Rooney Decries Writing Decline

The quality of written work in all forms of media is declining, editorialist Andy Rooney told an adoring audience at the Harvard Law School Friday evening.

Rooney, who is known for his three-minute editorial commentaries on CBS's 60 Minutes, was in hortatory mode last night, though he allowed flashes of his down-to-earth wit.

"There is a shortage of good writing," Rooney said. "Writing at most levels today is very poor, but the need for good writers is great. In Hollywood, there are thousands of directors, producers and actors who are waiting for good scripts, there are none."

Rooney said good writers do not get the recognition they deserve, which does not help encourage people to study the craft of writing.

Rooney expressed has similar ideas about reporting, especially television reporting, the quality of which he said is declining.

"Good writing is expensive because of it comes out of chaos in the writer's mind. It takes a long while, which is why television does not get a chance to do the in-depth coverage it should. It can't afford to commit reporters for a week and a half, for example, to find the real story behind the story," Rooney said.

Rooney said he has always had a great love and admiration for the power of the English language. From his days as a student at Alton Academy in Albany, N. Y., where he won awards for his writing, to his time at Colgate, where he was the editor of their literary magazine, he has always wanted to be a writer.

After college he worked as a field writer for the Army's The Stars and Stripes, where he had the chance to work with such journalistic legends as Walter Cronkite and Ernie Pile. Rooney said such figures instilled in him a sense of the power of the written word that has never left.

"You can't fake it when you put it on paper," Rooney said. "When a person can't put it down on paper, chances are that there aren't any ideas there."

At the same time, he said it is very difficult to teach the art of writing.

"It is hard to teach people to write because it is hard to teach them to have something to say," Rooney said. "It is easy for teachers to deal with grammar, which can be easily corrected, but you cannot teach someone to have a clear opinion."

In addition to his 23 years in television, Rooney is also a prolific writer. His most recent work is entitled Sincerely, Andy Rooney. He has also contributed articles to magazines ranging from Fine Woodworking to Playboy and Cosmopolitan.

At age 80, after writing 11 books, hundreds of television scripts and radio shows and biweekly syndicated columns that have run in 150 newspapers across the nation for the past 18 years, Rooney's credentials have, in many minds, earned him the right to have become broadcast media's resident curmudgeon.

Rooney was joined in the audience by his daughter Emily, who is the host of WGBH's Greater Boston, a news commentary show that features local journalist and politicians that runs on PBS.