c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ I am endlessly astonished by the model of the American people with which the talking heads inside the Washington Beltway operate.

In their view, the rest of the population is not very bright, not very sophisticated, and not very perceptive. Therefore, it becomes the mission of the talking heads to enlighten them. Thus, after the now-famous”60 Minutes”interview with Kathleen Willey, a group of four talking heads told us that this was a turning point for the president.

Finally, they argued, the public would understand the issues and turn against Bill Clinton.

I laughed.

They simply don’t get it. They don’t understand what the public is saying in the polls their own media conduct. As one whose job it is to study public opinion, the position of the American people seems to me to be logical, coherent and consistent.

On the face of the survey data, without any attempt at interpretation or analysis, the majority of Americans are saying the following:

_ The attacks on the president are political.

_ The media are out of control.

_ They have no confidence in Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor.

_ They don’t think much of the women who have come forward to attack the president.

_ They want the whole thing to end.

Arguably, the public may be wrong. The issues may not be political but moral, though it will take a lot of selling to change their minds. However, the position summarized above is where the public is. Nothing in the past couple of months of”scandals”seems to have changed their minds. It would be unwise to bet a new”scandal”will.

In a way, the conservative Republicans who are involved in attempts to destroy the president are to blame. They came to power by attacking politicians and discrediting politics. Because of them, the public doesn’t trust politicians _ including conservative Republicans.

Obviously, the”whole thing”isn’t going to end.

It will continue through spring and fall and into next year. With new court fights, new leaks, new subpoenas, new public combats between lawyers, new revelations, the”whole thing”will go on ad infinitum and ad nauseam.

At the same time, the survey data on the public’s reaction to the Willey story strongly suggests no one is listening. They have tuned the”scandal”out because they don’t trust those who are pursuing it nor those who are peddling it.

Will it be an issue in the November election?

It will be very difficult for the Republicans _ whose conservative wing created this mess _ to keep it out of the election.

As for the elite media _ The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek,”60 Minutes,”the variety of talking heads _ I wonder if anyone in charge worries about the patent disgust of the public with their behavior. In fact, they have sunk to the level of the supermarket tabloids in the belief that sleaze is what the public wants. Beltway cowboys that they are, the talking heads and their colleagues don’t believe the public when it says it does not.

The New York Times, for example, has become a combination of the National Enquirer and the Chicago Tribune in the old days of Col. McCormick when there was no distinction between news and editorials.

Thus, a couple of weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told the Sunday morning talking heads it was time for Kenneth Starr to put up or shut up. The next morning it seemed as if no one at The Times had heard the broadcast. Then on Tuesday it reported Lott was”back in the fold.” Moreover, buried in the heart of the story were a couple of paragraphs about the writer for the stridently conservative National Spectator whose article launched the Paula Jones issue. He had apologized to the president for starting the whole mess.

The apology was apparently not big news inside the Beltway or in Midtown Manhattan _ the Beltway’s ideological suburb. Out in the rest of the country it was front page news, including a big, bold headline in the Arizona Republic.

Yet editorially The Times insists the issue is”character.”I submit The Times has so fallen for the allure of the supermarket tabloid it no longer knows what character is.

DEA END GREELEY