Military Response

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Refuting the Drumpf

“This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime, this sentiment. I will tell you, as journalism majors, as Americans, you should challenge that sentiment and that statement every opportunity you can. We must challenge this statement and this sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the American people.” 

—William McRaven, retired four-star admiral and former Navy SEAL, designer of Osama bin Laden raid, now chancellor of University of Texas System, addressing UT journalismstudents, “‘Greatest threat to democracy’: Commander of bin Laden raid slams Trump’s anti-media sentiment,” Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2017. (Thanks to alert WORDster Chip Scanlan)

• Editorial Comment: Nothing fake about that admiral.

• Video: Watch McRaven’s remarks:

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Sleeping Dog, Lying











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

‘Public Enemy,’ Hunh?

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Jim’s ‘Empty Chair’

“If I don’t have the moral courage to challenge authority . . . we don’t have journalism.”

—James Foley (1973-2014), American journalist and video reporter, abducted in Syria in 2012 and beheaded on video by ISIS. Sting performs “The Empty Chair” at the Oscars on Sunday. “Oscars: Sting Performs Oscar-Nominated Original Song From ‘Jim: The James Foley Story,” The Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 26, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: That chair’s not so empty.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

End of Day










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

Slippery Slope

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New American Dream

“If journalists and commentators let themselves be intimidated into silence; if Trump’s attacks on judges and civil servants lead them to back away from their commitment to the rule of law; if the FBI and Secret Service become tools of executive vengeance rather than impartial instruments of justice; if military leaders become too cowed to recall that their most fundamental duty is to the U.S. Constitution, not to Donald Trump. Well, then Trump will be right that America is no better than Putin’s Russia.” 

—Rosa Brooks, law professor, Georgetown University, “And Then the Breitbart Lynch Mob Came for Me,” Moyers and Co., Feb. 8, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: Bomb shelters, anyone?


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Rising Waters








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

Lying Fool

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(Dis) R-E-S-P-E-C-T

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.” 

—Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Russian novelist, from Brothers Karamazov, 1880 (Image: The Brothers Karamazov by Alice Neel, 1938)

 

• Editorial Comment: Know anyone like that?




PeezPix by Ted Pease

Streetscene











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

Remember Billy Beer?

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Skeletons in the Presidential Closet

“We've uncovered some embarrassing ancestors in the not-too-distant past. Some horse thieves, and some people killed on Saturday nights. One of my relatives, unfortunately, was even in the newspaper business.”

—Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. president

• Editorial Comment: Oh, the ignominy.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Mill Creek Dashes to the Sea













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

Career Decisions

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‘Ignorance Is Power’

“[A]gnosis, [from] the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing,’ and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being. Agnotology is the study of willful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour. 

“I was exploring how powerful industries could promote ignorance to sell their wares. Ignorance is power . . . and agnotology is about the deliberate creation of ignorance.” 

—Robert Proctor, Stanford science historian who coined the term agnotology, “the deliberate propagation of ignorance,” in Georgina Kenyon, “The man who studies the spread of ignorance,” BBC, Jan. 6, 2016.

• Editorial Comment: I guess there’s money in it. Why the heck did I go into higher education?


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Dark Days














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

‘Polluted Vehicles’ to ‘Fake News’

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The WORDmeister’s Note: It is difficult for some to celebrate Presidents’ Day today, given our current occupant. It is instructive to recall that many — if not most — U.S. chief executives had their problems with the press, starting with George Washington. No one, however, has treated the press, either as individuals or as a small-d democratic institution like President Trump has. This is longer than the usual WORD. But what the heck — it’s a federal holiday. Kick back.

For Presidents’ Day 2017: Reflecting on Presidents and the Press

“Thomas Jefferson railed against newspapers as ‘polluted vehicles.’ . . . Richard Nixon tangled with reporters in the toxic atmosphere of Watergate . . . Bill Clinton publicly condemned ‘purveyors of hatred and division’ on the public airwaves.” . . . 

“There has never been a kind of holistic jihad against the news media like Trump is executing,” said Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley. “Trump is determined to beat and bloody the press whenever he finds himself in a hole, and that’s unique.” . . .

“‘The press is your enemy,‘ [Nixon told aides]. ‘Enemies. Understand that? ... Because they’re trying to stick the knife right in our groin.’” . . . 

“Jefferson wrote to a newspaper editor in 1807: ‘Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.’” . . .

“Brinkley said Trump’s tactics reflect a broad cultural shift away from news to entertainment, as the former reality TV star tries to keep his supporters engaged. ‘He’s trying to show that he’s King Kong and the press are little gnats,’ says Brinkley. ‘That has box office appeal to a certain segment of the population.’”

—Nancy Benac, reporter, “Remember Nixon? There's history behind Trump's press attacks,” Associated Press, Feb. 17, 2017

 

Then, on Friday, Trump tweeted this: 

Whew.

John McCain (who was almost a president) disagrees: “If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free — and many times adversarial — press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time — that’s how dictators get started.”

—Chuck Todd, Phil Helsel and Matt Rivera, “McCain Warns Suppressing Press ‘Is How Dictators Get Started,’” Meet the Press, Feb. 19, 2017

• Editorial Comment: Heavy sigh.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Skunky

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

Abstinence

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Un-wise

“There is not a noun in the language to which -wise cannot be added if the spirit moves one to add it. The sober writer will abstain from the use of this wild additive.” 

—E.B. White, writer, in Strunk & White, The Elements of Style, 3^rd edition, 1979

• Editorial Comment: As in wondering how the president was feeling, psychotic-wise.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Shirley












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

History’s Lens

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Rehabilitation

“In 2003, President Bush, then two years into his tenure, was asked by journalist Bob Woodward about his place in history. ‘History,’ he replied. ‘We don’t know. We’ll all be dead.’” 

—Robert W. Merry, former WSJ reporter and executive editor, Congressional Quarterly. Excerpted from his book Where They Stand, 2012.

• Editorial Comment: History is looking more kindly on Dubya these days.



PeezPix by Ted Pease

Winter Sports








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