Alex Drogseth

The actions and attitudes of politicians and media professionals alike contribute to a troubling political climate in Washington, said former White House press secretary Mike McCurry – a man who gained experience with that dynamic while serving the Clinton administration.

“We have a (political) atmosphere bordering on crisis,” he said to over 400 students, faculty and community members Tuesday night in Schofield Auditorium at the eighth annual Ann Devroy Memorial Forum.

McCurry, who worked opposite Ann Devroy for decades, said he had developed a meaningful professional relationship with the Washington Post reporter and UW-Eau Claire alumna.

Prior to McCurry’s address, senior DJ Slater was announced as the 2005 Ann Devroy Fellow, which includes a three-week internship at The Washington Post as well as a summer internship at a Wisconsin newspaper.

In his presentation, “Spinners and Snarks: Troubled Times in the Press-Politician Relationship and What to Do About It,” McCurry said both politicians and members of the media have placed the country in an information and communication gridlock.

The media’s focus on the nation’s ongoing “soap opera” has been a damaging trend in American politics, he said, alluding to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the O.J. Simpson trial, and extreme partisanship on Capitol Hill.

“We need to focus on the big ticket issues,” he said. “They define what’s going on in Washington.”

With increasing friction between Washington bureaucrats and reporters on the political beat, the American public is getting turned off, he said.

Most people are moderates, McCurry said, and with a nation that is being so focused on strong partisanship, the majority of people are not satisfied, he said.

Christine Webster, a public relations major and a part-time non-traditional student who works in the Office of Multicultural Affairs said she agreed with many of the things McCurry said.

“It just reinforces the responsibility we have as citizens to not only hold our politicians accountable, but also journalists accountable,” she said.

She said citizens need reliable information to function in American democracy.

“We want to be given the information that is true and accurate, so we can make informed decisions about how we are governed,” she said.

McCurry spoke fondly of his relationship with Ann Devroy, a 1970 Eau Claire alumna who served as a White House correspondent for the Washington Post from 1985 until her death in 1997 due to cancer. He also expressed gratitude for being chosen to speak at the forum that bears her name.

“I’m deeply appreciative that I’m the first non-journalist, although I think Ann would have laughed,” McCurry said, emphasizing that they “really had an amicable and adversarial relationship.”

“If you (were) a press secretary, to know Ann was not to love her,” he said. “Her ferociousness and relentlessness made her enormously fun to work with.”

– Brian Reisinger contributed to this report.