Today's Word—Free Expression

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Shin-Kickers of the Court:

“I attack ideas. I don’t attack people. And some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can't separate the two, you gotta get another day job. You don’t want to be a judge. At least not a judge on a multi-member panel. . . . I can be charming and combative at the same time. What’s contradictory between the two? I love to argue. I’ve always loved to argue. And I love to point out the weaknesses of the opposing arguments. It may well be that I'm something of a shin kicker. It may well be that I’m something of a contrarian.”
—Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, see “60 Minutes” transcript 2008.

NOTE: Scalia speaks today at Utah State University on “Freedom and the Rule of Law,” noon, Taggart Student Center

Today's Word—Campaign Rhetoric

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Forget the Facts, M’am; Make ’em Laugh:

“People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.”
—Robert Keith Leavitt, author & journalist

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are no false opinions.”

Pease’s Soapbox:

This is a pretty fair (and balanced?) capsule of how political decision-making works in this country. Far from the Age of Reason, Campaign 2008 is all about Sales. And Sales means Branding and Message and Misdirection and Emotion. The Bush Administration was famously accomplished in staying On Message, and most in the press and the American Flock queued up like sheep. The results play out daily in Iraq and worldwide.

The candidates of 2008 have learned these lessons well. Rather than offer more complex and difficult policy options, which are required to make significant differences in the lives of Americans, Obama and McCain fall back not just on sound-bites, but on mini-bites: “Change!” “Hope!” “New!” “Improved!” This is straight out of Madison Avenue. It means as much as a Cialis commercial.

What “change”? Whose “change”? What does it mean? We Americans have become so accustomed to the shorthand of the Information Age that we accept the emotional promise as a down payment on the substance it implies. But the principle payment never comes. Of course we all want “change”—70 percent of us do after seven-plus years of the Bush administration. But we need to be a little smarter than Pavlov’s dogs as we digest the latest “change” promise. What does Obama mean when he rides the Change Wave? And McCain’s version of “change”—does it mean Sarah Palin and a rifle, or is there more to it? (This is an important question in assessing a 71-year-old senator who has backed the Bush administration 90 percent of the time....)

Today’s WORDster, Mr. Leavitt, suggests that an emotional pitch—promising cleaner hair and fewer zits, for example—is more palatable and accessible to Americans than facts. Facts require word—hard work—including individual assessment, critical thinking, a knowledge base that most of us are too lazy to acquire. So just promise us “change,” Mr. Wannbe President—Lord knows, it’s worked before.

Today's Word—A Moment of Silence

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Compelling Narrative:

“The story of the . . . catastrophic intelligence failure that led up to the attacks is told with relish by the authors of The 9/11 Commission Report. Borrowing a technique from the intelligence services, publishers WW Norton refused to confirm or deny to The Observer whether the report was rewritten by John Grisham or Robert Ludlum to give it some narrative muscle. They claim it was the joint work of the Commission’s Republican and Democrat members.

“But I’d like to know which veteran member of Congress wrote the opening lines: ‘Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work.... For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and pleasant journey. Among the travellers were Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari, who arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine.’

Who wouldn’t read on?”

—Martin Bright, columnist, The Observer, 2004 (See complete column.)

Speak up! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome. After all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are no false opinions.”

Pease’s Soapbox:

Along with the murders of JFK, MLK and RFK, “the Day Which Will Live in Infamy,” and the “giant leap for mankind,” 9/11 was one of those irrefutably defining moments in the collective American memory. We all remember where we were when we heard, unbelieving, that planes had struck the World Trade Towers. The world truly changed on that day.

On this anniversary, it’s not only worthwhile but essential to remember the event, the politics of hate that spawned it, and the national and global mindset that have resulted from it. Neither war nor terror is a new concept, but the new global political and cultural iteration that grew from 9/11 was and is new, and warps us all.

Today's Word—Deep Thinking

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Deep Thoughts

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.”
—John Allston, writer and deep thinker

Pease’s Soapbox:
And, if you've had any experience with my mind, you’ll agree that that’s not necessarily a bad thing....

