Once known as Karen Parfait, the inquisitive and argumentative student, Karen Hughes revisited SMU Wednesday night as nothing less than a success story. All day the presidential adviser met with journalism students and SMU alumni, answering questions and sharing her insights. That evening, Hughes, the guest speaker for the Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture Series, spoke about media ethics in Caruth Auditorium. Hughes, whose close political relationship with George W. Bush is well-renowned, was deemed the president’s “most trusted adviser” by Business Week and “the most influential women in the White House.” by CNN.
Hughes now advises President Bush from her Dallas home. In April of 2002, she resigned from her position in the White House in order to resume the most important role of her career: being a mother and wife. But make no mistake; Hughes is not retired. She is still an elite member of the president’s inner circle, writing speeches and sometimes speaking with him several times a day.
During her lecture, Hughes emphasized the “endless avenues and opportunities for students at SMU today.” Students never know how far their determination will take them. Hughes has always been driven by personal ethics and values. In an exclusive interview, Hughes said her most important advice to SMU students was to “choose your bosses carefully, they can either reinforce or under-mind your values.” Hughes said she has been lucky to work for organizations who shared her values of family responsibility and have made all the difference in creating a thriving work environment. She says she is “happy to be home and blessed to be able to do the right thing … still keeping in close contact with the president.” It is Hughes’ commitment to her ethics that allows her to balance a journalism career and fulfilling family life.
Hughes started her career as a reporter for KXAS in Fort Worth, finding that “the nature of news is controversy and change.” In her lecture, one of her criticisms of today’s media was editorializing. Facts are often overlooked when the focus of news is on speculation. Media gives a context in which to view facts, sometimes attaching assumed motives to political actions.
But Hughes does not mean to be cynical.
“The press,” she said, “has an internal ethic of truth, and an external ethic of accountability to the public.”
The news is always going to be controversial, but it should always be accurate. She said it is the job of a journalist to “conflict the comfortable and comfort the conflicted.” According to Hughes, this is what fuels America’s democratic society.
Hughes’ search for truth began at SMU while she was pursuing an English major. She stumbled upon journalism and discovered her passion. In 1977 Hughes graduated from SMU with a degree in both English and journalism. Before she graduated, she received a job offer from KXAS that she would be committed to for seven years, until her leap from the press to politics. In 1984 Hughes became the Texas Press Coordinator for the Reagan-Bush campaign.
In 1992 Hughes accepted a position in Austin as the executive director of the Texas Republican Party. She was about to embark on a journey that would make history; she was about to become George W. Bush’s closest adviser.
Hughes recalls their early days “I worked with Bush when the motorcade was just one car… and he was driving!” Throughout Hughes’ 10-year career with Bush, she has “advised, shaped and even finished his sentences,” according to Chris Peck, Belo Distinguished Chair of Journalism.
Hughes has been at President Bush’s side from the beginning of his political career and will be to the end.
