Why Write?

“I write to entertain my friends and to exasperate our enemies. To oppose, resist, and sabotage the contemporary drift toward a global technocratic police state, whatever its ideological coloration… I write for the joy and exultation of writing itself. To tell my story.” 

—Edward Abbey (1927-1989), writer and activist, “A Writer’s Credo,” 1985.

• Editorial Comment: And to have fun.

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Clam Beach

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

One President’s Take on Flat Earth Theory

“I think the electorate would be better served if we spent less time focused on the ‘he said-she said’ back-and-forth of our politics. Because while fairness is the hallmark of good journalism, false equivalency all too often these days can be a fatal flaw. 

“If I say that the world is round, and someone else says it’s flat, that’s worth reporting. But you might also want to report on a bunch of scientific evidence that seems to support the notion that the world is round.”

—Barack Obama, addressing annual gathering of Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, “Obama rails against vulgar politics in speech at Syracuse University event,” Syracuse.com, March 30, 2016.

• Editorial Comment: News Flash: Obama calls for actual facts. Revolutionary concept.

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Laughter Yoga

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Birdbrains

“[B]efore we overly invest energy and resources into shutting down propaganda, hoax news and other forms of disinformation, we should probably make an effort to wise up. Philosopher Steven Nadler wonders if it is even possible to ‘fix American stupidity,’ a mindset he describes as intellectual stubbornness. Yet, thus far, we have stubbornly refused to take stock of our own critical thinking failures. The stupidest thing we could do is try to solve this problem by ignoring our own collective stupidity.”

—Sophia A. McClennen, professor of international affairs, Penn State, “Trolls and Hackers Find It Easy to Trick Americans Because We Are a Nation of Ignoramuses,” AlterNet, March 3, 2018. Image: Southern white-faced owl, San Diego Zoo.

 

• Editorial Comment: Hey! We’re no more stupider than we ever were.

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Night Night








 FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Liberal Leanings

“I would be lying if I did not say that a newsroom that is largely built in Manhattan does not have liberal leanings in the lifestyles and attitudes of its employees. That would be nuts if I said that.”

—Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times, at Financial News “The Future of News” forum, March 22, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: He’s nuts.

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April’s Humor Issue of Senior News Comes Out Today
Sneak Peek Here.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness 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. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Squeaky Clean

 

“When Adlai Stevenson ran for president in 1952, he famously complained that ad agencies sold political candidates like soap. These days, we might long for the times in which candidates were sold like soap. Soap ads, after all, use words like ‘bright,’ ‘fresh’ and ‘clean.’” 

—Scott Simon, host, Weekend Edition Saturday, “A Country Divided, Click by Click,” NPR, March 24, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: As opposed to, for example, “slimy,” “immoral” and “putrid.”

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#MarchForOurLives

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Critical Thinking Will Save Us

“[F]or every journalist peeling away at the layers [of news stories], there are many more of us pontificating about what’s been revealed so far, no matter how little of it there is, no matter how shakily it’s been established. Americans have seemingly grown accustomed to this. They may even hunger for it. With just a few clicks of the mouse or taps on the remote, they find something to confirm their prejudices, to validate their perspectives. And the gratification is almost instant.” 

 

—Frank Bruni, op-ed columnist, “Full Screed Ahead,” The New York Times, May 31, 2014.

 

• Editorial Comment: Hey, tell me what I think.

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Good Morning, Moon

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Enough Is Enough

“Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.

“In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts . . . dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller — all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of ‘deep-state’ machinations — I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”

—Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, former Fox News strategic analyst, in memo to Fox employees explaining why he quit. See “Fox News Contributor Is Suddenly Self-Aware,” Esquire, March 21, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: The colonel, in my view, is a slow learner. But better late than never.

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Left-Leaning

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Hold That Line!

“The press’s worst day was when I came in. The press wants to take down the president. I stand between the press and the president. They have to take me down first.” 

—John Kelly, White House chief of staff, “John Kelly’s day from hell,” Axios, March 17, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Remember, general, you’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you.

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Dark Sky

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Fake-Out

News Bulletin: 50 million Facebook users’ personal data “harvested” by Trump-linked dirty tricks elections company.

“The company at the centre of the Facebook data breach boasted of using honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world, a new investigation reveals.

“Executives from Cambridge Analytica spoke to undercover reporters from Channel 4 News about the dark arts used by the company to help clients, which included entrapping rival candidates in fake bribery stings and hiring prostitutes to seduce them.

“In one exchange, the company chief executive, Alexander Nix, is recorded telling reporters: ‘It sounds a dreadful thing to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed.’”

—Emma Graham-Harrison, Carole Cadwalladr and Hillary Osborne, reporters, “Cambridge Analytical boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections,” The Guardian, March 19, 2018.

 

• Editorial Comment: It’s Tuesday. Do you know where your Facebook data has been?



• Related: “How Facebook likes could profile voters for manipulation,” WaPost.

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It’s Calla Season

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

What Would Molly Do?

“Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” 

—Molly Ivins (1944-2007), newspaper columnist and speaker of truth to power, “The Fun’s in the Fight,” Mother Jones, May/June 1993.

 

• Editorial Comment: Can’t you just hear Molly in full roar today, wherever she is? Lord, she’d be having a blast.

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Skunk Cabbage

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard