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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Steve Sexton

Aired February 08, 2003 - 18:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: For decades, the University of California at Berkeley has been a hotbed of liberalism. But conservatives may have finally gained a foothold, with a new campus magazine called "California Patriot." The man behind says he's just hoping to strike some balance on the notoriously left-leaning campus. Here's what students had to say about the magazine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really wish we had a less ridiculous conservative voice on campus, more articulate and actually with the kind of sane sounding statements so I can get a good -- it's hard to find a good voice on the right at Cal, and I don't think they are representing it very well. I think they are just villanizing themselves and trying to upset people. And I respect that the Republicans and the conservatives need a community within a more leftist larger city, but I think that -- I just think they're absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do enjoy reading "The Patriot." I may not agree with everything that it says, but I find that it's -- it's very humorous, really witty writing, and a lot of the people have worked hard on it, and I really like reading the different points of view that they have here at Berkeley. I mean, a lot of the people here at Berkeley do have more leftist types of writing, so it's really a breath of fresh air to see something new once in a while. But most of the people here on the left aren't really respectful. They don't -- they claim to like free speech and free expression, but they, I mean, if Republicans are out here, they are really disrespectful to them.

Just the other day, sitting right by their table, I've seen people just walk up to them and scream at them for no reason at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: And we're joined now by Steve Sexton. He is editor in chief of "The California Patriot." Hi, Steve, good to see you.

STEVE SEXTON, CALIFORNIA PATRIOT: Hi, thanks for having me here.

LIN: Well, I just wanted to share a little bit of your editor's note in the February edition of "The California Patriot." You write that: "The Patriot has endeavored to make Berkeley safe for conservatives who continue to be spit on and shouted down." Is that true? Is that how you feel you are being treated on campus?

SEXTON: Yes, it is. Every day when we're out there passing out our magazine, we get a diverse set of reactions from people. Some people are glad to see us out there. I think we saw that earlier. Other people spit on us. We've had our people been spit on. They curse at us, and when we bring conservative speakers to campus, they are shouted down.

LIN: But you know, you knew the reputation that Berkeley had before you even applied. So why did you even decide to go to school there?

SEXTON: Because it has a reputation of being a very good school academically, and that was really the sole decision or the sole reasoning behind my decision.

LIN: Well, you know, political science professor, Bruce Caine (ph), do you know who he is on campus?

SEXTON: Yes, I do.

LIN: All right.

SEXTON: I've taken one of his classes.

LIN: Here's what he says about the people who work on "The California Patriot." He says: "The right wing kids come in with a chip on their shoulder. They're aware of being a minority opinion on the Berkeley campus, and it provides motivation for them." I think he was trying to be diplomatic there towards the end.

SEXTON: Well, he's a liberal professor, and so I'm not surprised to hear him to say that we have a chip on our shoulder, but we are aware that we are the underdogs and that we're fighting an uphill battle, and we know that what we're doing is important, because if it's true that students -- or that people develop their political ideologies when they're in college and the only voice on campus at UC Berkeley is a liberal voice, then it's imperative that we express an alternative view. And so, we know that what we're doing is important for the future of our country, and we know that we've got a tough battle.

And so, we are motivated.

LIN: Well, let me ask you this. There is -- I don't know if he's a columnist or just one of the contributors, Seth Norman, who in the February edition here, writes about Valentine's Day Econ 101. I wouldn't say it's exactly the most politically correct article, but he states, for example, when he talks about "diminishing marginal return," he actually goes through the effort to draw out this graph, and basically saying the law of diminishing marginal returns states that increasing the amount of one's input will ultimately lead to lower marginal returns and the expanding input. OK, more simply put, he says, "you start out spending X number of hours a week with your lady, catch a movie, et cetera. She starts demanding your input and for more time into the relationship, and before you know it, you're helping her pick out drapes, letting her know that she doesn't look fat and carrying her shopping bags through the mall." And his theory is the less time you spend with the girl, the more you're going to get in return. I mean, what kind of a message is that?

SEXTON: Well, I mean, that's a satire piece, and part of what we do is we do humor and satire, and Seth writes that column on a monthly basis, and a lot of it is kind of tongue-in-cheek humor. And it's not really representative what we're trying to do at UC Berkeley. It's just -- you know, we don't censor our writers. So it's not politically correct, but we don't try to be politically correct.

LIN: Well, the cover -- I am going to hold it up here and we may be showing it in some of the video, but the cover of the February issue, it plays off the black history month. There it is. "The Politics of Color: A Look at How and Why Liberals Continue to Exploit Race." You do not make any bones about the language, you know, that you use, the tone that you use in your magazine, and one of the articles, the perspectives that you had printed here talks about today blacks holding executive offices at major corporations, including our parent company, AOL Time Warner, and then you -- and then the article points out that indeed black people have made strides, based on their own hard work and sense of accomplishment -- you list Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, who have broken the color barrier.

