Why op-ed pages thrive
“People like to argue more than have sex. If you don't think that’s true, count how many arguments you’ve had in the past month.”
—Lee Judge, editorial cartoonist, at national editorial writers convention, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Dick Hughes)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1945, Russian troops took Berlin and Nazis surrendered in Italy and Austria.
. . . In 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died.
. . . In 1670, the Hudson Bay Co. received English King Charles’s charter.
. . . In 1932, Jack Benny’s first radio show debuted on NBC’s Blue Network.
. . . In 1939, ailing Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive-game streak ended when he pulled himself from the Yankees’ lineup.
. . . In 1972, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director for 48 years, died at 77.
Birthdays:
72 . . . Englebert Humperdinck, singer
63 . . . Bianca Jagger, actress
62 . . . Lesley Gore, singer
33 . . . David Beckham, soccer player
23 . . . Sarah Hughes, figure skater
• Benjamin Spock (1903-1998), baby doc
• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), Italian composer
• Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Hungarian journalist; first president of the World Zionist Organization
• Manfred Richthofen (1892-1918), Germany’s WWI “Red Baron”
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Today's Word—Trafficking in Semi-colons
Punctuating New York
“In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a ‘New York sentence.’ In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.”
—Sam Roberts, reporter, The New York Times, in a story about semicolons in the subway
(Click here to see story.) (Thanks to alert and literate WORDster Tom Hodges)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 2003, Mission Accomplished! President George W. Bush landed a Navy fighter on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared major combat in Iraq over.
. . . In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane and captured pilot Gary S. Powers.
. . . In 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created by merging England and Scotland.
. . . In 1941, Orson Welles’s new film “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.
. . . In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
Birthdays:
83 . . . Chuck Bednarik, football player
69 . . . Judy Collins, singer
57 . . . Dann Florek, actor (“Law and Order: SUV”)
Kate Smith (1907-1986), singer
Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), English general; defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)
Jose Alencar (1829-1877), Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), American labor organizer known as “Mother Jones”
“In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a ‘New York sentence.’ In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.”
—Sam Roberts, reporter, The New York Times, in a story about semicolons in the subway
(Click here to see story.) (Thanks to alert and literate WORDster Tom Hodges)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 2003, Mission Accomplished! President George W. Bush landed a Navy fighter on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared major combat in Iraq over.
. . . In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. spy plane and captured pilot Gary S. Powers.
. . . In 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created by merging England and Scotland.
. . . In 1941, Orson Welles’s new film “Citizen Kane” premiered in New York.
. . . In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
Birthdays:
83 . . . Chuck Bednarik, football player
69 . . . Judy Collins, singer
57 . . . Dann Florek, actor (“Law and Order: SUV”)
Kate Smith (1907-1986), singer
Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), English general; defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)
Jose Alencar (1829-1877), Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930), American labor organizer known as “Mother Jones”
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Today's Word—Twain on Editors
Letter to the Editor:
It’s no secret that Mark Twain had his own writing style and had little patience for editors. These excerpts from a 1890 letter to his editor is a useful reminder to overbearing editors today:
• “Amongst. Wasn’t ‘among’ good enough?”
• “Have you failed to perceive that by taking the word ‘both’ out of its proper place you have made foolishness of the sentence?”
• “And don’t you see that your smug ‘of which’ has turned that sentence into reporter’s English?”
• “‘Quite.’ Why do you intrude that shopworn favorite of yours where there is nothing useful for it to do? Can’t you rest easy in your literary grave without it?”
• “You have a singularly fine and aristocratic disrespect for homely and unpretending English. Every time I use ‘go back’ you get out your polisher and slick it up to ‘return.’”
• “You are really perfect in the great art of reducing simple and dignified speech to clumsy and vapid commonplace.”
• “I will remind you once more that clarity is a good thing in literature. An apprentice cannot do better than to keep this useful rule in mind.”
• “It is curious and interesting to notice what an attraction a fussy, mincing, nickel-plated word has for you.”
• “Have you no sense of the shade of meanings in words?”
• “It was English before you decayed it. Sell it to the museum.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer, 1890 (from Mark Twain’s Letters, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, 1917)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1507, German mapmaker Martin Waldseemueller named the huge New World land mass of the Western Hemisphere to honor Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
. . . In 1792, Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a highway bandit, became the first person executed by guillotine.
. . . In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain.
. . . In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile license plates (and the dreaded DMV was born?).
. . . In 1945, American and Soviet troops reached each other on the Elbe, severing Nazi forces.
. . . In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened.
. . . In 2003, Georgia legislators voted to eliminate the Confederate cross from the state flag.
Birthdays:
76 . . . Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotter
68 . . . Al Pacino, actor
63 . . . Bjorn Ulvaeus, singer (ABBA)
62 . . . Talia Shire, actress
44 . . . Hank Azaria, actor
• Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), American radio and television broadcaster
• Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland
• Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Russian composer
• Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor
• William Brennan (1906-1997), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1956-90)
• Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), American jazz singer
It’s no secret that Mark Twain had his own writing style and had little patience for editors. These excerpts from a 1890 letter to his editor is a useful reminder to overbearing editors today:
• “Amongst. Wasn’t ‘among’ good enough?”
• “Have you failed to perceive that by taking the word ‘both’ out of its proper place you have made foolishness of the sentence?”
• “And don’t you see that your smug ‘of which’ has turned that sentence into reporter’s English?”
• “‘Quite.’ Why do you intrude that shopworn favorite of yours where there is nothing useful for it to do? Can’t you rest easy in your literary grave without it?”
• “You have a singularly fine and aristocratic disrespect for homely and unpretending English. Every time I use ‘go back’ you get out your polisher and slick it up to ‘return.’”
• “You are really perfect in the great art of reducing simple and dignified speech to clumsy and vapid commonplace.”
• “I will remind you once more that clarity is a good thing in literature. An apprentice cannot do better than to keep this useful rule in mind.”
• “It is curious and interesting to notice what an attraction a fussy, mincing, nickel-plated word has for you.”
• “Have you no sense of the shade of meanings in words?”
• “It was English before you decayed it. Sell it to the museum.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer, 1890 (from Mark Twain’s Letters, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, 1917)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1507, German mapmaker Martin Waldseemueller named the huge New World land mass of the Western Hemisphere to honor Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
. . . In 1792, Nicolas Jacques Pelletier, a highway bandit, became the first person executed by guillotine.
. . . In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain.
. . . In 1901, New York became the first state to require automobile license plates (and the dreaded DMV was born?).
. . . In 1945, American and Soviet troops reached each other on the Elbe, severing Nazi forces.
. . . In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened.
. . . In 2003, Georgia legislators voted to eliminate the Confederate cross from the state flag.
Birthdays:
76 . . . Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotter
68 . . . Al Pacino, actor
63 . . . Bjorn Ulvaeus, singer (ABBA)
62 . . . Talia Shire, actress
44 . . . Hank Azaria, actor
• Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), American radio and television broadcaster
• Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland
• Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Russian composer
• Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Italian Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor
• William Brennan (1906-1997), associate justice of the Supreme Court (1956-90)
• Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), American jazz singer
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Today's Word—Journalistic Vigor
Wanted: Vigorous reporting...
“Good local reporting costs money and flourishes only in a newsroom with a climate of editorial vigor and independence, as well as a tradition of seeking significant news no matter whom it may displease. Often the better the local reporting, the more criticism it will attract; significant news is controversial.”
—Kenneth Macdonald (1908-2004), longtime editor, the Des Moines Register
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1898, Spain refused the U.S. demand to leave Cuba and declared war on the United States.
. . . In 1792, French Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed “La Marseillaise.”
. . . In 1800, the Library of Congress was created.
. . . In 1968, protesting Columbia University students began a week-long occupation of campus buildings.
. . . In 1962, MIT scientists achieved the first satellite TV signal relay, between California and Massachusetts.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter ordered an attempted rescue of American hostages in Tehran; eight servicemen died.
. . . In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was installed as leader of the Roman Catholic Church in cermonies at the Vatican.
