Bury’s lecture on Presidential Politics and the Press in the Student Center Gallery Lounge was part of the University Honors Lecture Series.

Bury graduated from SIUC with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1975 and now covers Washington politics and the government for Nightline.

Bury said the relationship between reporters and politicians resembles a bad sexual experience because they both use each other, there is no emotion involved in the relationship and they both get something out of it.

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He said the relationship also is adversarial.

We often don’t like each other, Bury said. But we need each other.

Bury said politicians need reporters, and the job of the presidential candidate, the campaign and the campaign’s staff is to manipulate reporters and the media.

Bury said when he covered Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, he felt as if he were traveling in a bubble.

It was a surreal experience, he said.

Bury said President Clinton has a characteristic flaw that has followed him since Gennifer Flowers said she and Clinton had an affair for years. Bury said Clinton lied to the media about dodging the draft a week after the Flowers story and since becoming president, has not met any of his campaign promises.

Clinton has fundamental problems, Bury said. Clinton is so eager to please, he will say anything to please anyone in front of him.

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Bury said the job of the media is not to fall for the politician’s manipulation even though they need the campaigns and politicians for stories.

Reporters have a bias for a good story. We are story-driven and don’t much care if it hurts Clinton or Pat Buchanan, he said. All we can do is strive to be fair. But, above all, we are fiends for a good story.

Bury said the media is not filled with liberal bias because if it were, Clinton would not be complaining. He said House Speaker Newt Gingrich also complains about media coverage.

If we weren’t doing a good job, both sides wouldn’t be squealing, he said.

Bury said there is more media than ever before, and they are doing a better job covering stories. He said it is not the media’s fault that people are not voting or getting to the polls, because the press provides so much information about candidates and the issues.

The media do not exist in a vacuum. It responds to viewers’ choices, Bury said. If Americans aren’t making informed choices, perhaps they should blame themselves. It’s a lot of work to be a voter. It’s a hassle.

There are a zillion viewpoints in the media, and you are free to choose your poison, he said.

However, Bury said the media contributed to the problem of the Oklahoma City bombing because there was not enough media attention paid to the militia before the bombing. He said politicians also ignored the militias.

He also said Nightline tried to cover the O.J. Simpson trial without any sensationalism, but every time it did a Simpson story, the ratings were high.

It was not the best moment for American journalism, Bury said.

Bury said a typical day at Nightline consists of a meeting at 11 a.m. in which the staff argues about what Nightline should cover that night.

Then Ted Koppel comes in at 2 o’clock, and we do the story he wants to do, he said.

When asked by an audience member if working at a small, local network was better than a national station, Bury said he is having a lot more fun now.

Working for Koppel is better than working for Ted Baxter on Channel 22, he said.