But—as usual—during this crucial presidential campaign homestretch, independent critical thinking and decision-making seems in short supply, in the unwashed masses, the press and the candidates alike. Pandering, soundbites, accusations, kneejerkery, demagoguery, brainless partisanship. Don’t know how to promote more independent thought (lord knows I've tried!)—maybe Mr. Allston does—but how about we all try to pay less attention to that man behind the curtain, whoever it is for you, and try to engage our own brains.

Today's Word—Puppy Swat

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NOTE: Due to a death in the family,the WORD will be away until Wednesday. But keep that wisdom flowing!

More Than a Puppy-Swatter:

“You know what people use these for? They roll them up and swat their puppies for wetting on the rug. They spread them on the floor when they’re painting the walls. They wrap fish in them, shred them up and pack their two-bit china in them when they move. Or else they pile up in the garbage until an inspector declares them a fire hazard! But this also happens to be a couple of more things! It’s got print on it that tells stories that hundreds of good men all over the world have broken their backs to get. It gives a lot of information to a lot of people who wouldn’t have known about it if we hadn’t taken the trouble to tell them. It’s the sum total of the work of a lot of guys who don’t quit. It’s a newspaper . . . and it only costs 10 cents, that’s all. But if you only read the comic section or the want ads, it’s still the best buy for your money in the world.”
—William Conrad, actor, playing a crusty city editor in “30,” 1959

Today's Word—Pitbulls

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Political Discourse:

“You know what’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.”
—Sarah Palin, GOP veep candidate and Alaska governor, in her speech to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last night (9/3/08)


(R.J. Matson, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2008)


(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2008)

Reax: Palin Speech Gets Rave Reviews
—U.S. News & World Report (Click here.)

After two days of unrelenting negative coverage, media analysts last night and this morning almost universally lavished praise on Gov. Sarah Palin’s convention speech. Immediate reaction by the broadcast punditry was positive. On NBC, Tom Brokaw said a few moments after Palin concluded, “Tonight makes a very auspicious debut as the vice presidential candidate before this hall and a national television audience. She could not have been more winning or engaging.”

On CBS, Bob Schieffer said after the speech, “I think she passed the first test. The people in this hall absolutely loved this speech. Now we'll see how it plays with the rest of the country.” On ABC, George Stephanopoulos said, “There were a lot beautiful and effective lines in this speech.” On ABC’s Nightline, Stephanopoulos added, “She definitely gets an A. ... It was appealing and funny and warm at times. Very, very tough at times as well. And she really did have an ability to bring these things down to earth, bring it down to earth.” . . .

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer said, “She really did hit it out of the park tonight not only here but for millions of Americans watching across the country. No doubt...their first real impression of her had to be very, very positive given this speech that was obviously very carefully written but very well delivered.” Anderson Cooper added, “If anyone is wondering why she is such a popular governor in the state of Alaska, you saw the answer tonight.” . . .

Print coverage this morning is echoing the praise in front page story across the nation. The New York Times reports on its front page that Palin’s appearance “electrified a convention that has been consumed by questions of whether she was up to the job,” while the Washington Post says on its front page that Palin “may be controversial, risky and untested on the national stage. But at the convention Wednesday night,” she “proved to be an instant jolt of energy for a political party that has been worried and demoralized for much of 2008.”

Today's Word—Meddlesome Politicos

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Free Press?

“It will be a cold day in Death Valley before I ever allow an elected official to tell me what to put in the paper.”
—Jay Evensen, editorial page editor, The Deseret Morning News
(quoted in Paul Rolly column, Salt Lake Tribune, 8/31/08. See column here.)

Pease’s Soapbox:
The Back Story: Evensen’s comment comes as members of the Utah Legislature have launched attacks in the blogosphere on DNews political editor Bob Bernick over a story that said the Senate leadership was considering making it harder for Utah citizens to get initiatives on the state ballot.

This has been a hot issue since a citizen-sponsored initiative on last year’s ballot rejected a law passed by the Lege giving tuition tax credits to parents with kids in private schools. The Senate president and majority leader, who Bernick wrote were thinking about toughening the intiative process for citizens during a DNews editorial board meeting, denied it, and said the story got their position wrong. Then legislators started called Bernick “a liar” (among other epithets), and calling for his firing.

This is extreme, even in heavily top-down Utah, especially considering the target is the LDS Church-owned DNews, which is generally on-board with the Utah power structure.