Birthdays:
74 . . . Shirley MacLaine, actress
66 . . . Richard M. Daley, Chicago mayor
66 . . . Barbra Streisand, singer
63 . . . Doug Clifford, rock musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
31 . . . Carlos Beltran, baseball player
26 . . . Kelly Clarkson, singer
• Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), writer and first U.S. poet laureate
• St. Vincent De Paul (1581-1660), French clergyman
• Robert Bailey Thomas (1766-1846), American publisher of "Old Farmer's Almanac"
• Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), English novelist
• Henri-Philippe Petain (1856-1951), general and head of French Vichy government
• William Joyce (1906-1946), English propagandist for Germany during World War II (aka Lord Haw Haw)
“Good local reporting costs money and flourishes only in a newsroom with a climate of editorial vigor and independence, as well as a tradition of seeking significant news no matter whom it may displease. Often the better the local reporting, the more criticism it will attract; significant news is controversial.”
—Kenneth Macdonald (1908-2004), longtime editor, the Des Moines Register
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1898, Spain refused the U.S. demand to leave Cuba and declared war on the United States.
. . . In 1792, French Capt. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed “La Marseillaise.”
. . . In 1800, the Library of Congress was created.
. . . In 1968, protesting Columbia University students began a week-long occupation of campus buildings.
. . . In 1962, MIT scientists achieved the first satellite TV signal relay, between California and Massachusetts.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter ordered an attempted rescue of American hostages in Tehran; eight servicemen died.
. . . In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was installed as leader of the Roman Catholic Church in cermonies at the Vatican.
Birthdays:
74 . . . Shirley MacLaine, actress
66 . . . Richard M. Daley, Chicago mayor
66 . . . Barbra Streisand, singer
63 . . . Doug Clifford, rock musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
31 . . . Carlos Beltran, baseball player
26 . . . Kelly Clarkson, singer
• Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), writer and first U.S. poet laureate
• St. Vincent De Paul (1581-1660), French clergyman
• Robert Bailey Thomas (1766-1846), American publisher of "Old Farmer's Almanac"
• Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), English novelist
• Henri-Philippe Petain (1856-1951), general and head of French Vichy government
• William Joyce (1906-1946), English propagandist for Germany during World War II (aka Lord Haw Haw)
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Today's Word—Capturing "Echoes of the Past”
Storytelling:
“I’m sitting in a cozy little coffeehouse in Clarendon, listening for whispers of evil. It’s an important journalistic mission; I am trying to rescue an endangered literary cliche, the one about how places carry ‘echoes of their past.’ Every journalist depends on this cliche when we write our crappy stories about Civil War battlefields, or the razing of some venerable stadium, or some neighborhood that was once great and is now grim.”
—Gene Weingarten, columnist, The Washington Post, 2008. (See Column.) (Thanks to alert WORDster Nancy Williams)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 2007, journalist and author David Halberstam died in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif.
. . . In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
. . . In 1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife Martha moved into the first Executive Mansion, Franklin House in NYC.
. . . In 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first MLB homerun, for the Milwaukee Braves.
. . . In 1992, McDonald’s opened its first Beijing restaurant.
. . . In 1995, sportcaster Howard Cosell died, age 77.
. . . In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to shooting Martin Luther King Jr. and later recanted, died at 70.
Birthdays:
54 . . . Michael Moore, filmmaker
69 . . . Lee Majors, the “Six Million Dollar Man”
80 . . . Shirley Temple Black, child actress-turned-diplomat
59 . . . Joyce DeWitt, actress ("Three's Company")
47 . . . George Lopez, actor and comedian
25 . . . Daniela Hantuchova, tennis player
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the bard
• Max Planck (1858-1947), German Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th U.S. president (1857-61)
• Stephen Douglas (1813-1861), lost debate to Abraham Lincoln
“I’m sitting in a cozy little coffeehouse in Clarendon, listening for whispers of evil. It’s an important journalistic mission; I am trying to rescue an endangered literary cliche, the one about how places carry ‘echoes of their past.’ Every journalist depends on this cliche when we write our crappy stories about Civil War battlefields, or the razing of some venerable stadium, or some neighborhood that was once great and is now grim.”
—Gene Weingarten, columnist, The Washington Post, 2008. (See Column.) (Thanks to alert WORDster Nancy Williams)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 2007, journalist and author David Halberstam died in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif.
. . . In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
. . . In 1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife Martha moved into the first Executive Mansion, Franklin House in NYC.
. . . In 1954, Hank Aaron hit his first MLB homerun, for the Milwaukee Braves.
. . . In 1992, McDonald’s opened its first Beijing restaurant.
. . . In 1995, sportcaster Howard Cosell died, age 77.
. . . In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to shooting Martin Luther King Jr. and later recanted, died at 70.
Birthdays:
54 . . . Michael Moore, filmmaker
69 . . . Lee Majors, the “Six Million Dollar Man”
80 . . . Shirley Temple Black, child actress-turned-diplomat
59 . . . Joyce DeWitt, actress ("Three's Company")
47 . . . George Lopez, actor and comedian
25 . . . Daniela Hantuchova, tennis player
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the bard
• Max Planck (1858-1947), German Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th U.S. president (1857-61)
• Stephen Douglas (1813-1861), lost debate to Abraham Lincoln
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Today's Word—On Interviewing
Can we talk?
“The best talk is artless, the talk of people trying to reassure or comfort themselves, women in the sun, grouped around baby carriages, talking about their weeks in the hospital or the way meat has gone up, or men in saloons, talking to combat the loneliness everyone feels. The talk when you interview someone for a newspaper is usually premeditated and usually artificial.’
—Joseph Mitchell, from My Ears Are Bent, 1938. (Thanks to alert WORDster Doug Cummings)
“The best talk is artless, the talk of people trying to reassure or comfort themselves, women in the sun, grouped around baby carriages, talking about their weeks in the hospital or the way meat has gone up, or men in saloons, talking to combat the loneliness everyone feels. The talk when you interview someone for a newspaper is usually premeditated and usually artificial.’
—Joseph Mitchell, from My Ears Are Bent, 1938. (Thanks to alert WORDster Doug Cummings)
Monday, April 21, 2008
Today's Word—Say What You Really Think. . .
Feedback on last week’s (4/16) Clinton-Obama Pennsylvania debate:
“Tom Shales of the Washington Post said [Charles] Gibson and [George] Stephanopoulos ‘turned in shoddy, despicable performances.’ The media critic Greg Mitchell said it was ‘perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.’ Salon.com said, ‘I’m not sure if we’ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night.’ Will Bunch, a Philadelphia Daily News writer, posted an open letter to Gibson and Stephanopoulos on his blog telling them, ‘you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.’ And the group MoveOn said it would air an ad protesting ABC if 100,000 people signed their petition.”
—Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow (4/18/08) Click here for website.
“Tom Shales of the Washington Post said [Charles] Gibson and [George] Stephanopoulos ‘turned in shoddy, despicable performances.’ The media critic Greg Mitchell said it was ‘perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.’ Salon.com said, ‘I’m not sure if we’ve seen anything quite as train-wreck, cover-your-eyes bad as the spectacle on ABC last night.’ Will Bunch, a Philadelphia Daily News writer, posted an open letter to Gibson and Stephanopoulos on his blog telling them, ‘you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.’ And the group MoveOn said it would air an ad protesting ABC if 100,000 people signed their petition.”
—Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow (4/18/08) Click here for website.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Today's Word—Averting Mischief
What Newspapers Do
“Without newspapers, without someone telling us what is happening, all kinds of mischief can occur. It can be pretty serious, such as corporate and government corruption. Of course, unless newspapers really dig for stories, we won’t be able to root out shady goings-on. And today, many newspapers seem tame and timid, far from the old newspaperman’s challenge to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’”
—Steve Cartwright, columnist, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 2008 (Click here to see column.) (Thanks to alert Kiwi WORDster David Pease)
“Without newspapers, without someone telling us what is happening, all kinds of mischief can occur. It can be pretty serious, such as corporate and government corruption. Of course, unless newspapers really dig for stories, we won’t be able to root out shady goings-on. And today, many newspapers seem tame and timid, far from the old newspaperman’s challenge to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’”
—Steve Cartwright, columnist, Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 2008 (Click here to see column.) (Thanks to alert Kiwi WORDster David Pease)
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Today's Word—Final Edits
B. Franklin, in revision
“The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the Cover of an Old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost;
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new and more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended, By the author.”
