Roberts Speaks at IOP

Increasing negativism among American voters today is resulting in a widespread loss of faith in representative government, ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts said in a speech last night at the Institute of Politics.

More than 300 people attended the speech, which was entitled "Politics and the Press: Clashing Cultures."

Roberts said she worries that if Republicans don't satisfy the American constituency in the next two years, voters may not turn back to the Democrats.

"They will start to think politicians simply aren't worth the trouble," Roberts said.

Roberts, who also works for National Public Radio, cited an ABC exit poll from the recent election indicating that many voters would elect "all new leaders even if they were ineffective."

Roberts said that if citizens completely lose trust in the government, it could be detrimental to society as a whole.

"All we have defining us as a nation is our commitment to the Constitution and the institutions it created," Roberts said. "Without them, we have no common history."

Roberts spent a lot of time questioning her own institution, the media. She said there is no point in the press digging to uncover a scandal if there's nothing anyone can do about it.

"The public believes we are tearing down institutions because we are," said Roberts.

But Roberts said she is less concerned about the media prying into the personal life of the president.

"With the president, unlike any other office, we vote for the guy," Roberts said. "We want a president to be someone we trust, and we can't know [if we can trust him] by the issues. You tell everything you know and let the voters decide."

Roberts also described what it is like to be a journalist covering Congress.

She said legislators are more willing to talk to the press than people think. She said has to us her microphone "as a weapon" to keep them away.

"What has two legs and is attracted to light?" Roberts asked. "Newt Gingrich!"

Roberts speech was the annual Theodore H. White Lecture, sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.