Also unusual is that Evensen’s rebellious and First Amendment-inspired statement above comes as the kicker in a Sunday column by political columnist Paul Rolly in the competing Tribune (“Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871”). In solidarity, Rolly writes:

“Elected government officials and members of the news media often are engaged in a strange, sometimes awkward dance in which each partner tries to lead without stepping too hard on the other’s toes.

Media types view themselves as public watchdogs, with a responsibility to scrutinize government officials, the motives behind their decisions and the impacts they may have on their constituents. For their part, politicians often claim that reporters have agendas and biases of their own.

But a phenomenon that is unprecedented in my experience as a Utah journalist has emerged over the past two weeks that seems, in at least one case, to raise the stakes in the relationship between the news media and members of the Legislature. Several lawmakers have posted blogs accusing a major newspaper of lying and, in so many words, calling for a reporter's head.”

And there’s a pretty good WORD in there, too.

Agree? Disagree? Have a different bone to pick? Click on the Comment link below.

Today's Word—Both Sides Now

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Fair & Balanced?

“A newspaper cannot really congratulate itself on having got all the facts impartially when it has quoted at length from two uninformed idiots on opposing sides of an issue.”
—James Russell Wiggins, former editor & publisher, The Ellsworth (Maine) American, and former managing editor, The Washington Post

Pease’s Soapbox:
I met the estimable Mr. Wiggins in the early 1980s, when I applied for a reporting job at the Ellsworth American—a “retirement hobby” for the former hard-bitten managing editor of the Washington Post. A classic journalistic curmudgeon, Wiggins let me down easy, first by ignoring my application letter and then by meeting me when I wandered into his newsroom without an appointment, and ushering me back out.

Wiggins’s perspective on journalistic “balance,” as exemplified in his quote, illustrates how the tradition of investigation, even muckraking, had devolved by the end of his career (he died at age 96 in 2000). When a network that is anything but can coopt the journalistic ideal “fair and balanced” and strip it of all meaning, then Wiggins’s definition has indeed become the standard of press responsibility. This kind of “balance,” so prevalent in the press today, equates to journalistic sloth and does little to advance citizen discussion and understanding of issues and events.

Agree? Disagree? Have a different bone to pick? Click on the Comment link below.

Today's Word—Truth Is Hard

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Low Expectations:

“A writer hopes to surprise his readers now and then. If we agree about everything, then one of us is redundant. Of course, rigorous truthfulness is good, but that gets harder and harder to achieve. So I settle for being amusing.”
—Garrison Keillor, writer and radio host, 2008

Today's Word—Appalling Silence

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What about well-meaning clamor?

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader

NOTE: Today is the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

Today's Word—The Right to Rant

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On protests at political conventions:

“The citizens of Denver and St. Paul, and Americans everywhere, should hope officials in those cities already have considered both the constitutional and monetary costs of silencing voices that have a right to be heard. . . . Well-expressed or wacky. Irritating or illuminating. Respectful or raucous. There’s nothing in the 45 words of the First Amendment that sets out any such qualifications or limits on protests. Time and again in our history, from women’s suffrage to civil rights to tax protests, to name just some, voices first raised in the streets—to the disgust or disappointment of some—have led to significant, positive changes in law and American life.”
—Gene Policinski, executive director, First Amendment Center, 2008.



John Cole • The Scranton Times-Tribune (8/21/08)

Today's Word—Citizen Skepticism

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On Critical Thinking:

“The media . . . shape perceptions and conceal issues. Look at the 2000 presidential campaign, for example, where the media were so heavily biased against Al Gore. That’s what brought Bush to within a Supreme Court decision of the White House. So if you look at, certainly these last seven years, the role of the media in not telling you reasons why you should be skeptical . . . [is] enormously important.”
—Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and author, The Conscience of a Liberal, 2007

WORD Escapes St. Mumbles, Launches 13th Season

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News Flash!

WORD escapes St. Mumbles; pithy verbiage
again afflicts an unsuspecting planet

LOGAN, Utah--The first panicky whispers came shortly after 2 a.m. as the dreamless sleep of the blissfully ignorant was rent by murky soundbites of quotable insight.

The news spread swiftly from the epicenter in the redwoods of the Northern California coast, where officials at the St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose confirmed early this morning that TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM had once again escaped from its padded maximum conjugation cell.

