Tuesday, January 31, 2017

What Does Donald Think?

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Right in the Gut


“Now folks, years ago I gave you ‘truthiness,’ — ignoring what the facts say and going with what feels right in your gut. Well, you know what happens when you put a bunch of those guts together? What happens is you turn ‘truthiness’ into ‘truthinews.’ Cable news networks have only one obligation. Their obligation is to report whatever the American people already think.” 

—Stephen Colbert, idiot-savant, “The Word—Truthinews,” The Colbert Report, 2013


Editorial Comment: The birth of alternative facts.

PeezPix by Ted Pease


Seastacks




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

Monday, January 30, 2017

‘We’re Not Going to Shut Up, Steve’

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Bannon the Beast

ANDERSON COOPER: “I want to ask you on this other subject, something [tRump adviser] Steve Bannon said today, [in] an interview he gave to The New York Times. He said, ‘The media should be embarrassed and humiliated, and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.’”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: “I would say no chance on that, Steve, buddy. . . . There is obviously some kind of strategy here, although it’s hard for me to comprehend it because, you know, I operate in the truth and the fact-based universe. . . . 

“It is not the tradition of the American press. So of course we’re not going to shut up, and why should we? And what have we done wrong? And why should we be humiliated About what? The story was right, we reported the story, whatever it is, we got it right.”

—Christiane Amanpour, British-Iranian journalist and chief international correspondent, CNN, in “Christiane Amanpour Rejects Trump Administration’s Attacks On The Press: ‘We’re Not Going To Shut Up’ — Amanpour: Stephen Bannon Wants Press To Be ‘A Compliant State Propaganda Unit In Service Of The President,’” MediaMatters, Jan. 29, 2017


Editorial Comment: You know who I wish would shut up . . . ?

PeezPix by Ted Pease


Pelican Beak








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. 
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“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

Friday, January 27, 2017

News & Guts

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Yes, We Do Deserve Better


“I love news. I always have and can confidently say I always will. Journalism, real journalism, deep-digging reporting without fear or favor, is as important now, if not more so, than any time I can remember. . . . 

“I got into news in the first place to be part of something noble and bigger than myself. For those reasons, I am starting a second Facebook page called News And Guts, a digital news feed of sorts. . .

“In an era of fake news, false equivalence, and too much fluff, let’s take a stand together to demand better, and bring attention to all those doing great work.” 

 —Dan Rather, veteran newsman, announcing creation of his new Facebook project, News and Guts. Leslie Salzillo, reporter, “Dan Rather launches gutsy newsgroup to counter fake news & alternative facts,” Daily Kos, Jan 24, 2017. On Jan. 26, Rather said  he was “coming out of retirement” to “bring down Donald Trump.”


Editorial Comment: Where do I sign up?

PeezPix by Ted Pease


5,000+ turned out for the Women’s March in Eureka, CA.






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. 
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“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

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Didn’t Read All About It? Didn’t Happen

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Ignoring the News


“[I]t’s possible that a not-insignificant swath of America has no idea that one of the largest single organized protests the world has ever seen took place on Saturday. There has been much talk since the election about how social media networks and ideologically skewed online media outlets have erected so-called ‘bubbles’ around segments of the country, but for those people who still get their news from the local paper, the bubbles may be particularly impermeable.” 

—Christina Cauterucci, staff writer, “A Fifth of U.S. Newspapers Kept the Women’s Marches Off the Front Page,” Slate, Jan. 24, 2017.

Editorial Comment: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

PeezPix by Ted Pease


Charlotte’s House






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

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Those Were the Days

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Farewell Pep Talk for the Press


It goes without saying that essential to [a democracy] is a free press. That is part of how this place, this country, this grand experiment of self-government has to work. It doesn’t work if we don’t have a well-informed citizenry, and you are the conduit through which they receive the information about what’s taking place in the halls of power.


“So America needs you and our democracy needs you. We need you to establish a baseline of facts and evidence that we can use as a starting point for the kind of reasoned and informed debates that ultimately lead to progress.


“And so my hope is that you will continue with the same tenacity that you showed us, to do the hard work of getting to the bottom of stories and getting them right and to push those of us in power to be the best version of ourselves and to push this country to be the best version of itself.


—Barack Obama, 44th president, in the final press conference of his presidency, Jan. 18, 2017
(Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey)


Editorial Comment: Anyone else hear “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” faintly in the background?

PeezPix by Ted Pease


Mendon Peak, Cache Valley, Utah






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

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Not Trump

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WORDmeister Note: I'm exhausted by all the Trump crap, so The WORD is taking a break today.

Who Reads Books?


“Well, I’ve worried some about, you know, why write books . . . why are we teaching people to write books when presidents and senators do not read them, and generals do not read them. It’s been the university experience that taught me that there is a very good  reason that you catch people before they become generals and presidents and so forth and you poison their minds with . . . humanity, and however you want to poison their minds, it’s presumably to encourage them to make a better world.”

—Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American author, in “A Talk with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.” by Robert Scholes in The Vonnegut Statement, 1973






Editorial Comment: I know I said it's a No Trump Day . . . but do you suppose he or any of his cabinet appointees read books that inform their humanity?

PeezPix by Ted Pease


Sadie Spots a Rockcod









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

Monday, January 23, 2017

‘Alternative Facts’

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Humpty Dumpty Lives



Chuck Todd, host, “Meet the Press,” NBC: “You did not answer the question of why the President asked the White House Press Secretary to come out in front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood. Why did he do that? It undermines the credibility of the entire White House Press Office on day one.”

Kellyann Conway, Senior Trump Adviser:No, it doesn’t. Don’t be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that, but the point . . .”

Todd:Wait a minute. Alternative facts? Alternative facts. . . . Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true. Look. Alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”

—On “Meet the Press,” Sunday, Jan. 22. See transcript and video clips here: Chuck Todd Obliterates Kellyanne Conway For Claiming White House Lies Are “Alternative Facts,’” PoliticsUSA, Jan. 22, 2017.



Editorial Comment: Invoking Humpty Dumpty: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’”
PeezPix by Ted Pease


What a Clown











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

Friday, January 20, 2017

Press Corps Letter to The Donald

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Good Reminder



“Dear Mr. President-Elect: . . . Best-case scenario, you’re going to be in this job for eight years. We’ve been around since the founding of the republic, and our role in this great democracy has been ratified and reinforced again and again and again. You have forced us to rethink the most fundamental questions about who we are and what we are here for. For that we are most grateful.” 


—Kyle Pope, An open letter to Trump from the U.S. press corps,” Columbia Journalism Review, Jan. 17, 2017

Editorial Comment: Who are we, again, and what are we doing here?


PeezPix by Ted Pease


Morning in America








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

Thursday, January 19, 2017

But He Played One on TV

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Buffoon Spotlight


“So Stewart wasn’t an actual news anchor. What his show did with comedy was a kind of journalism nonetheless, using satire and some thorough research of source material to analyze the news and analyze its analysis. Any honest media critic knew that Stewart was doing the job better than the rest of us. His show turned TV’s own tools and language against it to spotlight buffoonery, bad faith, hot air, and hypocrisy. Do the same thing in print and you’re an op-ed columnist. Stewart and company simply managed to do it in a format that people paid attention to.”

—James Poneiwozik, media writer, “Jon Stewart, the Fake Newsman Who Made a Real Difference,” Time, Feb. 10, 2015 

Editorial Comment: I can’t blame him for sitting this one out. His head would have exploded on TV, which would have been sad.


PeezPix by Ted Pease


Eureka's Old Salt












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