—Today marks the 218th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), the colonial printer, statesman, writer, kite-flyer and inventor who penned this epitaph for his own gravestone.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Today's Word—Absurdity
Caveat Elector
“He who can lead you to believe an absurdity, can lead you to commit an atrocity.”
—Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Barbara Reed)
“He who can lead you to believe an absurdity, can lead you to commit an atrocity.”
—Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Barbara Reed)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Today's Word—Tiny TV Minds
Who’s in charge, here?
“Television is a triumph of equipment over people, and the minds that control it are so small that you could put them in the navel of a flea and still have enough room for a network president’s heart.”
—Fred Allen (1894-1956), comedian
“Television is a triumph of equipment over people, and the minds that control it are so small that you could put them in the navel of a flea and still have enough room for a network president’s heart.”
—Fred Allen (1894-1956), comedian
Monday, April 14, 2008
Today's Word—Torches of Truth
Truth & Facial Hair:
“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.”
—George Christopher Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799) (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey)
“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.”
—George Christopher Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1742-1799) (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Today's Word—RIP Bob Greene
More from the Do-Gooder File
“For much of his career, he could outthink, out-hustle, out-report, outeat, outdrink and outwork any other journalist in the country. But if his excesses were occasionally unbridled, they were driven by his passion to get a good story and root out the bad guys. ... He could get excited about an investigation of public corruption or a bizarre animal story. We once spent weeks following a story about a dog on ‘death row’ that Bob believed was ‘innocent.’”
—Howard Schneider, former Newsday editor, on the death yesterday of Bob Greene, larger-than-life investigative reporter, editor and Pulitzer winner, April 10, 2008 (see Newsday obit.)
“For much of his career, he could outthink, out-hustle, out-report, outeat, outdrink and outwork any other journalist in the country. But if his excesses were occasionally unbridled, they were driven by his passion to get a good story and root out the bad guys. ... He could get excited about an investigation of public corruption or a bizarre animal story. We once spent weeks following a story about a dog on ‘death row’ that Bob believed was ‘innocent.’”
—Howard Schneider, former Newsday editor, on the death yesterday of Bob Greene, larger-than-life investigative reporter, editor and Pulitzer winner, April 10, 2008 (see Newsday obit.)
Today's Word—Do-Gooders
The Good Life
“I will tell you flat out that I am a very lucky guy. I have had many moments of satisfaction as a reporter. I have helped to save people’s homes, put a vicious slumlord in prison, aided migrant workers to get the elementary benefit of just having potable drinking water in the fields. I hope I have educated people about civil liberties and a myriad of problems in the criminal justice system.”
—Henry Weinstein, award-winning reporter, Los Angeles Times, 2006
“I will tell you flat out that I am a very lucky guy. I have had many moments of satisfaction as a reporter. I have helped to save people’s homes, put a vicious slumlord in prison, aided migrant workers to get the elementary benefit of just having potable drinking water in the fields. I hope I have educated people about civil liberties and a myriad of problems in the criminal justice system.”
—Henry Weinstein, award-winning reporter, Los Angeles Times, 2006
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Today's Word—First Draft of History
Overcooking the News
“Over and over again I would take out the five most important books on X subject, and then I’d go back to The New York Times, and by God, the story that was written the day after was by far the best source. Those reporters were writing with everything in the right perspective. Sometimes I think historians are a little like sauté chefs: they cook everything up and soften the edges.”
—Nicholson Baker, novelist/historian, on researching his new book Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, 2008. (Thanks to alert WORDster Andrew Merton) (Click here to see NYTimes story.)
“Over and over again I would take out the five most important books on X subject, and then I’d go back to The New York Times, and by God, the story that was written the day after was by far the best source. Those reporters were writing with everything in the right perspective. Sometimes I think historians are a little like sauté chefs: they cook everything up and soften the edges.”
—Nicholson Baker, novelist/historian, on researching his new book Human Smoke: The Beginning of World War II, 2008. (Thanks to alert WORDster Andrew Merton) (Click here to see NYTimes story.)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Today's Word—Cuba
On Liberty:
“Even while condemning the blockade against Cuba and the constant attempts to overthrow its government, I stand firmly on the side of all Cuban journalists, who have every right to inform and criticize without fear of persecution. Liberty is indivisible.”
—Ariel Dorfman, Chilean novelist, and human rights activist, on some 20 journalists imprisoned in Cuba, 2008 (See Committee to Protect Journalists)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1513, explorer Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain
. . . In 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike
. . . In 1974, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home-run record with his 715th .
. . . In 1990, teenager Ryan White died of AIDS at 18.
. . . In 1994, rocker Kurt Cobain, 27, of Nirvana was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot..
. . . In 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first black woman to win a Pulitzer for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”
Birthdays:
90 . . . Betty Ford, former first lady
71. . . Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter
70 . . . Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general
68 . . . John Havlicek, basketball Hall of Famer
67. . . Peggy Lennon, singer (The Lennon Sisters)
45 . . . Julian Lennon, rock musician
Sonja Henie (1912-1969), Olympic gold medal skateer and entertainer
Albert I (1875-1934), King of the Belgiams
Mary Pickford (1892-1979), Canadian-born motion-picture actress
“Even while condemning the blockade against Cuba and the constant attempts to overthrow its government, I stand firmly on the side of all Cuban journalists, who have every right to inform and criticize without fear of persecution. Liberty is indivisible.”
—Ariel Dorfman, Chilean novelist, and human rights activist, on some 20 journalists imprisoned in Cuba, 2008 (See Committee to Protect Journalists)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1513, explorer Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain
. . . In 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the steel industry to avert a nationwide strike
. . . In 1974, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home-run record with his 715th .
. . . In 1990, teenager Ryan White died of AIDS at 18.
. . . In 1994, rocker Kurt Cobain, 27, of Nirvana was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot..
. . . In 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first black woman to win a Pulitzer for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”
Birthdays:
90 . . . Betty Ford, former first lady
71. . . Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter
70 . . . Kofi Annan, former U.N. secretary-general
68 . . . John Havlicek, basketball Hall of Famer
67. . . Peggy Lennon, singer (The Lennon Sisters)
45 . . . Julian Lennon, rock musician
Sonja Henie (1912-1969), Olympic gold medal skateer and entertainer
Albert I (1875-1934), King of the Belgiams
Mary Pickford (1892-1979), Canadian-born motion-picture actress
Monday, April 7, 2008
Today's Word—Remembering Dith Pran
Covering the Killing Fields
“To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism — the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do.”
—Bill Keller, executive editor, The New York Times, on last week’s death of Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist whose story inspired the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” 2008 (See Dith Pran obit.)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first black man featured on a U.S. postage stamp
. . . In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran over hostages held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
. . . In 1949, “South Pacific” opened on Brodway, and won a Pulitizer a year later.
. . . In 1992, tennis player Arthur Ashe announced that he had contracted AIDS.
. . . In 1994, the Rwandan genocide erupted, ultimately killing between 500,000 and 1 million people..
Birthdays:
69 . . . Francis Ford Coppola, film director
88 . . . Ravi Shankar, musician
80 . . . James Garner, actor
70 . . . Jerry Brown, California attorney general, former presidential candidate and California governor
69 . . . David Frost, TV journalist
54 . . . Tony Dorsett, football Hall of Famer
44 . . . Russell Crowe, actor
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), jazz singer
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English Romantic poet
W. K. Kellogg (1860-1951), founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company
Walter Winchell (1897-1972), American journalist and broadcaster
“To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism — the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do.”
