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American Morning

Jeff Greenfield Looks at News

Aired May 29, 2002 - 08:18   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is just back from Rome, where he met privately with Pope John Paul II. The president told the pope he is very concerned about what the sex abuse scandal is doing to the standing of the Catholic Church in America. The pope says he has faith in the spiritual resources of American Catholics. The Catholic vote, of course, is very important to President Bush.

And CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield joins me now.

Good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: Now, you weren't surprised the president broached this issue, even though the Vatican said stay away from it?

GREENFIELD: I guess I was a little surprised because the White House had said before the trip that the president didn't plan to raise the question. But I think if I can just put a political prism on this for a second, this president has worked very hard at close ties with the Catholic Church. He meets with the hierarchy in every city he goes to. Karl Rove, his political adviser who's on this trip, has made no secret about the fact that if George W. Bush can get more Catholic votes -- this was true of Nixon and Reagan -- when Republicans can shrink or eliminate the Democratic lead among Catholic voters, they win and sometimes win big.

What was interesting here is he's going to speak to a pope about an issue where American Catholics, the people he wants to appeal to politically, are more angry at the scandals than the rest of us, because it's been their kids and their church. An interesting political tightrope.

ZAHN: Why don't we look at, take a look at some of the latest polling statistics that really reinforce what you've just said. In the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, 73 percent of the respondents found that the Catholic church had done a bad job in dealing with the problem of sexual abuse.

Now, how big of a factor is this Catholic dissatisfaction with the church's handling of the scandal in how that impacted on what the president had to say to the pope?

GREENFIELD: Well, again, if -- I've said this before: Normally, an ethnic group in America, when it gets into a fight, it's often with another group, tribal group -- black, white, Jewish, Christian, whatever. In this case, the people most angry at what the church has done or not done are American Catholics. So in effect, George W. Bush, who is not a Catholic, is carrying a message to the pope from Catholics within the country that he governs.

So at one and same time he wants to be respectful to the Catholic hierarchy, but also reflect the fact that he's aware of the enormous discontent. And it's just, it's a very unusual situation for an American president to be in.

ZAHN: And what did you make of the response of the pope that he had faith in the resources and the fundamental convictions of Catholics in America to weather this crisis?

GREENFIELD: Well, I think, you know...

ZAHN: There's nothing. He couldn't say anything else, right?

GREENFIELD: No, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. It's the dog that didn't bark. There's absolutely nothing surprising about that at all.

ZAHN: I know another thing you're not terribly surprised by is this controversy over steroid use by major league baseball players. You see this very much as a reflection of how drenched our culture is with drugs.

GREENFIELD: Well, there are two quick things that are worth mentioning, and I don't mean to sound too cynical. But first, America is a drug-drenched culture. We put fidgety kids in the classroom on Ritalin. We put the unhappy college kids on Prozac. Look at the ads on this or any other news network from morning to night, literally from top to bottom. You've got a problem, you take a pill, right?

ZAHN: Right.

GREENFIELD: OK. That's the first thing.

The second, the idea that cheating in sports is going to shock us and to loosen our innocence, comes under the heading of "for heaven's sakes." You know, every time a college kid -- first of all, we recruit kids to go to college who can't read because they can play sports. When they commit an alleged crime like, say, rape or aggravated assault, the alumni want to know is he going to be out of jail in time on bail for the big game?

ZAHN: Sure.

GREENFIELD: And so the idea that, you know, look, when the soapbox derby was fixed some years back, that's when I think you drew the line. We're going to find out sooner rather than later that a lot more pitchers are doctoring the ball, you know, which has been outlawed in sports for about 75 years.

In sports, like the rest of culture, people will go for an edge. And the last part about this is what Mr. Verducci said earlier. You know, the owners and the people who promote baseball want to see people hit 500 foot home runs even if they're a 180-pound second basemen, you know, who used to maybe hit three home runs in their career.

So forgive me for being a little cynical, but this is like a small part of a much, much bigger problem that we're not very good at acknowledging.

ZAHN: Jeff Greenfield, thanks for dropping by.

GREENFIELD: Well, thanks.

ZAHN: What do you think of Brian Williams replacing Tom Brokaw in the year 2004? A major announcement yesterday. I think everybody kind of expected that to happen.

GREENFIELD: Yes, the...

ZAHN: A graceful exit on Tom Brokaw's part, no?

GREENFIELD: Absolutely. These three anchors have had -- the three anchors who are on the broadcasts have all been there for almost 20 years or more. It's a changing of the guard. It was done very well.

ZAHN: Jeff Greenfield, thanks.

GREENFIELD: OK.

ZAHN: See you later.

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