You know, it just came to me one day. I'm--I'm usually terrible at titles. And the genesis of this book was an editor of mine, with whom I was having...

If you are a right-winger, are you a reactionary? Are those terms fair?

Where do you live?

How long have you lived there?

Is that Charlie?

I--is it Ch--the son, Charlie, and the daughter, Sadie?

Where did Sadie--I know you talk about it in the book. Where'd she end up going to school?

Why did she pick Chicago?

Sadie didn't think it was so great, and so she challenged him and argued, and they had a very interesting back-and-forth. And she felt a place where...

Well, there's a regime of political correctness, which has kind of settled like a fog over all kinds of American institutions and particularly over...

1970. So I was there from '66 to '70, right in the heart of it.

Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Well, I didn't get into the--a couple other places I applied to. I ended up getting into a place called Carleton in Minnesota and Pomona in Southern...

I grew up in the New York suburbs, North Shore, New York.

The article itself, I guess, appeared in '74. It could have been '73, but I think it was '74.

New Times was a progressive, kind of hip magazine in the early '70s, for which I worked as an associate editor. And it had started in '73, right in...

You were liberal then?

Living in Richmond, graduated from college. Did you have master's degree?

Where?

So you're in Richmond and working for what?

Who was there with you?

So how'd you all end up in Richmond in the first place?

So here's Bill Scott--Congressman Bill Scott, from Virginia...

...Republican, and Bill Spong, senator from Virginia.

And you go off to do what?

I remember we--we had him on the cover, a caricature of him sweeping vast amounts of dirt under the--this carpet. I mean, it was up to the ceiling....

Well, I mean, the interviews were real. The things that--that--that people said about him were--were accurate.

I just--I--I just did not look for any exculpatory material. I mean, there--there's a certain way of--of--of eviscerating someone. If you want to make...

So a couple of years later, both Frank and I are at New Times magazine and we--we're getting--we were talking about the Bill Scott experience and how...

Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

You know, when you hear people talk about this--and I remember it. Here--anybody that lives in this town remembers this story. They always cite, `Can...

Were there any others, by the way, you went to school with at Columbia that we would know that went on in journalism?

Well, settle this discussion that we have on this network all the time. Are all reporters liberals?

Why is it?

When did you change, if you did change?

Now this was a period, in the early '80s, when the women's magazines were not only saying that day care was an acceptable alternative to--to stay-at-home...

So I began doing standard research; I started calling child-care professionals, visiting day-care centers. And, to my surprise, most of the child-care...

And it was then that I--I had the first inkling that--that there were certain orthodoxies that simply could not be questioned, certainly not in the...

I--I'm not all that conservative. I mean, I--I like to think I'm commonsensical. In fact, I was talking with a friend of mine, and--and what--what he...

In terms of feminism, I remember back when--when I was working for New Times, as a matter of fact, in the early '70s, how we would laugh when conservatives...

No.

Yeah. I tried to make them bleed in--into one another kind of smoothly.

Well, the Nexus, for people who aren't familiar with it, it--it's a Web tool, which enables one to call up old articles at, basically, the touch of...

He's the guy at The Post...

...I was referring to. Yeah.

Right.

Well, that's the way journalists, by and large, see it. I mean, they--there's nothing i--in their minds mean-spirited about saying that.

Right. Same thing. I mean, it is the prism through which they see the world, that they consider themselves moderate. They consider what mo--most of...

Well, I was comparing--I--I used Nexus on my own to dredge up the old Dan Quayle `potato' thing and see how that was covered vs. a s--a similar--it...

Shusher, Shusher. Either he'd never heard a sports report, or he'd--or he'd just read it from the page or some--anyway, it was--it was an embarrassment...

Right. Right.

Well, it proved that, you know, Quayle was easy to laugh at. If you're looking to laugh at someone, it's easy to find ways to--ways to make fun of--fun...

Yeah, that's...

That's embarrassing. Well, I must say I--I went after The Times quite vigorously as kind of the repository of all things evil for culture, and I predicted...

Well, what's particularly--what ends up being laughable--I mean, I really have egg on my face and--not bad egg, but it--the book is actually reviewed...

Well, I--my feelings about The New York Times are pretty complex. I used to write for The Times Magazine a fair amount. You know, classically, The Times...

When you were writing for The New York Times Magazine, did they think you were a liberal?

And now that you're conservative, or whatever you label yourself--not a liberal--what do they--how do they treat you now?

What do you--how do you make your living now?

Your wife, Priscilla, what does she do for a living?

Now is she conservative?

What's the `scum group'?

In the middle of the book again, where--the nexus area and all--you have--it--it actually only amounts to two pages. It's a pop quiz: Choose The Most...

What--how--where'd you get this idea?

Well, here's one of them. This is the third one. `If we'--this is the quote from one of the anchormen.

"If we could be 100 as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in the White House, we'd take it right now and walk away winners. Thank you...

Who--who said that?

And then another one is, `Do you think this is a party that is dominated by men and this convention is dominated by men as well? Do you think before...

Excuse me. Who was that?

No, it was Brokaw.

And then you have the thing that was quoted quite often about the--Peter Jennings from 1994.

"Some thoughts on these angry voters. Ask parents of a two-year-old and they can tell you about the temper tantrums." That was--what was that from?...

