Wednesday, January 23, 2019

A Great Lady



“I was, and still am, dumbfounded, surprised, but most of all disappointed and aghast that a once historically courageous American newspaper that exists by reason of freedom of speech would so trivially move to abate the free speech that it seems, when convenient, to hypocritically champion. And over a relatively innocuous sentence. … My mom would have been offended.” 

—Art Williams, after the Louisville Courier-Journal censored his 87-year-old mother’s obituary. “Kentucky newspaper removes criticism of Trump from woman's obituary,” The Guardian, Jan. 17, 2019. Image: Family photo, Fran Williams and husband, Bruce


The offending sentence deleted from the obituary of Frances Irene Finley Williams: “Her passing was hastened by her continued frustration with the Trump administration.”


Editorial Comment: No wonder Gannett’s for sale.



PeezPix

Wellsvilles in Winter





 








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

No comments:

Post a Comment