A breathless Renee Montagne confirmed the worst on National Public Radio from LA shortly after 5 a.m. (PDT): “It’s baaaa-aaack,” she announced, interrupting a breaking news feature on batiking. “The WORD is free and running rampant again. God bless us, every one.”

As the tremor rippled across the globe, a North African sheepherder muttered, “Tu es maître des paroles que tu n'as pas prononcées; tu es esclave de celles qui ne te sont pas échapées.” (“You are master of words you have never spoken; you are slave to those that have escaped you [your lips].”), acccording to alert WORDsters Karl Petruso and Blake Carpenter, who for some reason were lurking in Algerian grazing grounds.

No one was immediately certain what the heck that means.

In Denver, as the Democratic National Coronation, er, "Convention" was set to open, disenfranchsed delegates from Michigan and Florida caucused and promptly announced that they plan to place the WORD in nomination. For what, they were uncertain.

Sporting an “Impeach Cheney” hat, delegate Flora Mae Gerund said, “The heck with Obama. Remember what the real JFK said: ‘Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there isn’t any doubt at all that we could not do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.’ Or, in this case, the WORD!”

Pundit Stephen Colbert, known for his own reticence and abuse of the English language, cackled from Comedy Central, “It’s the 13th coming of the New Truthiness!”

As the mingled joy and horror spread, news that the WORD had once again shimmied down the drainpipe at St. Mumbles to launch its 13th horrific season of punditry and verbiage prompted the most violent response in the journalism department at Utah State University, which spawned the global online affliction in 1995.

(If you are one of my students--and if you are, everyone pities you--your assignment is to define both “punditry” and “verbiage,” and use each in a sentence that makes their meaning clear. Note: Wikipedia is NOT an accepted source!)

Back-story: The WORD was concocted (“conceived” is, I think, altogether too grand) as a way to get my journalism students to pay attention to their email. Strange as it may sound, email was then a new and unpleasant disturbance of the general peace, and many students did not then spend 16 hours a day online. As a professor hoping to get and keep their attention while also instructing them, my object was that the WORD would give them something to think about before class, and which might go on their quizzes.

I think it’s fair to say that this strategy was a dismal failure. Most of my students continue to ignore their daily WORDs and gaily accept point reductions on their quizzes for not knowing the day's wordish wisdom from philosophers ranging from Soren Kierkegaard to Brian Williams to Lisa Simpson.

But the WORD has become rather frighteningly popular with non-students, grown-ups, mostly, who actually ask to be afflicted or who send email addresses of unsuspecting friends/colleagues/parents/bosses, so that they might be victimized as well.

When the WORD was trundled by those nice white-jacketed men into St. Mumbles Sanitarium last spring, approximately 1,600 (mostly volunteer) victims subscribed to the direct email WORD list. More got the WORD by checking the website, and many more unsuspecting victims were forwarded the daily spam.

As usual, we launch this season with the ever-useful wisdom of the genial former colonial guv’ner of Virginia, whose high regard for both education and the press still rings with an increasingly popular fervor today. Enjoy!

TODAY’S WORD ON JOURNALISM—THE SEASON OPENER (8/25/08)

“I thank God we have no free schools or printing, and I hope that we shall not have these for a hundred years. For learning has brought disobediences and heresy and sects into the world; and printing has divulged them and libels against the government. God keep us from both.”
—Sir William Berkeley
Governor, Virginia Colony, 1671

And that's the WORD.

* * * * *
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,600 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don't want it anymore, send "unsubscribe." Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: While I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of insight.)

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
http://www.usu.edu/journalism/faculty/pease/
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, send "subscribe" to ted.pease@usu.edu
See the WORD online at the Hard News Café: http://www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu
“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

A Final WORD (for now)

Back to St. Mumbles

This marks the end of yet another season (the 12th? 13th?) of TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM. It’s been another good run, mostly: As Papa Hemingway would have said (did, in fact): “I have tried simply to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”

That’s not been so hard in my case, since the WORDmeister’s job is simply to crib and collect the words of others—all better than I. One of those better writers—I forget who just at the moment—said an essential element of good writing is knowing when to quit. So I’m taking that advice.