Do you think it matters what the--the politics of these anchormen or these publications--politics is or not?

And by the way, one of the wonderful things about--about your network is exactly that, that people do not hear what they perceive to be biased news....

Yes. Yes, yes. Well, yeah, you're starting off with a very easy one because I was giving people a break. This was--I was talking about the ignorance...

Yeah. Easy stuff. I mean, I was not trying to trick anybody. I just wanted a rudimentary sense of history and civics.

Well, that's part of what I was talking about. You know, this idea to just sign up as many people as you can and that--that's good citizenship. I think--I...

Yeah.

Well, I was talking about one of the aspects--one of the many aspects that I deride in the women's movement is--is the fact that they've promoted emotion...

It was about 10 or 12 years ago.

Didn't go so well.

Well, first of all, I--I think the public and community wasn't really open to it. It was before the, you know, Bill Bennett's book about values took...

I spoke to--well, among the peo--let me see, I spoke to Bill Fulbright...

Former senator from Arkansas. I spoke to Hal Roach, the creator of "The Little Rascals," the great film producer. I spoke to a number of others. I mean,...

Well, he was a Democrat from Arkansas. He was much beloved during the--during the Vietnam War by--by those of us who were against the war because he...

Right.

Right.

Oh, he wasn't hard to find. He was listed in--in the Washington phone directory. He was still practicing law then or he was kind of a figurehead at...

I came here. And, you know, we spent a good half day together and I did--did several hours of tape on him.

Yeah. I--I--I expected that he would really be reflective and kind of quietly thoughtful about--about mistakes he had made, about things he had done...

Well, it's something I've tried to fight. I mean, it's certainly--certainly something I recognize in myself. I think with the coming of children, it...

Just finished. In fact, she came down with me today. She's visiting friends here.

Well, Sadie is not particularly political, although she's very commonsensical. She--she did say at one point, `I--I wish you and mama weren't so conservative...

She loves it. She loves it. She feels at home there. She feels there are a lot of people like her.

Charlie's 15.

Just finishing his sophomore year.

Yeah. Well, we'll see--see how that plays out.

Well, I wouldn't say he's political in the way that we are, but he is--is very strong-willed and gets in trouble for--with a per--for arguing sometimes....

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Well, what it was--I--I did a little section on the Titanic. I was talking about the whole subject of honor and what has happened to honor in this culture....

I think--I think either option three or four.

Or disguised self as woman.

Disguised self as a woman was kind of reserved, in my mind, for Bill Clinton. But Teddy Kennedy I certainly don't think would have shown any courage...

I don't--I don't recall if I used that word. I certainly wouldn't take it back if I did.

I think--I think he's a so--I think he has great charm, let's give him that, as opposed to his wife and Al Gore. I think he's clearly likeable and quite...

Well, in the ways people have talked about a lot in terms of children as a--as a model. You know, this is a man who had--the chief law enforcement officer...

Well, it goes to what you were asking before about conservatives and--and whether we feel beleaguered in--in the culture. I think we do. That--that's...

You even have a guide in here for people who--well, you tell them what you read--you and Priscilla read. I assume that's also meant as a guide for others...

Yes.

So what do you get out of The Weekly Standard?

The others that you list are The American Spectator, Commentary, Heterodoxy, the National Review and The Wall Street Journal.

If you just spend your life reading those publications, what kind of a view of the world do you get...

...and is it smart to just read those?

I--is there enough choice in this country for people who don't want to read the liberal publications?

Now you lived in Paris for a while. When and for what reason?

And what'd you live there for the second time?

Now you--you write about one your favorite people in history and--that you've been around and knew, Wayne Morris.

And you write about honor. What's the honor thing that you're interested in?

He write--he tried to reclaim that same seat that had been taken from him by Bob Packwood, interestingly enough, in 1974 and was running in the Democratic...

You write about Mike Wallace and his interview with Ward Connerly.

Why?

And Wallace did a job on him in a--in a "60 Minutes" profile, a kind of nasty job in which he was belittling him and questions were disrespectful. He...

I think it is profitable to one's career to tear down the powerful and particularly certain kinds of powerful. I don't think there's any question. You...

Well, the--the point I was making there was--was here were four guys who suffered major career crises. They each said something which was hugely embarrassing...

In Al Campanis' case, here was a guy who was known to be a friend of black ball players and--I mean, a professional friend. He had brought in more blacks...

Well, that is, of course, the famous letter that appeared in Ken Burns' Civil War documentary out--from the soldier who was about to die on the battlefield...

Right.

Yeah. I mean, as I say, most of my friends--I think the more--the more--the more thoughtful of them have kind of moved in the same direction. I mean,...

No. Frank and I had--had a pretty unpleasant falling out.

It was a combination of things. I mean, it wa--it was--it was--it--it's complicated, but it wa--it was more personal I would--I would say than political.

Well, I--I--one has certain theories but, you know, that--they would probably sound unkind to those people. I mean, look--I mean, for one thing, it...

You said in 1992, you voted for Ross Perot.

The first time in your life you had not voted for a Democrat.

Why did you vote for him?

Where is honor for you today in politics?

This cover you got here shows you here with a moustache, it shows you here with a full beard. Where--where were those two pictures taken?

This is the cover of the book. It's called "How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" by Harry Stein, our guest. And we thank you very...