Remembering the Role of Newspapers
“Editorial expression shapes public opinion only if it adheres to the right, if it serves the public interest, if it is fearless, vigorous, unprejudiced and persistent; if it adheres to a reasonable policy well-grounded in experience and unassailable in purpose. Such editorial expression is effective if it comes from an independent, free, solvent newspaper which has won the confidence of its field and is beyond the reach of selfish interests.”From Time magazine, Oct. 23, 1939:
“. . . Strickland Gillilan of Washington, D. C. is a veteran newspaperman, onetime president of American Press Humorists, best known as author of the line: ‘Off agin, on agin, gone agin, Finnigin.’
“Big, booming Dr. Cassius M. Shepard of Columbus, Ohio is an outstanding orthopedic surgeon, a topflight amateur photographer and gardener.
“Trim Arthur C. Johnson is editor and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch, president of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, a trustee of Ohio University.
“Last week these three men had a simultaneous and peculiar attack of nostalgia when they learned that old Dr. Charles William Super, onetime president of Ohio University, had died in Athens, Ohio at 97. They had good reason to remember Dr. Super. When they were undergraduates together at Ohio University more than 40 years ago, President Super rose solemnly before the whole college one day, pointed a solemn finger at them and cried:
‘Gillilan, Shepard and Johnson—I haven’t the slightest doubt that all three of you will end up in a penitentiary!’”
Overheard in the Newsroom #1761
Reporter working from home, on the phone with editor:
Reporter: “Can you e-mail me my notes? My story is on my desktop.”
Editor: “OK, what’s the file called?”
Reporter: “It’s called ‘Stupid story that bores the shit out of me.’ ”
How quaint!
ReplyDelete--Jim