—Bill Keller, executive editor, The New York Times, on last week’s death of Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist whose story inspired the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” 2008 (See Dith Pran obit.)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first black man featured on a U.S. postage stamp
. . . In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran over hostages held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
. . . In 1949, “South Pacific” opened on Brodway, and won a Pulitizer a year later.
. . . In 1992, tennis player Arthur Ashe announced that he had contracted AIDS.
. . . In 1994, the Rwandan genocide erupted, ultimately killing between 500,000 and 1 million people..
Birthdays:
69 . . . Francis Ford Coppola, film director
88 . . . Ravi Shankar, musician
80 . . . James Garner, actor
70 . . . Jerry Brown, California attorney general, former presidential candidate and California governor
69 . . . David Frost, TV journalist
54 . . . Tony Dorsett, football Hall of Famer
44 . . . Russell Crowe, actor
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), jazz singer
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English Romantic poet
W. K. Kellogg (1860-1951), founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company
Walter Winchell (1897-1972), American journalist and broadcaster
Friday, April 4, 2008
Today's Word—Truth
Associate Press photo
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago today. (See Ted Pease columns on Martin Luther King Jr.)
Dream On
“Oh, our government, and the press generally, won’t tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader, from his 1967 “Where Do We Go From Here?” speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by a sniper at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (see video clip from the History Channel)
. . . In 1818, Congress approved a new national flag, with 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars.
. . . In 1841, President William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in office, of pneumonia, which he caught giving his inauguration speech.
. . . In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
. . . In 1945, U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany.
. . . In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth’s career home run record by hitting his 714th, in Cincinnati.
Birthdays:
80 . . . Maya Angelou, poet
64 . . . Craig T. Nelson, actor
Muddy Waters (1915-1983), blues musician
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), social reformer and humanitarian
Arthur Murray (1895-1991), ballroom-dancing instructor and entrepreneur
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Today's Word—Gin and Journalism
Gin, Wet Socks and Journalism
“Young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892-1992), American poet, writer and Librarian of Congress, from “The Poet and the Press,” Atlantic Monthly, 1941
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1860, the Pony Express between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., was born.
. . . In 1882, outlaw Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back for the reward, in St. Joseph, Mo.
. . . In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby, in Trenton, NJ.
. . . In 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "Mountain" speech in Memphis.
. . . In 1991, the United Nations Security Council voted to end the Persian Gulf War.
. . . In 1996, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested.
Birthdays:
50, Alec Baldwin, actor
84, Doris Day, actress, singer
66, Wayne Newton, singer
64, Tony Orlando, singer
52, Mick Mars, rock musician (Motley Crue)
47, Eddie Murphy, actor, comedian
Henry R. Luce (1898-1967), American publisher of Time, Fortune and Life magazines.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
“Boss” William Marcy Tweed (1823-1878), American politician and leader of NYC’s corrupt Tammany Hall.
Bud Fisher (1885-1954), American cartoonist; created “Mutt and Jeff.”
“Young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892-1992), American poet, writer and Librarian of Congress, from “The Poet and the Press,” Atlantic Monthly, 1941
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1860, the Pony Express between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., was born.
. . . In 1882, outlaw Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back for the reward, in St. Joseph, Mo.
. . . In 1936, Bruno Hauptmann was electrocuted for the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby, in Trenton, NJ.
. . . In 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "Mountain" speech in Memphis.
. . . In 1991, the United Nations Security Council voted to end the Persian Gulf War.
. . . In 1996, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested.
Birthdays:
50, Alec Baldwin, actor
84, Doris Day, actress, singer
66, Wayne Newton, singer
64, Tony Orlando, singer
52, Mick Mars, rock musician (Motley Crue)
47, Eddie Murphy, actor, comedian
Henry R. Luce (1898-1967), American publisher of Time, Fortune and Life magazines.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
“Boss” William Marcy Tweed (1823-1878), American politician and leader of NYC’s corrupt Tammany Hall.
Bud Fisher (1885-1954), American cartoonist; created “Mutt and Jeff.”
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Today's Word—Bad News
Turn It Off!
Everybody Tells Me Everything
“I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is
so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens.
And that is why I do not like the news,
because there has never been an era
when so many things were going so right
for so many of the wrong persons.”
—Ogden Nash (1902-1971), poet, 1941
(Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”
. . . In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
. . . In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
. . . In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh, through an intermediary, paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. (The child was found dead the following month. The ransom money was eventually traced to Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the crime.)
. . . In 1968, “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered in Washington, D.C.
. . . In 1982, Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands from Britain.
. . . In 2005, Pope John Paul II died at 84 after 26 years leading the Roman Catholic Church.
. . . In 2007, in its first case on climate change, the Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
Birthdays:
66 . . . singer Leon Russell
63 . . . Baseball Hall of Famer Don Sutton
61 . . . country singer Emmylou Harris
84 . . . German artist Max Ernst (1891-1976)
71. . . conquerer and ruler Charlemagne (742-814)
73. . . Italian writer, soldier and adventurer Giovanni Casanova (1725-1798)
70. . . Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), French sculptor of Statue of Liberty
Everybody Tells Me Everything
“I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is
so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens.
And that is why I do not like the news,
because there has never been an era
when so many things were going so right
for so many of the wrong persons.”
—Ogden Nash (1902-1971), poet, 1941
(Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”
. . . In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
. . . In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
. . . In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh, through an intermediary, paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. (The child was found dead the following month. The ransom money was eventually traced to Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the crime.)
. . . In 1968, “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered in Washington, D.C.
. . . In 1982, Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands from Britain.
. . . In 2005, Pope John Paul II died at 84 after 26 years leading the Roman Catholic Church.
. . . In 2007, in its first case on climate change, the Supreme Court declared in a 5-4 ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
Birthdays:
66 . . . singer Leon Russell
63 . . . Baseball Hall of Famer Don Sutton
61 . . . country singer Emmylou Harris
84 . . . German artist Max Ernst (1891-1976)
71. . . conquerer and ruler Charlemagne (742-814)
73. . . Italian writer, soldier and adventurer Giovanni Casanova (1725-1798)
70. . . Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), French sculptor of Statue of Liberty
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Today's Word—Foolishness
APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
Man’s Best Friend:
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
—Groucho Marx (1895-1977), comedian-philosopher
On This Day . . . . . . In 1700, April Fools’ Day was formalized in England, but pranksters had been observing the tradition for more than 100 years. Says the History Channel: “These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as ‘poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
“Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.
“April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with ‘hunting the gowk,’ in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or ‘kick me’ signs on them.” See History Channel link and video.
. . . In 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.
. . . In 2003, American troops "rescued" Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.
Birthdays: 58: Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice
79: Jane Powell, actress
76: Debbie Reynolds, actress
70: Ali MacGraw, actress
69: Phil Niekro, baseball hall of famer
60: Jimmy Cliff, reggae singer
83: Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-1898)
47: Lon Chaney, "Igor," silent film actor (1883-1930)
60: Whittaker Chambers, journalist and accuser in the Alger Hiss case (1901-1961)
SPEAKING OF “Hilaria” . . . . .
This was sent to me by a well-meaning friend, perfect for the day.
Man’s Best Friend:
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
—Groucho Marx (1895-1977), comedian-philosopher
On This Day . . . . . . In 1700, April Fools’ Day was formalized in England, but pranksters had been observing the tradition for more than 100 years. Says the History Channel: “These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as ‘poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
“Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.
“April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with ‘hunting the gowk,’ in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or ‘kick me’ signs on them.” See History Channel link and video.
. . . In 1945, American forces invaded Okinawa during World War II.
. . . In 2003, American troops "rescued" Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah, Iraq, where she had been held prisoner since her unit was ambushed nine days earlier.
Birthdays: 58: Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice
79: Jane Powell, actress
76: Debbie Reynolds, actress
70: Ali MacGraw, actress
69: Phil Niekro, baseball hall of famer
60: Jimmy Cliff, reggae singer
83: Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-1898)
47: Lon Chaney, "Igor," silent film actor (1883-1930)
60: Whittaker Chambers, journalist and accuser in the Alger Hiss case (1901-1961)
SPEAKING OF “Hilaria” . . . . .
This was sent to me by a well-meaning friend, perfect for the day.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Today's Word—Let's Talk
Let's Just Talk
“It’s not my natural language. I’m not a politician. I haven’t been a social activist. At the same time, it’s an opportunity and a duty that I cannot let go. . . . We have vowed to fight the hatred that took Danny’s life, and one way to fight the hatred is to communicate. . . . This is our vision of revenge. . . . The loss of Danny will forever tear my heart. But I can think of no greater consolation than seeing your [Pakistani] children some day pointing at Danny’s picture and saying, ‘This is the kind of person I want to be.”’
—Judea Pearl, computer science professor, remembering his son, Daniel Pearl (1963-2002), a Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 and later beheaded, 2008
On This Day . . .
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower's designer, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful of other dignitaries, and 200 construction workers.
In 1968, Lyndon Baines Johnson announced: “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your President.”
“It’s not my natural language. I’m not a politician. I haven’t been a social activist. At the same time, it’s an opportunity and a duty that I cannot let go. . . . We have vowed to fight the hatred that took Danny’s life, and one way to fight the hatred is to communicate. . . . This is our vision of revenge. . . . The loss of Danny will forever tear my heart. But I can think of no greater consolation than seeing your [Pakistani] children some day pointing at Danny’s picture and saying, ‘This is the kind of person I want to be.”’
—Judea Pearl, computer science professor, remembering his son, Daniel Pearl (1963-2002), a Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 and later beheaded, 2008
On This Day . . .
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower's designer, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful of other dignitaries, and 200 construction workers.
In 1968, Lyndon Baines Johnson announced: “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party as your President.”
Friday, March 28, 2008
Today's Word—Truth Is No Strumpet, Sir!
Seek Truth:
“Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.”
—William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), conservative icon, author, talk-show host, magazine editor and wordman. (See Buckley's New York Times obit)
“Truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on your head and drag you to her cave. She is there, but people must want her, and seek her out.”
—William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), conservative icon, author, talk-show host, magazine editor and wordman. (See Buckley's New York Times obit)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Today's Word—Scumbag Rat Bastards
Prescription for America?
“All newspeople are scumbag rat bastards” (2005) . . . and . . . “This is America, it’s time for some logic and intelligence and less arguing about what really is good and bad.” (2008)
—Dell “SuperDell” Schanze, former owner, Totally Awesome Computers, and candidate for Utah governor (Salt Lake Tribune story)
“All newspeople are scumbag rat bastards” (2005) . . . and . . . “This is America, it’s time for some logic and intelligence and less arguing about what really is good and bad.” (2008)
—Dell “SuperDell” Schanze, former owner, Totally Awesome Computers, and candidate for Utah governor (Salt Lake Tribune story)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Today's Word—Mourning Editors
All due respect…
“I often share the story of the small-town editor who finally managed to drink himself to death. Finding that he was destitute, his cronies set out to collect money for a decent burial. Seeing the town banker, a frequent target of the paper’s editorials, they asked, ‘Sir, would you contribute a dollar to bury our editor?’ The banker pulled out a ten and snapped, ‘Here! Bury ten of ’em — and good riddance!’”
—Submitted by Joe Benham, newsman and alert WORDster
“I often share the story of the small-town editor who finally managed to drink himself to death. Finding that he was destitute, his cronies set out to collect money for a decent burial. Seeing the town banker, a frequent target of the paper’s editorials, they asked, ‘Sir, would you contribute a dollar to bury our editor?’ The banker pulled out a ten and snapped, ‘Here! Bury ten of ’em — and good riddance!’”
—Submitted by Joe Benham, newsman and alert WORDster
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Today's Word—Grammar
Nit-Picking Pedantry Lives!
“Ancient attitudes to grammar still survive: many people are in awe of it, know little about it, tend to fear or dislike it, often find it baffling and boring if exposed to it at school, and yet a minority is fascinated by it: a field in which precise scholarship and nit-picking pedantry have coexisted for centuries.”
—“Grammar” entry in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, edited by Tom McArthur, Oxford University Press (1992)
“Ancient attitudes to grammar still survive: many people are in awe of it, know little about it, tend to fear or dislike it, often find it baffling and boring if exposed to it at school, and yet a minority is fascinated by it: a field in which precise scholarship and nit-picking pedantry have coexisted for centuries.”
—“Grammar” entry in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, edited by Tom McArthur, Oxford University Press (1992)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Today's Word—Politics NOT As Usual
The Politics of Race and Gender:
“For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle—as we did in the OJ trial—or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina—or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
“We can do that.
“But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.”
—Barack Obama, democratic presidential candidate, “We the People” speech, Philadelphia, March 18, 2008
“For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle—as we did in the OJ trial—or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina—or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
“We can do that.
“But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.”
—Barack Obama, democratic presidential candidate, “We the People” speech, Philadelphia, March 18, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Today's Word—Finding Facts
News Sources:
“A funny thing happened during the Iraq war: many Americans turned to the BBC for their TV news. They were looking for an alternative point of view—something they couldn’t find on domestic networks, which, in the words of the BBC’s director general, ‘wrapped themselves in the American flag and substituted patriotism for impartiality.’”
—Paul Krugman, columnist, New York Times (5/3/03)
“A funny thing happened during the Iraq war: many Americans turned to the BBC for their TV news. They were looking for an alternative point of view—something they couldn’t find on domestic networks, which, in the words of the BBC’s director general, ‘wrapped themselves in the American flag and substituted patriotism for impartiality.’”
—Paul Krugman, columnist, New York Times (5/3/03)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
“A Soldier’s Peace”
“A Soldier’s Peace” to Mark Iraq War’s 5th Anniversary
In 2006, Utah National Guard Sgt. Marshall Thompson came home from his last active-duty tour—a year as a military journalist and editor in Iraq. He was proud of his service, he said; he was a patriot, but he opposed the war in Iraq.
This Friday (3/21), to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, Thompson will screen “A Soldier’s Peace,” an 87-minute documentary about his 500-mile walk across Utah in 2006 to express his conflicted feelings about the war. Thompson says he felt he “had to do something” after returning from Iraq. A quiet, private man, he settled on walking north-to-south across his native Utah, the reddest state in the Union, from Idaho to the Arizona border—one day for every 100 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
It will be the award-winning movie’s first showing in Thompson’s hometown, part of a series of events sponsored by Cache Valley Peace Works to mark the war’s anniversary. Earlier in the day, CVPW will sponsor the day-long exhibition of EYES WIDE OPEN, the powerful American Friends Service Committee collection of combat boots and civilian shoes representing Iraq war dead. Taggart Student Center, Utah State University.
Thompson, a journalist, Mormon and Utahn, graduated from Utah State’s journalism program in 2002 and has served as a journalist or National Guardsman—or both—in Iraq, Kosovo, Korea, Jerusalem and, currently, as a reporter for the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner.
Following Friday's film, he will be part of a panel on “Activism—An American Heritage,” also featuring local social activists: Friday, March 21, 7 p.m., Eccles Science Learning Center Auditorium, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.
For more information on Marshall Thompson, his views on the Iraq war or to find out more about booking his documentary film, see his website, A Soldier’s Peace (http://www.asoldierspeace.com).
In 2006, Utah National Guard Sgt. Marshall Thompson came home from his last active-duty tour—a year as a military journalist and editor in Iraq. He was proud of his service, he said; he was a patriot, but he opposed the war in Iraq.
This Friday (3/21), to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, Thompson will screen “A Soldier’s Peace,” an 87-minute documentary about his 500-mile walk across Utah in 2006 to express his conflicted feelings about the war. Thompson says he felt he “had to do something” after returning from Iraq. A quiet, private man, he settled on walking north-to-south across his native Utah, the reddest state in the Union, from Idaho to the Arizona border—one day for every 100 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
It will be the award-winning movie’s first showing in Thompson’s hometown, part of a series of events sponsored by Cache Valley Peace Works to mark the war’s anniversary. Earlier in the day, CVPW will sponsor the day-long exhibition of EYES WIDE OPEN, the powerful American Friends Service Committee collection of combat boots and civilian shoes representing Iraq war dead. Taggart Student Center, Utah State University.
Thompson, a journalist, Mormon and Utahn, graduated from Utah State’s journalism program in 2002 and has served as a journalist or National Guardsman—or both—in Iraq, Kosovo, Korea, Jerusalem and, currently, as a reporter for the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner.
Following Friday's film, he will be part of a panel on “Activism—An American Heritage,” also featuring local social activists: Friday, March 21, 7 p.m., Eccles Science Learning Center Auditorium, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.
For more information on Marshall Thompson, his views on the Iraq war or to find out more about booking his documentary film, see his website, A Soldier’s Peace (http://www.asoldierspeace.com).
Today's Word—The Good Journalism Recipe File
Another recipe for effective journalism:
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
—Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), credible journalist (Thanks to alert WORDster Mike Pitman)
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
—Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), credible journalist (Thanks to alert WORDster Mike Pitman)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Today's Word—Shock and Awe
Today marks the fifth anniversary of “shock and awe”—the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 2003.
For veteran White House journalists, getting a straight answer on Iraq was like pulling your own teeth:
“Those were the days when I longed for ABC-TV’s great Sam Donaldson to back up my questions as he always did, and I did the same for him and other daring reporters. Then I realized that the old pros, reporters whom I had known in the past, many of them around during World War II and later the Vietnam War, reporters who had some historical perspective on government deception and folly, were not around anymore. I honestly believe that if reporters had put the spotlight on the flaws in the Bush Administration’s war policies, they could have saved the country the heartache and the losses of American and Iraqi lives.
“It is past time for reporters to forget the party line, ask the tough questions and let the chips fall where they may.”
—Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, 2006
For veteran White House journalists, getting a straight answer on Iraq was like pulling your own teeth:
“Those were the days when I longed for ABC-TV’s great Sam Donaldson to back up my questions as he always did, and I did the same for him and other daring reporters. Then I realized that the old pros, reporters whom I had known in the past, many of them around during World War II and later the Vietnam War, reporters who had some historical perspective on government deception and folly, were not around anymore. I honestly believe that if reporters had put the spotlight on the flaws in the Bush Administration’s war policies, they could have saved the country the heartache and the losses of American and Iraqi lives.
“It is past time for reporters to forget the party line, ask the tough questions and let the chips fall where they may.”
—Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, 2006
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Today's Word—On TV & Parenting
NEWS NOTE: Supreme Court to take on profanity on live TV
“My only advice is, if you value the culture of your children, if you value the notion of your own sovereignty, if you value any sense of independence in the future, you [must] make a serious investment in your own televised programs and motion pictures to compete with the American products and, if necessary, place limits on American products.”
—George Gerbner (1919-2005), media scholar, 2002
“My only advice is, if you value the culture of your children, if you value the notion of your own sovereignty, if you value any sense of independence in the future, you [must] make a serious investment in your own televised programs and motion pictures to compete with the American products and, if necessary, place limits on American products.”
—George Gerbner (1919-2005), media scholar, 2002
Monday, March 17, 2008
Today's Word—Recipe
Take 1 Tbsp. pitbull, add 2 C. public interest…
“The recipe for an effective journalist, then and now, is 1 percent vocational training, 9 percent intelligence, talent and experience, and 90 percent attitude. The proper attitude? Picture a touchy pit bull that pulls his chain off the ringbolt every time he smells smugness—privilege without humility—and mendacity. A real journalist, we were taught, only unsheathes his pen in the public interest, defending the social contract and protecting the citizen without leverage, the underdog. If you don’t believe that, you can write like E.B White and appear in 400 newspapers, and you're still a publicist to me.”
—Hal Crowther, journalist, INDY, the Independent Weekly in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, NC (3/14/07) (See “Remembering Molly Ivins”)
“The recipe for an effective journalist, then and now, is 1 percent vocational training, 9 percent intelligence, talent and experience, and 90 percent attitude. The proper attitude? Picture a touchy pit bull that pulls his chain off the ringbolt every time he smells smugness—privilege without humility—and mendacity. A real journalist, we were taught, only unsheathes his pen in the public interest, defending the social contract and protecting the citizen without leverage, the underdog. If you don’t believe that, you can write like E.B White and appear in 400 newspapers, and you're still a publicist to me.”
—Hal Crowther, journalist, INDY, the Independent Weekly in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, NC (3/14/07) (See “Remembering Molly Ivins”)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Take a Break
The WORD is off for a week's Spring Break—both “Spring” and “Break” are needed. So everyone take a deep breath and reflect (and comment, if you like). More green and refreshed WORDs will return March 17.
Today's Word—Good Works
The Good Life of Journalists:
“I hope that my achievements in life shall be these—that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need, that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and who I’ve been.”
—Art Hoppe (1925-2000), columnist, San Francisco Chronicle (Thanks to alert WORDster Marc Davidson)
“I hope that my achievements in life shall be these—that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need, that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and who I’ve been.”
—Art Hoppe (1925-2000), columnist, San Francisco Chronicle (Thanks to alert WORDster Marc Davidson)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Today's Word—More on Polling
If Your Mom Tells You She Loves You, Get a Second Source...
“Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer (Thanks to alert WORDster Bronle Crosby)
“Sane and intelligent human beings are like all other human beings, and carefully and cautiously and diligently conceal their private real opinions from the world and give out fictitious ones in their stead for general consumption.”
—Mark Twain (1835-1910), writer (Thanks to alert WORDster Bronle Crosby)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Today's Word—O' Gramma!
Today is National Grammar Day!
Grammatically Speaking:
“We owe much to our mother tongue. It is through speech and writing that we understand each other and can attend to our needs and differences. If we don’t respect and honor the rules of English, we lose our ability to communicate clearly and well. In short, we invite mayhem, misery, madness, and inevitably even more bad things that start with letters other than M.”
—Martha Brockenbrough, grammarian and founder, National Grammar Day
Grammatically Speaking:
“We owe much to our mother tongue. It is through speech and writing that we understand each other and can attend to our needs and differences. If we don’t respect and honor the rules of English, we lose our ability to communicate clearly and well. In short, we invite mayhem, misery, madness, and inevitably even more bad things that start with letters other than M.”
—Martha Brockenbrough, grammarian and founder, National Grammar Day
Monday, March 3, 2008
Today's Word—Political Endorsements
(In)credibility:
“I confess that I’ve never quite understood why newspapers endorse presidential candidates. Sure, I know the history and the tradition, the fact that newspapers in the 18th and 19th centuries were often affiliated with political parties, but why do they do it now? Why do it at a time when the credibility and viability of the press are at all-time lows? More important, why do it at a time when readers, especially young readers, question the objectivity of newspapers in particular and the media in general?”
—Richard Stengel, managing editor, Time (March 3, 2008)
“I confess that I’ve never quite understood why newspapers endorse presidential candidates. Sure, I know the history and the tradition, the fact that newspapers in the 18th and 19th centuries were often affiliated with political parties, but why do they do it now? Why do it at a time when the credibility and viability of the press are at all-time lows? More important, why do it at a time when readers, especially young readers, question the objectivity of newspapers in particular and the media in general?”
—Richard Stengel, managing editor, Time (March 3, 2008)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Today's Word—Sesquipadelian
A Few (Short) Words from William F. Buckley Jr.:
“I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.”
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.”
“The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”
—William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), conservative icon, author, talk-show host, magazine editor and wordman, died at his desk in Stamford, Conn., yesterday. (See New York Times obit)
“I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.”
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.”
“The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.”
—William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), conservative icon, author, talk-show host, magazine editor and wordman, died at his desk in Stamford, Conn., yesterday. (See New York Times obit)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Today's Word—Titillation, Tots & Terriers, oh my!
