Civility’s art of listening

In the history of American vice presidential debates, no line is more engraved in public memory than Lloyd Bentsen’s 1988 smackdown of Dan Quayle for trying to draw a personal parallel to John F. Kennedy.

The encounter on Tuesday between this year’s candidates for the second-highest federal office may have set a new and more virtuous reference point. During a segment on gun violence, Gov. Tim Walz noted that his teenage son had witnessed a shooting at a community center. “Tim, first of all, I didn’t know that,” replied his opponent, Sen. JD Vance. “And I’m sorry about that. ... It is awful.”

That moment of empathy capped a turn toward civility as refreshing as it was rare in national politics these days. American democracy, notes Harvard academic David Moss, is a relentless struggle of competing ideas “made productive, ultimately, by a deep faith in – and shared commitment to” the ideal of self-governance.

In their readiness to find agreement amid their policy differences, the two political opponents – and the moderators nudging them toward clarity and decorum – showed that the tensions inherent in democracy can be resolved in deliberation elevated by reason, humility, and respect.

Those qualities, in fact, are driving a vigorous self-reflection and renewal among some journalists – particularly at the local level – at a time when their industry is contracting and public trust in public institutions and the media is low. On average, two newspapers close every week in the United States. That has a civic corollary. A 2022 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey found that 71% of Americans who distrust national news outlets also have less faith in the country’s political process.

Yet that same survey found that more than half of respondents feel local journalists care about the communities they cover. A June summit of rural media hosted by the American Press Institute (API) drafted a new “playbook” for building that trust. In July, the public radio station WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hosted a forum to boost civic unity. It brought its listeners together to hear them out.

“Today, journalists are more intentionally activating their roles as community convener, conversation facilitator and resource connector,” write Samantha Ragland and Kevin Loker of API. That convening role, they note, requires humility, empathy, compassion, and hope. “For journalists to prioritize the people they serve, they’ll need to become experts at centering people: their voices and experiences, their relationships and connections.”

In an essay in Columbia Journalism Review, New York Times Chairman A.G. Sulzberger wrote last year that “Common facts, a shared reality, and a willingness to understand our fellow citizens across tribal lines are the most important ingredients in enabling a diverse, pluralistic society to come together to self-govern.”

Perhaps the vice presidential debate marked a turn toward calm deliberation over finger-pointing debate. As the candidates and moderators showed, when journalists coax listening over conflict, civility returns to civic discourse.