Longtime WORD subscribers know what happens next: Every May, more or less at this time, classes end at Utah State, the students and faculty flee, and those nice but firm young men from St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose come and take the WORD away to the sanitarium for the summer. No one minds, really. It gets a bit quieter in cyberspace, and the WORD himself needs the time and space for a little reflective conjugation and electroshock.

For myself, this epitaph (or epithet), which I’ve used before. But I am pooped and I need the rest, if only until August . . . when the WORD will escape St. Mumbles and I will rise again.

Under the sod and under the trees
Lies the body of Edward Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod:
Pease shelled out and went to God.
—From an 1880s gravestone on Nantucket Island, Mass. (lightly edited)

Have a wonderful, restful summer.
TP

Today's Word—Big Bleeding Heart

Liberal Patriot:

“Molly Ivins was an unabashed patriot, and it drove right-wingers nuts. Conservatives somehow got it fixed in their brains that patriotism meant being in lockstep with their ideology, that dissent was treason. Molly made a career of reminding them otherwise, always careful to point out how cute they were when they acted like fools.”
—Gary Cartwright, senior editor, Texas Monthly, 2007.



Molly Ivins (1944-2007), a sharp-witted and clear-eyed columnist who died of cancer last year, was an unapologetic liberal. She once observed, “There’s nothing you can do about being born liberal—fish gotta swim and hearts gotta bleed.” (See 2007 tribute.)

Today's Word—Cuban Journalists

Captive Voices:

“Freedom of expression is an irreplaceable support for freedom of conscience, on which is founded modern political democracy as well as any other regime that hopes for international respect. The jailing of dissident journalists holds hostage not only their liberties but also the liberty of the entire Cuban people, who deserve to know the political alternatives to the dictatorial regime under which they suffer today.”
—Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher, writer and activist, 2005
(Click here for story.)

Today's Word—Not Too Many Facts

Twain on Truth: A little bit goes a long way...

“I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts. I don’t know anything that mars good literature so completely as too much truth. Facts contain a deal of poetry, but you can’t use too many of them without damaging your literature.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer, in a 1907 speech, “The Savage Club Dinner”

Today's Word—On Photojournalism

A theory of photojournalism

“You have to be a pineapple. You have to have a hundred eyes.”
—Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist and inspiration for “The Killing Fields”(1984).

Today's Word—Sex

Why op-ed pages thrive

“People like to argue more than have sex. If you don't think that’s true, count how many arguments you’ve had in the past month.”
—Lee Judge, editorial cartoonist, at national editorial writers convention, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Dick Hughes)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 1945, Russian troops took Berlin and Nazis surrendered in Italy and Austria.
. . . In 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died.
. . . In 1670, the Hudson Bay Co. received English King Charles’s charter.
. . . In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show debuted on NBC’s Blue Network.
. . . In 1939, ailing Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive-game streak ended when he pulled himself from the Yankees’ lineup.
. . . In 1972, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director for 48 years, died at 77.

Birthdays:
72 . . . Englebert Humperdinck, singer
63 . . . Bianca Jagger, actress
62 . . . Lesley Gore, singer
33 . . . David Beckham, soccer player
23 . . . Sarah Hughes, figure skater
• Benjamin Spock (1903-1998), baby doc
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Italian composer
• Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Hungarian journalist; first president of the World Zionist Organization
• Manfred Richthofen (1892-1918), Germany’s WWI “Red Baron”

Today's Word—Trafficking in Semi-colons

Punctuating New York

“In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a ‘New York sentence.’ In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.”
—Sam Roberts, reporter, The New York Times, in a story about semicolons in the subway
(Click here to see story.) (Thanks to alert and literate WORDster Tom Hodges)

On This Day . . .
. . . In 2003, Mission Accomplished! President George W. Bush landed a Navy fighter on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared major combat in Iraq over.
. . . In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane and captured pilot Gary S. Powers.
. . . In 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created by merging England and Scotland.
. . . In 1941, Orson Welles’s new film “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.
. . . In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.

Birthdays:
83 . . . Chuck Bednarik, football player
69 . . . Judy Collins, singer
57 . . . Dann Florek, actor (“Law and Order: SUV”)
Kate Smith (1907-1986), singer
Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), English general; defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)
Jose Alencar (1829-1877), Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), American labor organizer known as “Mother Jones”