The 3 T’s of TV News:
“Fear sells local television news, followed by anything to do with sex, children or animals. ‘Titillation, Tots and Terriers’ is how TV news insiders sometimes portray their craft. But the most telling one-liner is, ‘If it’s news, it’s news to us!’ That’s the most accidentally accurate description of local television journalism.”
—Drew Shinnick, columnist and tech writer, 2007
“Fear sells local television news, followed by anything to do with sex, children or animals. ‘Titillation, Tots and Terriers’ is how TV news insiders sometimes portray their craft. But the most telling one-liner is, ‘If it’s news, it’s news to us!’ That’s the most accidentally accurate description of local television journalism.”
—Drew Shinnick, columnist and tech writer, 2007
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Today's Word—Puppy Dogs?
A Newspaper Owner’s Vision:
Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell addresses the staff of the Orlando Sentinel:
“My attitude on journalism is very simple. I want to make enough money so I can afford you. It's really that simple. You need to in effect help me by being a journalist that focuses on what our readers want and therefore generates more revenue. We understand unequivocally that the heart and soul of this business is the editorial side of the business. That's our content. But if we don't have the revenue, it doesn't really matter.
Q: But what the readers want is puppy dogs. We also need to inform the community...
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry...You're giving me the classic what I would call journalistic arrogance of deciding that puppies don't count. I don't know anything about puppies. What I'm interested in is, how can we generate additional interest in our product and additional revenue so we can make our product better and better. And hopefully we get to the point where our revenue is so significant that we can do puppies and Iraq. OK? F**k you.” 2008
(See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDy7vn7-LX4)
Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell addresses the staff of the Orlando Sentinel:
“My attitude on journalism is very simple. I want to make enough money so I can afford you. It's really that simple. You need to in effect help me by being a journalist that focuses on what our readers want and therefore generates more revenue. We understand unequivocally that the heart and soul of this business is the editorial side of the business. That's our content. But if we don't have the revenue, it doesn't really matter.
Q: But what the readers want is puppy dogs. We also need to inform the community...
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry...You're giving me the classic what I would call journalistic arrogance of deciding that puppies don't count. I don't know anything about puppies. What I'm interested in is, how can we generate additional interest in our product and additional revenue so we can make our product better and better. And hopefully we get to the point where our revenue is so significant that we can do puppies and Iraq. OK? F**k you.” 2008
(See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDy7vn7-LX4)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Today's Word—Goodbye Editors
O’ Brave New Electronic World!
“We don’t hire editors anymore, we hire content strategists.”
—Jack Griffin, president, Meredith Publishing, in keynote presentation at the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit (2/21/08).
(Thanks to alert—and discouraged—WORDster Lisa Hannam)
“We don’t hire editors anymore, we hire content strategists.”
—Jack Griffin, president, Meredith Publishing, in keynote presentation at the 2008 FOLIO: Publishing Summit (2/21/08).
(Thanks to alert—and discouraged—WORDster Lisa Hannam)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Today's Word—Torture
Where are your priorities?
“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian playwright and author (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)
“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian playwright and author (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Hodges)
Friday, February 22, 2008
Today's Word—And That's the Way It Was...
Write the Truth and Raise Hell:
“Now I’m not a 22-year-old HTML kid and have little interest in writing about Britney’s panties. So no newspapers are calling. I’m a writer living in Seattle. Aside from the risk of living under a bridge, I’m free to write the truth and raise hell. That was once the calling of the best newspapers. Now a few of us will try to carry it on as guerrilla journalists and rogue columnists.”
—Jon Talton, veteran journalist who has left the business, for obvious reasons, 2008 (Thanks to alert WORDster Lois Berkowitz)
“Now I’m not a 22-year-old HTML kid and have little interest in writing about Britney’s panties. So no newspapers are calling. I’m a writer living in Seattle. Aside from the risk of living under a bridge, I’m free to write the truth and raise hell. That was once the calling of the best newspapers. Now a few of us will try to carry it on as guerrilla journalists and rogue columnists.”
—Jon Talton, veteran journalist who has left the business, for obvious reasons, 2008 (Thanks to alert WORDster Lois Berkowitz)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Today's Word—Just Ask
More on Questioning:
“I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from trying to have an answer for everything. Wisdom comes from having a question for everything.”
—Milan Kundera, Czech writer and poet
“I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from trying to have an answer for everything. Wisdom comes from having a question for everything.”
—Milan Kundera, Czech writer and poet
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Today's Word—Journalistic Hygiene
Advice to journalists:
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), playwright and social commentator (Thanks to alert WORDster Anne Gallagher)
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), playwright and social commentator (Thanks to alert WORDster Anne Gallagher)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Today's Word—Just Words?
©John Cole, Scranton, Pa., Times, 2008
But whose words are they?
“Don’t tell me that words don’t matter. ‘I have a dream.’ Just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words. ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words. Just speeches. It’s true that speeches don’t solve all problems, but what is also true is that if we can’t inspire the country to believe again, then it doesn’t matter how many plans and policies we have.”
—Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, criticized by the Clinton campaign for being all-talk-no-substance, is now under fire for “borrowing” these words from a 2005 speech by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, 2/17/08 (See Obama speech. And see Clinton's criticism.)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Today's Word—Presidents Remembered
Freedom and Liberty Recalled:
“What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th U.S. president, from his Sept. 11, 1858, speech at Edwardsville
“What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th U.S. president, from his Sept. 11, 1858, speech at Edwardsville
Friday, February 15, 2008
Today's Word—Critical Thinking
More on Asking:
“There is never a moment when your critical thinking should be suspended, never a moment when it's enough to say, as a justification for printing something, that this is what the cops told me or the school officials told me, or the ‘sources’ at City Hall told me. There is no moratorium in journalism for checking it out yourself.”
—William F. Woo, newspaper editor, educator and author, in Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life, Philip Meyer, ed., 2007
“There is never a moment when your critical thinking should be suspended, never a moment when it's enough to say, as a justification for printing something, that this is what the cops told me or the school officials told me, or the ‘sources’ at City Hall told me. There is no moratorium in journalism for checking it out yourself.”
—William F. Woo, newspaper editor, educator and author, in Letters from the Editor: Lessons on Journalism and Life, Philip Meyer, ed., 2007
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Today's Word—More Mencken
Mencken loved his work:
“No other entertainment gave him greater pleasure than reporting from the [national political] conventions; nor did anyone appreciate his efforts more than Mencken himself. One reporter, peering through Mencken’s window late at night after one rally, recalled watching him at work alone in his hotel room, pounding out copy on a typewriter propped on a desk. He would type a few sentences, read them, slap his thigh, toss his head back, and roar with laughter. Then he would type some more lines, guffaw, and so on until the end of the article.”
—Marion E. Rodgers, ed., The Impossible H.L. Mencken: A Collection of His Best Newspaper Stories (1991) (Thanks to alert WORDster Karl M. Petruso)
NOTE: Memorial Service today for ABC newsman John McWethy, who died in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
“No other entertainment gave him greater pleasure than reporting from the [national political] conventions; nor did anyone appreciate his efforts more than Mencken himself. One reporter, peering through Mencken’s window late at night after one rally, recalled watching him at work alone in his hotel room, pounding out copy on a typewriter propped on a desk. He would type a few sentences, read them, slap his thigh, toss his head back, and roar with laughter. Then he would type some more lines, guffaw, and so on until the end of the article.”
