NPR Supreme Court correspondent gives talk at IU Auditorium

For National Public Radio U.S. Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg, the greatest issue this presidential election has nothing to do with oil, the economy or war.

“The message to voters is clear,” she said. “This election could determine if the court swings sharply to the right or not.”

Totenberg spoke at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the IU Auditorium as the second speaker in the fall School of Journalism Speaker Series.

She spoke about the balance of the Supreme Court and the current state of journalism.

Totenberg, who has been reporting on law and the Supreme Court for NPR since 1975, used her expertise to examine how the presidential election could affect the shape of the court for years.

She explained the Supreme Court’s most liberal justices are also its oldest – all well into their 70s.

A McCain presidency would solidify a conservative majority for years, she said. An Obama win would, at the most, keep the court divided.

“President Bush has moved the court significantly in a conservative direction,” she said. “The next president will either reserve the balance or move it in a still more conservative direction.”

Totenberg said today’s court was one of the most conservative in history and there hasn’t been a truly liberal court in almost 40 years.

“Right now, the Supreme Court is light years more conservative than it was in the ’70s and ‘80s,” she said.

Now the court is on an “ideological knife’s edge,” Totenberg said.

She added the upcoming election will help to determine future rulings on issues such as abortion, privacy rights, affirmative action, property rights and environmental laws, among many others.

The audience members included some of Totenberg’s followers like Kevin Dogan, 54, of Monroe County, who is a frequent NPR listener.

“She was very good, and she usually is,” Dogan said, “especially concerning the court’s decision and help making sense of them.”

Totenberg spoke for about 30 minutes, and afterward the conversation shifted to her thoughts about the national media.

Many of the attendees, like sophomore Victoria Daley, were journalism students who attended for class or just personal interest.

“She’d be a good role-model for students,” Daley said of Totenberg’s neutrality.

High-school student Lauren Leason came all the way from Columbus, Ind., with her mom and dad to hear Totenberg speak. Leason’s mom, Kathleen, said she was glad to see Totenberg’s neutrality in her reporting.

Totenberg talked about the need for journalists to be committed to fairness, not to one side of an issue.

“I got into this business because I wanted to be a witness to history and explain complicated things to people,” she said. “If I wanted to be involved in the cause, I would be doing something different.”

She said television personalities like Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann were committed to specific sides of issues.

“I’m not involved in the cause,” she said. “I think there are rules. You can’t be totally unbiased, but what you can be is fair.”