Poor, Floundering Reader

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. . . and the water’s rising

“All through The Elements of Style one finds evidences of the author’s deep sympathy for the reader. Will [Strunk] felt that the reader was in serious trouble most of the time, a man floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get his man up on dry ground, or at least throw him a rope.” 

—E.B. White (1899-985), writer, on his professor, mentor and collaborator, William Strunk in introduction to The Elements of Style, 3^rd edition, 1979

• Editorial Comment: I drown, you drown, he/she/it drowns, we drown, you drown, they drown. Glubglubglub.


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Morning Flight






TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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Deepthroat

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Fancy Flushes 

The WORDmeister sez: Often criticized for over-use of anonymous sources, The New York Times demonstrates rare wit in reporting on $90 million in Port Authority bathroom renovations. Who says the Old Grey Lady has no sense of humor? 

“A second person who checked out the women’s restroom — and who asked not to be identified because she has always wanted to be an anonymous source — reported her findings by email: ‘Black shiny granite-y sink. Arched faucets by Sloan. Tasteful slate gray and powder gray tiles.’”

—James Barron, reporter, “Commodes, If Not Commutes, Have Improved at Port Authority Bus Terminal,” The New York Times, Feb. 24. 2015

• Editorial Comment: First Mark Felt, now this? Wait . . . what kind of toilet tissue?

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Horsey









TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

New Motto

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Paranoid and Unbalanced

“Enter right-wing media, which has a nifty trick of convincing audiences it’s the other guys who are the liars, all while actually being much less trustworthy in reality. From conservative screaming about the ‘media elite’ to Fox News’s old slogan ‘Fair and Balanced,’ conservative media is rife with the message that everyone is out to get you, conservative viewer, and only in the warm blanket of right-wing propaganda will you be safe.”

—Amanda Marcotte, reporter, “Why conservatives prefer propaganda to reality,” AlterNet.com, October 2014

• Editorial Comment: Shaddup, Jimmy Olson, and get me a coffee.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Beach Stream












TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Bill O’Reilly, Cub Reporter

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Foreign to Reporting

“O’Reilly . . . wasn’t interested in tips. ‘I tried to give him some advice, give him a read on how the place worked. He didn’t seem too interested. I offered in a suggestion on how things worked and he didn’t pay any attention to me.” . . . 

“‘I saw him as someone who wasn’t willing to be held back by the restrictions that govern rookie reporters. . . . He was the kind of guy who wanted to find a story that was going to get him on the air that night.’”

—Eric Jon Engberg, former CBS correspondent, in Terrence McCoy, “How Bill O’Reilly imploded at CBS following his Falklands War ‘combat’ reporting,” The Washington Post, Feb 23, 2015 WaPost video here.

• Editorial Comment: Shaddup, Jimmy Olson, and get me a coffee.


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Clam Beach













TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Believe It

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The Power of Fact

“One word of falsity in journalism destroys the whole, but one actual fact in a fiction may make it seem believable.”

—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014), Nobel Prize-winning author, cited in “John Hersey, The Art of Fiction No. 92,” The Paris Review, 1986

• Editorial Comment: Is that true, or just fiction?




PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Cache Valley Spring









TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Yeasty Brew

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Liberty

“[N]o people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of Foreign Invaders.”

—Samuel Adams (1722-1803), colonial patriot, Founding Father and brewer, in letter to James Warren, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 1775

• Editorial Comment: Aw, shaddup and pass me a six-pack.




PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Weeds












TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Storytime

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Adjusting the News

“How does a news organization set, re-set, and adjust every day the balance between sizzle and steak, between glitter and grist, between what’s fun to know and what’s important to know? 

“News has to always be both and can’t ever be just one. If it’s just froth and eye-candy, it’s not news but entertainment. If it’s just worthy lectures, it’s boring and goes unseen. Professors can make students read their books. Reporters and editors can’t.”