But what the article does not acknowledge is that Condoleezza Rice recently, in talking about the University of Michigan brouhaha over admissions policies, she has fully stated that she has fully benefited from affirmative action. So is your coverage complete? I mean, do you feel that you present both sides, or is it strictly editorial and perspective from the right?

SEXTON: Well, I know that Condoleezza Rice has come out and kind of modified the stance of the administration, but I also know that she was carefully consulted by President Bush in determining his brief that he was going to submit to the Supreme Court. And so, our perspectives are from the right, but we do -- we do try and present an accurate view of how conservatives feel on these different issues, and I think affirmative action is a case where if you listened to people like U.C. region Ward Connerly, or a professor at Berkeley, John McWhorter, they'll tell you that the best message for blacks to hear is one of that they can achieve success through their own hard work, not one that they hear from the left, people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, that they are constantly victimized and that they need special exceptions, or subsidies to be able to make it in this world. That's simply not the world we're living in right now.

LIN: And you've even taken on your own university administration, you know, in the 9/11 ceremony that they wanted to play out on campus. "CalPatriot" made national headlines in your response to how that ceremony should actually go down. What happened?

SEXTON: Well, what we heard was that the university was planning -- this was about a week before the actual one-year anniversary of 9/11 -- that the university was planning on excluding anything patriotic, including the national anthem, red, white and blue, there wasn't going to be an American flag. It's just that they were not going to include it, but they were specifically excluded. They were going to have four singing groups performing throughout the day and they had all been told not to sing anything patriotic or religious, because it could be too political, too divisive, and they didn't want to show any support for the current administration in the White House.

And we wrote a story about it, and like you said, it made national headlines, and there was just national outrage over what the university was planning on doing. The chancellor was forced to come out in a press conference, back pedal, and say, OK, we will pass out red, white and blue ribbons, we will sing the national anthem. And so, by exposing some of the anti-American behavior that exists at UC Berkeley, we were able to at least ensure that the 9/11 ceremony would be on par with similar ceremonies throughout the country.

LIN: Well, you know, Steve Sexton, I think this is not the last we're going to be hearing from you or your magazine. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEXTON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 8, 2003 - 18:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: For decades, the University of California at Berkeley has been a hotbed of liberalism. But conservatives may have finally gained a foothold, with a new campus magazine called "California Patriot." The man behind says he's just hoping to strike some balance on the notoriously left-leaning campus. Here's what students had to say about the magazine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really wish we had a less ridiculous conservative voice on campus, more articulate and actually with the kind of sane sounding statements so I can get a good -- it's hard to find a good voice on the right at Cal, and I don't think they are representing it very well. I think they are just villanizing themselves and trying to upset people. And I respect that the Republicans and the conservatives need a community within a more leftist larger city, but I think that -- I just think they're absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do enjoy reading "The Patriot." I may not agree with everything that it says, but I find that it's -- it's very humorous, really witty writing, and a lot of the people have worked hard on it, and I really like reading the different points of view that they have here at Berkeley. I mean, a lot of the people here at Berkeley do have more leftist types of writing, so it's really a breath of fresh air to see something new once in a while. But most of the people here on the left aren't really respectful. They don't -- they claim to like free speech and free expression, but they, I mean, if Republicans are out here, they are really disrespectful to them.

Just the other day, sitting right by their table, I've seen people just walk up to them and scream at them for no reason at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: And we're joined now by Steve Sexton. He is editor in chief of "The California Patriot." Hi, Steve, good to see you.

STEVE SEXTON, CALIFORNIA PATRIOT: Hi, thanks for having me here.

LIN: Well, I just wanted to share a little bit of your editor's note in the February edition of "The California Patriot." You write that: "The Patriot has endeavored to make Berkeley safe for conservatives who continue to be spit on and shouted down." Is that true? Is that how you feel you are being treated on campus?

SEXTON: Yes, it is. Every day when we're out there passing out our magazine, we get a diverse set of reactions from people. Some people are glad to see us out there. I think we saw that earlier. Other people spit on us. We've had our people been spit on. They curse at us, and when we bring conservative speakers to campus, they are shouted down.

LIN: But you know, you knew the reputation that Berkeley had before you even applied. So why did you even decide to go to school there?

SEXTON: Because it has a reputation of being a very good school academically, and that was really the sole decision or the sole reasoning behind my decision.

LIN: Well, you know, political science professor, Bruce Caine (ph), do you know who he is on campus?

