Friday, March 11, 2022

Sublime Fool

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

—Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), sublime writing fool, quoted in Jon Winokur, “Advice to Writers,” 2000.

 

• Editorial Comment: Craziness, foolishness, madness . . . check.

 

PeezPIX 

Sadie: The Look, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Thursday, March 10, 2022

The CIA's Loss


“The Fox News host Tucker Carlson briefly went to a Swiss boarding school before reportedly being kicked out. He went on to graduate from Trinity College. In a 1991 yearbook entry, he described himself as being part of the ‘Dan White Society,’ an apparent allusion to the homophobe who killed San Francisco’s mayor, George Moscone, and supervisor Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, in 1978.

“After graduation, The Columbia Journalism Review reported, ‘Carlson applied to the C.I.A., but his application was denied, so he turned to journalism. ‘You should consider journalism,’ his father told him. ‘They’ll take anybody.’”

—Charles Blow, opinion writer, “Demanding That Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘Show Her Papers’,” The New York Times, March 6, 2022. (Thanks to alert WORDster Andrew Merton)






• Editorial Comment: Tucker would have done less damage in the CIA.

  


PeezPIX 

Kinetic Bikers, Arcata, CA, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

‘Information Dark Age’

“President Vladimir Putin has plunged Russia into an information dark age by criminalizing independent reporting of his war in Ukraine. Mention of the word ‘invasion’ in a report could now get a journalist sent to jail for years.

“Journalists everywhere must stand in solidarity with their Russian colleagues and foreign correspondents based in Russia in rejecting this barbarous censorship. For his last two decades in power Putin tolerated a handful of critical news outlets that provided a trickle of truth in a sea of state propaganda. But this legislation and website blocking have effectively dried up the free flow of information.” 

—Robert Mahoney, executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists, “CPJ: ‘Putin has plunged Russia into an information dark age,’” CPJ, March 7, 2022. Image:
Residents of Irpin, Ukraine, north of Kyiv, flee heavy fighting as Russian forces entered the city on Monday NPR. Chris McGrath.


• Editorial Comment: How about an airdrop of world newspapers over Moscow?

  


PeezPIX 

Ukraine woman tells Russian soldier: “Put sunflower seeds in your pockets so they grow on Ukraine soil when you die.”

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

International Women’s Day 2022

“In 1864, Elizabeth Jane Cochrane — better known today by her nom-de-plume — had an astonishing career as a reporter, spanning thirty-seven years. In that time she entirely redefined the role of women in newspapers, helped to invent undercover.”

 ―Nellie Bly (1864-1922), investigative journalist, “Nellie Bly's World: Her Complete Reporting, 1887-1888.” About Nellie Bly.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 



• Editorial Comment: Around the world before there was an International Women’s Day.

  


PeezPIX 

Up the Trinity, 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

 

Monday, March 7, 2022

Unforced Error

“Serena Williams called out The New York Times Wednesday after the paper published an article about her venture fund but used a photo of her sister, Venus.

“‘No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it's not enough. This is why I raised $111M for @serenaventures. To support the founders who are overlooked by engrained systems woefully unaware of their biases. Because even I am overlooked. You can do better @nytimes.’”

 

—Serena Williams, tennis star and philanthropist, “Serena Williams calls out NYTimes after paper erroneously prints photo of Venus,” CNN, March 2, 2022.

 

 






• Editorial Comment: Systemic racism, NYT?

 

PeezPIX 

Morning Mist, 2008.

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism


Friday, March 4, 2022

‘A Dark & Frightening Era’

 

“‘Putin launched a war both against Ukraine and the independent media inside Russia,’ CNN's Bianna Golodryga said, so that his propaganda, ‘and nothing else, can be disseminated to the Russian people.’”

 

“TV Rain, [an] independent Russian outlet . . ., had to suspend broadcasting on Thursday.” . . . 

 

“According to Golodryga, ‘One of the executives at TV Rain told the team they were put in a terrible position: either toe the Kremlin line by reporting propaganda and falsehoods, or suspend operations. They chose the right option, because ultimately as journalists, they can’t lie.’”

 

“In Golodryga’s words, ‘Russia has entered a dark and frightening era.’”

 

—Brian Stelter, “Reliable Sources,” CNN, March 3, 2022. Note: Reports Thursday p.m. of heavy Russian assaults and fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, northeast of Kherson.



• Editorial Comment: So have we all.

  


PeezPIX 

A Boy & His Dog, 2012.

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Thursday, March 3, 2022

‘Just the Truth’

 

“While his editorials lean left, he works hard to report the news straight. But in an America of competing visions, some here say he has taken sides.

“Nowhere in the Monitor-News, for example, will you find reports that local people are dying because they’ve been inoculated.

“‘There are no alternative facts,’ Anfinson says. ‘There is just the truth.’”

—Reed Anfinson, publisher, editor, photographer and reporter for the Swift County (Minn.) Monitor-News, Tim Sullivan, “In one small prairie town, two warring visions of America,” The Associated Press, Jan. 27, 2022.

 


• Editorial Comment: Ah, the quaint small-town press. . . .

 

PeezPIX 

What a star!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

‘Truly Bleak’


“In measuring the collapse of local news, there is arguably no more important metric than the number of local reporters. Though precise numbers are hard to come by, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an astounding 57 percent decline in newspaper newsroom employees — from 71,640 to 30,820 — since 2004. 

“Depressingly, academic studies show that the local news collapse has likely led to lower voter turnout and bond ratings, and more corruption, waste, air pollution, and corporate crime. 

“It is a truly bleak picture.”

—Steve Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America,“Our Local News Situation Is Even Worse Than We Think,” Columbia Journalism Review, Feb. 25, 2022. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tony Seton) Image: SF Chronicle managing editor Larry Fanning in healthier days, ~1950.

 


• Editorial Comment: Reporters are an endangered species. So is participatory democracy.

 

 

PeezPIX 

Gratuitous Self-Promotion: In light of Today's Depressing WORD, I will proudly promote the March issue of Senior News, Age & Ageism, for one last day. Circulating 10,000/month, all original writing/reporting (except for the crossword), Senior News is alive and well in Humboldt County. Check it out!
 
 
FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Free Press

“Journalism is a human enterprise, so it’s inevitably a flawed one, and everyone loves to be a critic. But as I constantly refresh the live scroll of updates from our colleagues in and around Ukraine, I’m in awe at what a free press does and can do. That kind of freedom is also what the people of Ukraine are now fighting to preserve. Nobody should be indifferent to their fate or fail to understand who’s on the right side of this battle.”

—Bret Stephens, opinion columnist, “Putin Is Spinning the Globe Faster and Faster,” The New York Times, Feb. 28, 2022. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Ferrell) Image: Ukraine troops after turning back Russians in Kyiv. Agence France-Press.




• Editorial Comment: Even bad news is good news.

 

PeezPIX 

Utah Snow Dog, 2009






 

Read all about it! The March issue of Senior News: Age & Ageism. Check it out!

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide 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: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)
 
“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

_____________
Edward C. Pease
, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism