought that if the waiter in the restaurant didn't know he was the great Bob Bartley, editor of The Wall Street Journal, he'd have a more authentic experience with the waiter. And if you had to have an experience it might as well be an authentic one. I also think he was constitutionally incapable of vanity.
At the same time he knew who he was. (Maybe that's why he didn't have to have strangers know.) He didn't care if he was at the hot party or meeting or event. When I spent time with him and his wife at the 2000 Republican Convention, we had dinner in an outdoor pizza place, with paper plates and plastic forks. He sat and quietly watched important journalists run by on their way to the convention floor to see the action. I don't think Bob thought that's where the action really was. I think he thought that in his head was where the action was. I think he was right.
He was unillusioned and yet optimistic, felt human agency could change a great deal, and loved America in a way so Midwestern and ingrained that he never had to mention it or show it. It was just there, like his soft gray hair.
He was one great man. He was a great American. The Founders would have loved him. So many of us are grateful that George W. Bush, earlier this month, gave Bob the Presidential Medal of Freedom , our country's highest civilian honor. Well given. Freedom never had a better friend.
Ms. Peggy Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal
The president honors Robert Bartley, "one of the most influential journalists in American history."
(Editor's note: The office of the White House press secretary issued this statement earlier today. Mr. Bartley was editor of The Wall Street Journal until 2002 and became editor emeritus Jan. 1.)
Yesterday, December 3, 2003, the President informed Robert L. Bartley of his decision to award Mr. Bartley the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the Nation's highest civil honor. Bob Bartley passed away at the age of 66 from cancer on December 10, 2003, just one week after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He will be missed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Medal History
