Media Diet

.

“One of the biggest challenges we have in our democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of fact. . . . 

“What the Russians exploited, but it was already here, is we are operating in completely different information universes. If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than if you listen to NPR.” 

—Barack Obama, 44^th U.S. president, interviewed by David Letterman on “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” Netflix, Jan. 12, 2018. Click here for story. Click here for video excerpt.

• Editorial Comment: In the media universe, you are what you eat.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Park! Excitement!












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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

MLK Jr. Day

.

“To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” 

“Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” 

“If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, brethren! Be careful, teachers!”

—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), as an 18-year-old student at Morehouse College, writing in the student newspaper, The Maroon, 1947. 
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, 21 years later.

• Editorial Comment: Intelligence plus character is in woefully short supply these days.

• Related: Peniel E. Joseph, “How Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination changed America 50 years ago and still affects us today,” The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2018. 
• MLK Photo Galleries: Time magazine. CBS News.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Peace Stream









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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Free Gift*

.
BONUS! An extra-value party favor of exciting new (old) words, intended for WORDfans and other strange language folk only. While not specifically journalism-related, many of these recently retrieved terms surely have newsroom applications — kakistrocracy, fudgel, philogrobilized and ultrakrepidarian among them.

Please vote early and often for your favorite(s) and how/where you might use them. 

20 Awesome Historical Words We Need to Bring Back

Remember, as Tom Stoppard said, Writers aren’t sacred, but words might be.

* Extra points, copydesk, if you dinged me for this headline.
.

Well-Rounded Diet

.

“When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”

—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer of books and newspaper articles, in “The Prince and the Pauper,” 1881.

• Editorial Comment: I had to put my book down, he confessed. My brain was full.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Follow the Light











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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Insatiable Dedication

.

“[W]e all know the press is under siege these days. We also know its insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice, to tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times.” 

—Oprah Winfrey, actress, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes Awards, Jan. 7, 2018. Transcript here; video here.

• Editorial Comment: We’re ready for a re-do, Mr. DeMille.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Crab Season Opens Monday










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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Extra! Bumpkins

.

“If the big-city papers are the Fourth Estate, we are the One-Fourth Estate from the land of bumpkins, rubes and hayseeds.”

  —Loren Ghiglione, former small-town newspaper editor/publisher and journalism educator, 1992.

• Editorial Comment: Sounds like a country law firm.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Hagood’s Hardware, Orick, California










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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Re-A-Risen

.

“Preservation of a free, unfettered press has a long history in our country, allowing ordinary citizens to learn what their government is up to and to question actions carried out in their name. . . . A big part of doing our jobs is giving our word to protect whistle blowers. 

“James Risen has done his job for many years at the highest level. That's why he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. More importantly, it's why his sources trust him. 

“I urge the Attorney General not to prosecute Mr. Risen for standing by his word to a source. Prosecuting Mr. Risen would not only send a chilling message to other journalists seeking to continue our country's great tradition of freedom of the press. It would diminish America's reputation in the eyes of the world as a place that values truth. Our country is better than that.”  

—Mark Johnson, 2011 Pultizer Prize winner, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in “Pulitzer Prize Winners’ Statements in Support of James Risen,” protesting Obama administration measures to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his sources, August 2014.

• Editorial Comment: “A place that values truth.” Wouldn’t that be swell.

• See The Intercept. Risen quit the NYTimes, which knuckled under to White House pressure and failed to support his reporting. He has published a 15,000-word piece at The Intercept, “All the News Unfit: James Risen on His Battles with Bush, Obama and The New York Times,” Jan. 3, 2018.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Home Port












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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

928 Days

.

“There’s social media, there’s the internet, the news cycles are faster. I think Watergate would have occurred at a much more accelerated speed than the 928 days it took to go from the arrest at the Watergate to the conviction of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and Mitchell, et al. 

“There’s more likelihood he might have survived if there’d been a Fox News.”

—John Dean, Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, 1970-73, “Off Message,” Politico, Jan. 3, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: There’s a cheery thought.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

January Sky









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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Tube Time

.

“Trump was desperately wounded by his treatment in the mainstream media. He obsessed on every slight until it was overtaken by the next slight. Slights were singled out and replayed again and again, his mood worsening with each replay (he was always rerunning the DVR). Much of the president’s daily conversation was a repetitive rundown of what various anchors and hosts had said about him.” 

—Michael Wolff, journalist and author, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” yet to be released.

• Editorial Comment: For the love of God, somebody grab the remote!

• NYTimes: “After Trump Seeks to Block Book, Publisher Hastens Release,” Jan. 4, 2018.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Woodley Island







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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

Easy Reading

.

Remembering Art

“I don’t know how well I’ve done while I was here, but I’d like to think some of my printed works will persevere — at least for three years.” 

—Art Buchwald (1925-2007), Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and humorist, in one of his final columns, published after his death. This month, the Library of Congress acquired 100,000 Buchwald papers. See Caitlin Gibson’s “Art Buchwald’s archives are bound for the Library of Congress. He would have been thrilled,” The Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2018. Image: Charles Bennett/AP, 1977.

• Editorial Comment: That’s worth a trip to the library.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Santa’s Ride












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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

The Watchdog Barks

.

Open Government

“Without newspapers at the helm to instigate, coordinate, and finance legal change, much, if not most, of the nation’s important constitutional and statutory open-government law of the last generation simply would not have come to pass.” 

—RonNell Andersen Jones, law professor and former newspaper editor, “Campbell: Legislators can’t blame open-records woes on media,” The Salt Lake Tribune, March 2011.

• Editorial Comment: That was then. . .


PeezPix by Ted Pease

The Watchdog’s Nose












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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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

No. 1 in America

.

Bird’s Gotta Fly 

“It’s not just that it is the chief global distributor of unfact and untruth but that it distributes unfact and untruth with a bluster, an arrogance, a gonad-grabbing swagger, that implicitly and intentionally dares you to believe fact and truth matter. 

“Many of us have gotten used to this. We don’t even bother to protest Fox being Fox. Might as well protest a sewer for stinking.”

—Leonard Pitts, syndicated columnist, “Why serious people discount Fox News,” The Miami Herald, 2015.

• Editorial Comment: Be all that you can be.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Down to the Sea in Ships








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, to infinity and beyond. 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. 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

“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