Alarming Times

“I am alarmed at how much non-factual material is out there, how gleefully it’s generated, and how exciting it is to read and pass around. 

“I know everyone in this room is very familiar with all this but I just wanna say: I’m disturbed by how often when I’m out reporting, I find myself in conversations with people I like a lot. Lovely people, good people, who say things that are just not close to being true.

“That’s what I find most alarming about this moment we’re living through.”

—Ira Glass, radio host, This American Life, in commencement speech to the Class of 2018 at Columbia Journalism School, June 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Isn’t it true if we believe it?

PeezPix 

1822 Sonoma Street
 

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“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