Wire Creator David Simon for Secretary of Culture

After reading part of David Simon's testimony to Congress last week regarding the death of newspapers (though Congress titled the hearings The Future of Journalism), I was reminded what a man-crush I have on this guy. Simon, of course, is the co-creator of the great HBO drama The Wire. I am embarrassed to admit that I wasn't even turned on to the show until sometime within the last year, when I burned through all five seasons on DVD as quickly as Netflix could send them. It may sound hyperbolic to say that The Wire is the best television show ever produced, but, honestly, that description is woefully insufficient. The Wire is one of the best works of American art ever created. The show explores the inner-workings and interconnectedness of Baltimore's drug trade, law enforcement agencies, political machines, media institutions, public education system, and labor relations - sometimes in a single episode. It does so in a brutally honest, wholly non-patronizing manner while also managing to craft beautifully rendered story arcs filled with unique and compelling characters. It is addicting for all of the right reasons. The staggering achievement of this show alone is reason enough to nominate David Simon as the United States Secretary of Culture. However, hearing Simon speak so broadly and eloquently about the current state of America (see videos below) makes his absence from that office seem criminal. This is why I hereby nominate him to the head post at the Department of Culture. Of course, we must first create this position, so let's talk about that for a moment. I wasn't surprised in the least to discover that the idea of a Culture Secretary had already been explored by others when Googling the idea, but let me add my vision to the mix.


David Simon on Bill Moyers Journal, Part 1 of 2

First, this position should be a cabinet level appointment with some genuine power to advise the President, work with Congress, fund (or at least oversee) new initiatives in the arts and humanities, and provide leadership for existing cultural institutions. Former National Endowment for the Humanities Chair William Ferris suggested overseeing these organizations while advocating for a Secretary of Culture: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, NPR, PBS and the Smithsonian Institution. That is a good start. Of course, the Secretary should also have some role to play with regard to the aforementioned NEH as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, the latter of which seems to fund art appreciation more than foster new works of art. Perhaps the NEA's reluctance to fund artists directly results from budget cuts or perhaps from the political battles of the 1980's and 90's with Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finney, and others. It is hard to imagine that David Simon would ever shrink from a political battle or suffer hypocritical moralizing quietly (though he may not care for the pretensions of contemporary visual artists.) Regardless, I envision this position with a broader agenda than a defacto Secretary of the Arts (Quincy Jones's idea), which is one reason Simon is a perfect candidate.

Culture is broadly defined as a group's shared ideas, beliefs, and practices. While art is certainly an important aspect of culture and its expression, I think the agenda should be wider. We need a position that can use their bully pulpit to ask questions and prompt initiatives regarding the role of technology and media, including both news (definitely newspapers) and entertainment. Let's face it, most Americans spend a lot more time in front of their television and computer screens than they do in the halls of museums or symphony centers. We need an agency that can work with television networks and internet content providers to develop creative avenues of exploration. The agency should offer incentives to develop content with more brains than How I Met Your Mother and more balls than Masterpiece Theater. We need some mandates and charters for television stations and networks given that they use our public airwaves for free and have their licenses rubber stamped for an absurdly nominal fee. Currently, a few cheesy public service announcements and wholly unwatchable local news programming is all that's needed to check off the "programming in the public interest" obligation in their licensing agreement.* Simon obviously understands popular media and the impact it can have within a culture, but that is not his only qualification.

David Simon on Bill Moyers Journal, Part 2 of 2

He is an exceedingly intelligent man with broad-reaching knowledge and a populist bent. More importantly, he is not a politician. As fans of his know, he was a journalist with the Baltimore Sun for years and an author before working in television. Were this position ever to be created, I would hope a precedent would be set for non-politicians. While that idea is somewhat rare for cabinet level positions, it is not uncommon in other arts and humanities appointments. If Simon is unwilling, my next nominee is Princeton professor Cornel West whose intelligence, like Simon's, is varied, creatively expressed, accessible, and founded with a deep sense of moral integrity. Not to mention, I would love to see Dr. West explaining sociological theories through John Coltrane metaphors to someone like Orrin Hatch at his confirmation hearing. No matter the candidate, this a post our government needs.

America, with all of the brashness of the prematurely powerful adolescent, needs maturing in certain aspects of herself. A position such as this would help us to cultivate faculties that are currently underdeveloped. Besides, as another advocate points out, "pretty much all the most powerful nations in the world have one. There are Ministers or Secretaries of Culture in France, England, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Italy. And so on and so on." If nothing else, perhaps our hyper competitive nature will spur the development of this needed position (which could, in turn, help us diffuse some of that rogue competitiveness.) So, David Simon, I urge you to get involved on the grand stage. In the words of one of your characters, Omar, "The game’s out there, and it’s play or get played.” Regular Americans have been on the wrong side of that equation for too long; having you shake things up in the corridors of power might help even the score a little.

*(The first mandate needed for television stations is FREE time allocated to legitimate office seekers. Our current system forces politicians to raise tons of corrupting, agenda-influencing dollars so they can buy television ads to run on the PUBLIC airwaves.)