Friday, February 26, 2021

Irresistible Truth

 

“What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.”

—Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), Russian poet and novelist, author of Dr. Zhivago (1957).

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editorial Comment: Truth!? We can’t handle the truth!



 

 

PeezPIX

 

500,007+ dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

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

 

 


Thursday, February 25, 2021

Big Win for News Biz

News Flash: Australia passes law requiring Facebook and other online platforms to pay news organizations for their news.

“We are very happy with the passage of the [Australian] Bargaining Code and think it is a real turning point in building a sustainable future for digital journalism.

“The platforms are required to negotiate with publishers about value, and the system is ultimately backed by arbitration. Anyone who doesn’t view that as a big win for the news business isn’t paying attention. We are now going to bring the fight back to the U.S.”

—David Chavern, the president of the News Media Alliance, which represents U.S. newspaper publishers, CNN Reliable Sources newsletter, Feb. 24, 2021.

 

Editorial Comment: No more free lunch, Zuck.



 

PeezPIX

 

Starry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

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

 

 


Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Ferlinghetti

 

Note: By the time he died Monday at 101, Lawrence Ferlinghetti had been the voice of several generations, starting in the 1950s, when he almost accidentally co-founded San Francisco’s famed City Lights Bookstore, which became a home of the Beat movement. When he published “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg in 1956, he was arrested for publishing obscenity and became an outspoken critic of censorship. The charges were dismissed because the court identified “redeeming social significance” in the work, a distinction that endures as essential in free expression. RIP.



“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,


and whose shepherds mislead them.


Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,


and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.


Pity the nation that raises not its voice,


except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero


and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.


Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own


and no other culture but its own.


Pity the nation whose breath is money


and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.


Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode


and their freedoms to be washed away.


My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”


 

―Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), beat poet and bookstore owner, “Pity the Nation,” 2007.

 

 

  

Editorial Comment: Keep the faith.


NYTimes obit: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 101.”

 

Bonus: Perhaps Ferlinghetti’s last published poem, “Trump’s Trojan Horse,” The Nation, 2017.

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Sadie Bigmouth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 


Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Disheartening



“[I]n a heartbreaking symbol, the First Amendment on the Newseum building is being dismantled. A troubling reminder of how many Americans now view the media and the freedom of the press, wouldn’t you say?” 

 

—Tom Jones, senior media writer, “The removal of the First Amendment from the Newseum building is a disheartening sight,” Poynter, Feb. 17, 2021. (Thanks to alert WORDster Mark Larson) 

 


 

 

 

 

Editorial Comment: Congress shall make no . . .

 

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Say Goodnight, Gracie . .

 

 

 

    

 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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

 

 


Monday, February 22, 2021

What a Rush


“His show was irreverent. It was funny. It was caustic, and it was, contrary to the beliefs of his opponents, often insightful. Rush had a unique gift for boiling down political issues to understandable language. . . . Where Mr. [William F.] Buckley wrote for those with graduate degrees, Rush talked to those with high school diplomas, without talking down to them.” 

 

—Ben Shapiro, conservative radio host, “The House That Rush Built,” New York Times, Feb. 20, 2021.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editorial Comment: The airwaves are quieter tonight.

 

NYTimes Obit: Robert D. McFadden and Michael Grynbaum, “Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70; Turned Talk Radio Into a Right-Wing Attack Machine,” Feb. 17, 2021.

    

 

 

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Puffy Sky (yesterday)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







 

In February’s Senior News . . . All You Need Is Love.

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