The Old Days

“Unsurprisingly, it was love at first sight once he entered the newsroom. ‘People were shouting. Typewriters clattered and chinged. Beneath my feet I could feel the rumble of the presses,’ he recalls. ‘In my whole life I had never heard such glorious chaos or seen such purposeful commotion as I now beheld in that newsroom. By the time I had walked from one end to the other, I knew that I wanted to be a newspaperman.’ Bernstein quickly graduated from copyboy to the dictation desk, the now-extinct place where reporters once phoned in their stories and where Bernstein’s typing skills won accolades from top editors. It didn’t take long for the talented kid to find himself at a local hangout, swilling after-deadline martinis with The Star’s stars.”

—Jill Abrahamson, reviewing Carl Bernstein’s memoir, “Chasing History.” “Carl Bernstein’s Eulogy for the Newspaper Business,” The New York Times, Jan. 7, 2022. (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Ferrell.)

• Editorial Comment: And that’s the way it was.

 

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In January, Senior News takes A Walk on the Creative Side.

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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

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