Worthwhile Reading

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. . . and Canned Chatter

“To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. . . . The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.”

―Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography, 1969

• Editorial Comment: We need more egotistical charlatans, hucksters, ceremonial magicians and mountaineers in public life.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

The Coming Echium












Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Eat Your Own

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‘Liberal’ Media

“Say what? The liberal mainstream media has it in for liberal politicians? The answer to that question, I would argue, is an unambiguous ‘yes.’ There are few things more comforting to journalists — constantly under attack for their alleged liberal bias — than to make life miserable for their supposed allies on the left. Not only do they think it might give their critics pause, but it also feeds into their own sense of even-handedness.”

—Dan Kennedy, journalism professor and pundit, “What The New York Times’ Screw-Up Tells Us About the Liberal Media’s Anti-Liberal Bias,” WGBH, 2015

   
• Editorial Comment: Fairness and balance.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Rosy Morning






Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Journalists: Qualifications

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Rigorous Standards

“We journalists make it a point to know very little about an extremely wide variety of topics; this is how we stay objective.” 

—Dave Barry, pundit, author and Pulitzer-winning humor columnist, 1995 

• Editorial Comment: And we’re always training: I learned very little about something new just last week.






PeezPix by Ted Pease

Starting Line, Clam Beach Run








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Modern Politicking

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Cartoon Candidate

“Twitter was made for this man. More than 140 characters and his mind wanders. Short sentences are his medium. People are tired of stupidity. Foreigners are pouring across the border. We’ll build a wall. It’ll be beautiful. ISIL was created by Hillary Clinton. Let’s take over Saudi Arabia. You’ve got to be strong. And smart. China is robbing us blind. The press is unfair. Racism? Sexism? Whatever. The guy is a cartoon, campaigning in captions.” 

—Garrison Keillor, author and radio host, “Trump, Ventura & political performance art,” USAToday, Jan. 6, 2016 

• Editorial Comment: Homer will make a great Veep.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Parade Route







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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E.B. White on The Responsible Writer

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Shape Life

“A writer should concern himself with whatever absorbs his fancy, stirs his heart, and unlimbers his typewriter. I feel no obligation to deal with politics. I do feel a responsibility to society because of going into print: a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error. He should tend to lift people up, not lower them down. Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”

—E.B. White (1899-1985), writer, interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther, The Paris Review, 1969

• Editorial Comment: And don’t forget to walk the dog.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Sumo Tennis








Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Supreme View

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Independent Press

“Newspapers, television networks and magazines have sometimes been outrageously abusive, untruthful, arrogant and hypocritical. But it hardly follows that elimination of a strong and independent press is the way to eliminate abusiveness, untruth, arrogance or hypocrisy from government itself.”

—Potter Stewart (1915-1985), former U.S. Supreme Court justice, 1974

• Editorial Comment: Mutually assured crap.




PeezPix by Ted Pease

Blind Honk







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Fine Distinctions

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History Stinks

“It is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between history and the smell of skunk.”


—Dame Rebecca West (1892-1983), British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer 

• Editorial Comment: And journalism, of course, is just fresh history.




PeezPix by Ted Pease

Dahlia







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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Stephen & James

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The Artist’s Angst

“A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.
 
“‘James, what’s wrong?’ the friend asked. ‘Is it the work?’
 
“Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?
 
“‘How many words did you get today?’ the friend pursued.
 
“Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): ‘Seven.’
 
“‘Seven? But James . . . that’s good, at least for you.’
 
“‘Yes,’ Joyce said, finally looking up. ‘I suppose it is . . .  but I don’t know what order they go in!’”

—Stephen King, writer, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2002

• Editorial Comment: Ulysses is going to take a while at this rate.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Morning Tide







Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 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.) #tedsword
 
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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