SEXTON: Yes, I do.

LIN: All right.

SEXTON: I've taken one of his classes.

LIN: Here's what he says about the people who work on "The California Patriot." He says: "The right wing kids come in with a chip on their shoulder. They're aware of being a minority opinion on the Berkeley campus, and it provides motivation for them." I think he was trying to be diplomatic there towards the end.

SEXTON: Well, he's a liberal professor, and so I'm not surprised to hear him to say that we have a chip on our shoulder, but we are aware that we are the underdogs and that we're fighting an uphill battle, and we know that what we're doing is important, because if it's true that students -- or that people develop their political ideologies when they're in college and the only voice on campus at UC Berkeley is a liberal voice, then it's imperative that we express an alternative view. And so, we know that what we're doing is important for the future of our country, and we know that we've got a tough battle.

And so, we are motivated.

LIN: Well, let me ask you this. There is -- I don't know if he's a columnist or just one of the contributors, Seth Norman, who in the February edition here, writes about Valentine's Day Econ 101. I wouldn't say it's exactly the most politically correct article, but he states, for example, when he talks about "diminishing marginal return," he actually goes through the effort to draw out this graph, and basically saying the law of diminishing marginal returns states that increasing the amount of one's input will ultimately lead to lower marginal returns and the expanding input. OK, more simply put, he says, "you start out spending X number of hours a week with your lady, catch a movie, et cetera. She starts demanding your input and for more time into the relationship, and before you know it, you're helping her pick out drapes, letting her know that she doesn't look fat and carrying her shopping bags through the mall." And his theory is the less time you spend with the girl, the more you're going to get in return. I mean, what kind of a message is that?

SEXTON: Well, I mean, that's a satire piece, and part of what we do is we do humor and satire, and Seth writes that column on a monthly basis, and a lot of it is kind of tongue-in-cheek humor. And it's not really representative what we're trying to do at UC Berkeley. It's just -- you know, we don't censor our writers. So it's not politically correct, but we don't try to be politically correct.

LIN: Well, the cover -- I am going to hold it up here and we may be showing it in some of the video, but the cover of the February issue, it plays off the black history month. There it is. "The Politics of Color: A Look at How and Why Liberals Continue to Exploit Race." You do not make any bones about the language, you know, that you use, the tone that you use in your magazine, and one of the articles, the perspectives that you had printed here talks about today blacks holding executive offices at major corporations, including our parent company, AOL Time Warner, and then you -- and then the article points out that indeed black people have made strides, based on their own hard work and sense of accomplishment -- you list Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, who have broken the color barrier.

But what the article does not acknowledge is that Condoleezza Rice recently, in talking about the University of Michigan brouhaha over admissions policies, she has fully stated that she has fully benefited from affirmative action. So is your coverage complete? I mean, do you feel that you present both sides, or is it strictly editorial and perspective from the right?

SEXTON: Well, I know that Condoleezza Rice has come out and kind of modified the stance of the administration, but I also know that she was carefully consulted by President Bush in determining his brief that he was going to submit to the Supreme Court. And so, our perspectives are from the right, but we do -- we do try and present an accurate view of how conservatives feel on these different issues, and I think affirmative action is a case where if you listened to people like U.C. region Ward Connerly, or a professor at Berkeley, John McWhorter, they'll tell you that the best message for blacks to hear is one of that they can achieve success through their own hard work, not one that they hear from the left, people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, that they are constantly victimized and that they need special exceptions, or subsidies to be able to make it in this world. That's simply not the world we're living in right now.

LIN: And you've even taken on your own university administration, you know, in the 9/11 ceremony that they wanted to play out on campus. "CalPatriot" made national headlines in your response to how that ceremony should actually go down. What happened?

SEXTON: Well, what we heard was that the university was planning -- this was about a week before the actual one-year anniversary of 9/11 -- that the university was planning on excluding anything patriotic, including the national anthem, red, white and blue, there wasn't going to be an American flag. It's just that they were not going to include it, but they were specifically excluded. They were going to have four singing groups performing throughout the day and they had all been told not to sing anything patriotic or religious, because it could be too political, too divisive, and they didn't want to show any support for the current administration in the White House.

And we wrote a story about it, and like you said, it made national headlines, and there was just national outrage over what the university was planning on doing. The chancellor was forced to come out in a press conference, back pedal, and say, OK, we will pass out red, white and blue ribbons, we will sing the national anthem. And so, by exposing some of the anti-American behavior that exists at UC Berkeley, we were able to at least ensure that the 9/11 ceremony would be on par with similar ceremonies throughout the country.

LIN: Well, you know, Steve Sexton, I think this is not the last we're going to be hearing from you or your magazine. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEXTON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com