Kalb Report Fall Forums Feature Bob Costas, Bill O’Reilly

Professors Frank Sesno, Karl Inderfurth Instrumental in Creating Roundtable

By Julia Parmley

NBC and HBO sports¬caster Bob Costas and host of FOX News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor Bill O’Reilly discussed their careers in broadcasting with Marvin Kalb in front of capacity crowds of GW students and working journalists in the National Press Club Main Ballroom this fall. Costas’ Oct. 13 appearance and O’Reilly’s Sept. 27 appearance kicked off The Kalb Report’s 2008-09 series on democracy and the press.

A multiple award-winning sportscaster, Costas is best known for his work as NBC’s host of seven Olympic Games and his coverage of baseball. At the Oct. 13 Kalb Report, Costas explained how his love for baseball began with the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle as a child growing up in New York City. Costas delivered the eulogy at Mantle’s funeral in 1995, a low point for the sport then struggling to recover from the strike that forced the cancellation of the 1994 post season and World Series.

“Many people who loved the game felt alienated,” said Costas. “They felt their generational connection had been tethered. Whoever your player was, it represented your connection to the game and you felt a fondness about it. I think that’s missing today.”

Kalb and Costas discussed changes in the sport, including new pitches, rising ticket and food prices, and the high salaries of top players. Costas said the increasing commercialization of baseball and other sports can place the focus on revenues rather than the game itself. “Baseball was never just a game, but there was a time when the sports aspect was more significant than the business aspect,” he said. “Now, at best, they coexist.”

Costas also described his experience as host of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for NBC, which aired approximately 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage. Costas told Kalb that he believes the role of a sportscaster is a “hybrid” of straight reporting and drama, and stressed that an Olympic Games host must be prepared to cover any subject.

“You don’t have to know who the best springboard diver from Peru is, but you must know the history of the Olympics and the history of the host city,” he said. “You can’t be sure which two or three facts out of 100 will fit in just at that moment, so you have to be prepared with all of them.”
On the Sept. 27 Kalb Report held during GW’s Alumni Weekend, O’Reilly and Kalb discussed a variety of topics, including the role of “opinion journalism” and network competition. O’Reilly called television news a “tough industry” motivated by ratings and profit. “My program makes an enormous amount of money,” he said. “So that changes everything and makes it harder to basically do straight news or straight reporting, because I’ve got to deliver ratings and I’ve got to deliver money to my corporation.”

O’Reilly said he seeks to find the truth about controversial issues, and he does not expect everyone to agree with him. “I’m going to tell you, look, this is what I think,” he said. “No agenda…I’m trying to get information to the people so their lives can be better. That’s it.”
Now in its 15th season, The Kalb Report is produced by GW, in partnership with Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, and The National Press Club and is underwritten by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. Sixty-two Kalb Report forums have been produced since 1994.

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