A Jewish Professor's Political Punditry: Fifty-Plus Years of Published Commentary by Ron Rubin

2. Postgraduate

12 2 Postgraduate In autumn of 1961, Rubin moved on to Brown University where he quickly earned his master’s degree. From 1962 to 1965 he pursued a doctorate from New York University’s Department of Politics, winning his degree with a dissertation focused on the role of the United States Information Agency (USIA) and the topic of public diplomacy. The dissertation , which was later expanded into a book, The Objectives of the United States Information Agency: Controversies and Analysis (Praeger, 1968), brought together Rubin’s interest in politics with his interest in communications and journalism. During his postgraduate studies, and especially while working on his dissertation, Rubin’s pen was virtually silent in other areas. Yet two of his works during the time frame received recognition that were major coups for a young graduate student. The first was a seventeen-page paper on “The UN Correspondent,” a path-breaking work published in the December 1964 issue of Western Political Quarterly—one of the highest ranked, refereed scholarly journals in its field (renamed Political Research Quarterly in 1992). This was an almost unheard of accomplishment for a graduate student, especially one who was only twenty-two years old. Before the paper’s publication, UN correspondents were regarded exclusively as journalists. Rubin’s research, which included original interviews rather than mere library research, revealed that these correspondents played an additional role . . . that of political actors in international diplomacy. Because of the historically significant and previously undocumented dimension it reveals of the UN correspondent—and the way their Postgraduate • 13 dispatches would so critically impact world public opinion of the Jewish state—an abridged version is included here. The UN Correspondent [Western Political Quarterly, December 1964, Abridged Version] The United Nations ranks among the richest sources of information for the world’s press. However, the UN correspondent remains one of the most neglected members of the UN “team.” Yet, with the possible exception of UN field activities, the UN correspondent serves as the most direct medium between the organization and the people represented therein—the link between the “man on the street” and the diplomatic conference table. Without press reports, the nationals represented at the UN would hardly know of its work; with these reports they at least have a basis for informed judgment. Thus far, there have appeared no scholarly studies of UN correspondents and the ways in which they serve as an instrument for public understanding of the UN1 . This study attempts to determine how UN correspondents gather news; their sources of information; the conditions of their assignment; the techniques of their profession; their opinions of the UN; and the impact of their presence on UN diplomacy to demonstrate their importance to the political process of the UN and to suggest means by which political scientists might further explore their role. 1. Richard M. Swift, “The United Nations and Its Public,” International Organization , Vol. 14 (Winter 1960), discusses the difficulties faced by OPI in obtaining appropriations . There have been no recent studies published on the political roles of American local or national correspondents. An illuminating study of American journalists serving abroad is Theodore E. Kruglak, The Foreign Correspondents (Geneva, 1955). Especially worthwhile are chapters iii (The Professional Composition of the Correspondents Corps), and viii (The Performance of the Correspondents Corps). Kruglak’s study is mainly concerned with the sociological background of these correspondents inasmuch as this affects their assignments. A speech by Dr. Hernane Tavares de Sa, UN Under-Secretary for Public Information, before the UN Students Association of London University, “The United Nations Before World Public Opinion,” appealing to news media to cover UN economic and social activities, indicates the high value the UN places on publicity in the popular press (UN Press Release M1409, May 15,1962). 14 • The University Student Interviewed were 21 journalists accredited by the United Nations Correspondents Association, two Secretariat officials, and two members of the United States mission to the UN associated with press relations. Twelve represent American newspapers or wire services. The others represent newspapers and news agencies, two each for the United Kingdom and Poland, and one each for the Netherlands, Egypt, China, Ghana, and Yugoslavia. The correspondents were promised anonymity. The United Nations and the Press In his first annual Report, the Secretary General observed: “The success of the UN depends ultimately on the continued support of the peoples of the world, [which] in turn, must be based...