In an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan defended his silence about election misinformation and other problems at Fox News with what Sykes dubbed “in the room-ism.”
Sykes followed the interview with an edition of his Morning Shots newsletter that delved into this idea. Sykes weaves quotes and paraphrases from his interview with Paul Ryan with quotes from news outlets that show just how far Ryan’s being “in the room” while hoping to do good gets him. Spoiler: nowhere, it gets him nowhere.
Sykes points out that “in the room-ism” fails because it is a catch-22. You stay in the room where it happens so that you can speak truth to power, but if you speak truth to power, you will no longer be allowed in the room. This ousting happened to Liz Cheney, Sykes points out, when she bravely stood up to the insurrectionists and grifters in her party.
As a Fox News board member, Paul Ryan sees himself as a bulwark against the conspiratorial bent of some of Fox’s hosts. Sykes, and Ryan himself, mentioned times that Ryan spoke out against the conspiracies Fox promoted in the wake of the 2020 election. And yet Fox kept promoting conspiracies we now know they knew were baseless. Paul Ryan being in the room amounted to nothing except to make him look complicit in spreading lies, misinformation, and misleading Fox viewers.
This may sound harsh against Paul Ryan, especially from a conservative group that sees Ryan as one of our own. However, those who see Ryan as an ally must understand the grave mistake it is to assume that just being the contrarian in the room will put you in place to stop a disaster. We’ve already seen how Ryan could not bring about the change he hoped for, but there are others besides Ryan. Trump’s presidency is full of stories of staff members who believed they could curtail Trump’s worse impulses. Instead, Trump just cycled through chiefs of staff and others until he found ones willing to do the dirty work he preferred.
We are in a moment where it is essential to be sober-minded about the people in the room with us. Only some people are willing to hear out contrary ideas or opinions. Often, people like Paul Ryan are just being used to apply a veneer of respectability to what will end up being deplorable actions by bad actors. It may seem difficult to imagine that our being around will not help, but even Jesus tells us there are times that we must shake the dust off our sandals and leave people be. And, again, in the case of Trump officials or Paul Ryan at Fox News, how many people have tried to right those ships and failed? Why do we believe that we will be any different?
And yet there are times when staying and being a force for good is okay. But there are some critical things to consider when we weigh whether we should stay or we should go:
1) How much authority do you have? Can you operate freely, or will your speaking out mark you for being fired, let go, or otherwise asked to leave the room? Without authority and autonomy, you will likely be ignored and used as a token to prove that your group is not that bad.
2) Has anyone else tried to make the same suggestion before? How did that go? If people have tried and failed before you, where is the evidence you will not fail?
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