 —James Fallows, senior correspondent, “Everything Old Is New Again, and Vice Versa: The Predicament of the Press,” The Atlantic, May 2014 (Image: Steve Breen, San Diego Union Times)

• Editorial Comment: I get it. Sort of “conflating” news and fun into better stories. And that’s the way it is now.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Godbeams











TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Weekend Update

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From the Blonde Desk

“Times have changed since I first sat behind this desk. For example, I used to be the only pretty blond woman reading the fake news. Now there’s an entire network devoted to that.”

—Jane Curtin, actress, returning to the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update news desk, “SNL40,” Feb. 15, 2015 (go to 1:24 in video clip) 

• Editorial Comment: And the Land Shark has his own show now, too.


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Punk Pelican











TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Capote on Journalism

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Defending ‘Hackwork’

“[O]n the whole, journalism is the most underestimated, the least explored of literary mediums. . . . 

“Because few first-class creative writers have ever bothered with journalism, except as a sideline, ‘hackwork,’ something to be done when the creative spirit is lacking, or as a means of making money quickly. Such writers say in effect: Why should we trouble with factual writing when we’re able to invent our own stories, contrive our own characters and themes? — journalism is only literary photography, and unbecoming to the serious writer’s artistic dignity.”

—Truman Capote (1924-1984), author, In Cold Blood (1966), interviewed by George Plimpton, “The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel,” The New York Times, 1966

• Editorial Comment: There’s plenty of room for creative spirit in journalism, even in 2015. Dignity, too.


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Poppy







TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

David Carr, RIP

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News Note: A very bad week for journalism was capped by the death of media writer David Carr, who collapsed at his New York Times desk Thursday night.


Writing Advice

Q: “Your favorite cure for writer’s block?”

A: “Typing.”

Q: “What is the best piece of writing/journalistic advice you’ve ever received?”

A: “Keep typing until it turns into writing.” 

—David Carr (1956-2015), New York Times media writer, in 2013 reddit Q&A  

• Editorial Comment: Carr’s 2008 autobiography, The Night of the Gun, ends with this: “We all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end any time soon.” RIP

• NYTimes Obit, “David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58”

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Cala Lilies







TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

RIP Bob Simon

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Newshound

“I’m old enough now that I’ve been to a lot of places, and there are a lot of places I care about. If China were to explode, I’d want to be there in a flash. If there’s a big story, I want to be there.”

—Bob Simon (1941-2015), CBS newsman killed Wednesday night in New York traffic crash, 1992.  

• Editorial Comment: On to the next big story.
• Simon’s CBS obit


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Titus Nose








TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Bye, Bri

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Job Search

“Williams has been suspended for six months without pay. His Connecticut home is not Elba, but it may as well be. There is no reason to believe that his plummeting trust ratings will rise. NBC’s evening newscast will likely fall out of first place, instigating a frantic search for a replacement.

“As Williams ‘exaggerated’ what happened to his helicopter, so it could be said that NBC is exaggerating its expectation that he will return.”

—Ken Auletta, media writer, “Brian Williams’ Crash and Tom Brokaw’s Role,” The New Yorker, Feb. 11, 2015 

• Editorial Comment: Plenty of time to check the want ads. But don’t even think about Jon’s slot.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Hit the Road








TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

No, Jon, No!!!

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Apology for Iraq

“Finally someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War! 

“Never again will Brian Williams mislead this great nation about being shot at in a war that we probably wouldn’t have ended up in if the media had applied this level of scrutiny to the actual f***ing war.”

—Jon Stewart, revered host, “The Daily Show,” running up friend Brian Williams over the NBC News anchor’s misremembering, Feb. 9, 2015

• News: Brian Williams suspended from NBC News for six months.
• Terrible News: Jon Stewart to abandon us, stepping down from Daily Show later this year! 

• Editorial Comment: The heck w/ Brian. How will we get through the 2016 election without Jon???


PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Hit the Road








TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.