—Marion E. Rodgers, ed., The Impossible H.L. Mencken: A Collection of His Best Newspaper Stories (1991) (Thanks to alert WORDster Karl M. Petruso)
NOTE: Memorial Service today for ABC newsman John McWethy, who died in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Today's Word—On Democracy
WORDman’s note: When the end of this quotation circulated so widely during the last presidential election, it was taken out of context. As the alert reader can see, Mencken’s critique was not of the elected, but of those who elect. A timely reminder that we the people deserve what we get. (Gender specificity original.)—TP
Democracy Works:
“[W]hen a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental—men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost. All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents more and more closely the inner soul of the people. [emphasis added] We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, author and political observer, writing in the Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
Followup on Friday's WORD and news of John McWethy's death in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Democracy Works:
“[W]hen a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental—men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost. All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents more and more closely the inner soul of the people. [emphasis added] We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, author and political observer, writing in the Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
Followup on Friday's WORD and news of John McWethy's death in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Today's Word—Women and the Press
Women and the Press:
“The worst mistake any woman can make is to get crosswise with the newspapers.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), suffragette, on the need for newspaper support of the women’s movement (quoted in Failure Is Impossible by Lynn Sherr) (Thanks to alert WORDster Dan Kubiske)
By Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune 01/10/2008
See http://caglepost.com/cartoon/Mike+Lester/45703/Fish+Bicycle+COLOR.html
“The worst mistake any woman can make is to get crosswise with the newspapers.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), suffragette, on the need for newspaper support of the women’s movement (quoted in Failure Is Impossible by Lynn Sherr) (Thanks to alert WORDster Dan Kubiske)
By Mike Lester, The Rome News-Tribune 01/10/2008
See http://caglepost.com/cartoon/Mike+Lester/45703/Fish+Bicycle+COLOR.html
Monday, February 11, 2008
Today's Word—Puzzlement
More on Political Pundits:
“That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), journalist, writer and political commentator, 1915 (Thanks to alert WORDster Brian Bowling)
Followup on Friday's WORD and news of John McWethy's death in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
“That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), journalist, writer and political commentator, 1915 (Thanks to alert WORDster Brian Bowling)
Followup on Friday's WORD and news of John McWethy's death in a skiing accident last week: Memorial Service beginning at 11 a.m., Thursday, February 14th, 2008, at the new Newseum, 555 Pennslvania Avenue NW, at 6th Street. A reception will follow, and information will be available about contributing to The John F. McWethy Fellowship in Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Today's Word—Why?
Why Ask “Why?”
“The word ‘why’ is, in my view, the most powerful word in the English language. It is the driving force of my profession, and it’s also the driving force and at the heart of your professors, creative sciences, honest politicians and of good parents. Don’t stop asking the word ‘why’ just because you’re leaving DePauw. All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships are improved by a good scrubbing using the word ‘why.’ In democracy it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government; it is unpatriotic not to.”
—John McWethy (1947-2008), veteran print and ABC News journalist, who died this week in a Colorado skiing accident; from his 2003 DePauw University commencement speech (Thanks to alert WORDster Hillary Groutage)
“The word ‘why’ is, in my view, the most powerful word in the English language. It is the driving force of my profession, and it’s also the driving force and at the heart of your professors, creative sciences, honest politicians and of good parents. Don’t stop asking the word ‘why’ just because you’re leaving DePauw. All institutions, all endeavors, all relationships are improved by a good scrubbing using the word ‘why.’ In democracy it is the question we must all constantly be asking our government and our leaders. It is not unpatriotic to question the government; it is unpatriotic not to.”
—John McWethy (1947-2008), veteran print and ABC News journalist, who died this week in a Colorado skiing accident; from his 2003 DePauw University commencement speech (Thanks to alert WORDster Hillary Groutage)
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Today's Word—Public Interest
The Greater Good:
“You do need to be careful of people’s privacy. However, there are times when legitimate public interest trumps that privacy—not salacious interest, just something for the good of others. When it comes down to it, you are not working for a paper, you are working for a democracy.”
—Diana B. Henriques, journalist, The New York Times, at the Foster Conference of Distinguished Writers, Penn State, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Susan Crowell)
“You do need to be careful of people’s privacy. However, there are times when legitimate public interest trumps that privacy—not salacious interest, just something for the good of others. When it comes down to it, you are not working for a paper, you are working for a democracy.”
—Diana B. Henriques, journalist, The New York Times, at the Foster Conference of Distinguished Writers, Penn State, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Susan Crowell)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Today's Word—More on Campaign '08
Down and Dirty:
“You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian playwright and author, “An Enemy of the People” (1882)
“You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian playwright and author, “An Enemy of the People” (1882)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Today's Word—Making Language
Wordish Dalliances
“English is the product of a Saxon warrior trying to make a date with an Angle barmaid, and as such is no more legitimate than any of the other products of that conversation.”
—H. Beam Piper (1904-1964), science fiction author (Thanks to alert WORDster Ann Berry)
“English is the product of a Saxon warrior trying to make a date with an Angle barmaid, and as such is no more legitimate than any of the other products of that conversation.”
—H. Beam Piper (1904-1964), science fiction author (Thanks to alert WORDster Ann Berry)
Monday, February 4, 2008
Today's Word—Journalists' (Mis)spent Life
The Life of Kings:
“As I look back over a misspent life, I find myself more and more convinced that I had more fun doing news reporting than in any other enterprise. It is really the life of kings.”
—H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist and curmudgeon, The Baltimore Sun, 1953 (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Ferrell)
Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey Record, 2006 (http://www.cagle.com/news/NewYorkTimes/2.asp)
“As I look back over a misspent life, I find myself more and more convinced that I had more fun doing news reporting than in any other enterprise. It is really the life of kings.”
—H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist and curmudgeon, The Baltimore Sun, 1953 (Thanks to alert WORDster Tom Ferrell)
Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey Record, 2006 (http://www.cagle.com/news/NewYorkTimes/2.asp)
Friday, February 1, 2008
Today's Word—Keep It Fresh!
Mike Lester, Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune, 1/29/08 (see http://cagle.com/politicalcartoons/)
Don’t Let News Get in the Way of a Good Story:
“I absolutely believe that the media is not ideologically driven but conflict-driven. If we have a bias it's not that people are socially liberal or fiscally conservative or vice versa, it is that we are engaged in the storytelling business. And if you tell the same story again and again and again, it's kind of boring.”
—Jon Meacham, editor, Newsweek, on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart (1/21/08) (Thanks to alert WORDster Ross Martin)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Today's Word—Campaign '08
Boys Off the Bus:
“In recent years, the notion of the campaign bus has come under some reconsideration by critics of the press, who think it fosters a pack mentality. I think they may have a point. Reporters spend a lot of time forming cliques on campaign buses (it’s probably a natural reaction to the close habitat), and meanwhile the candidates have become more guarded and have stopped trying to get to know the reporters anyway.”
—Matt Bai, blogging for the New York Times, 2008 (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/boys-off-the-bus/) (Thanks to alert WORDster Raelle Greer)
“In recent years, the notion of the campaign bus has come under some reconsideration by critics of the press, who think it fosters a pack mentality. I think they may have a point. Reporters spend a lot of time forming cliques on campaign buses (it’s probably a natural reaction to the close habitat), and meanwhile the candidates have become more guarded and have stopped trying to get to know the reporters anyway.”
—Matt Bai, blogging for the New York Times, 2008 (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/boys-off-the-bus/) (Thanks to alert WORDster Raelle Greer)
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Today's Word—Public Service?
17 seconds/hr, 6.8 minutes/day:
“While the media environment is evolving rapidly, television continues to be the dominant medium used by the American public. TV advertising is therefore still a core component of most major public service campaigns, on topics such as childhood obesity, drunk driving, or cancer prevention…. [B]roadcast and cable stations in the study donated an average of 17 seconds an hour to PSAs—totaling one-half of one percent of all TV airtime.”
—Kaiser Family Foundation study, “Shouting to Be Heard,” finds most of donated airtime is between midnight and 6 a.m., 2008 (http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012408pkg.cfm)
“While the media environment is evolving rapidly, television continues to be the dominant medium used by the American public. TV advertising is therefore still a core component of most major public service campaigns, on topics such as childhood obesity, drunk driving, or cancer prevention…. [B]roadcast and cable stations in the study donated an average of 17 seconds an hour to PSAs—totaling one-half of one percent of all TV airtime.”
—Kaiser Family Foundation study, “Shouting to Be Heard,” finds most of donated airtime is between midnight and 6 a.m., 2008 (http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012408pkg.cfm)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Today's Word—Agenda-Setting
The Responsible Editor:
“The newspaper editor, especially in a one-paper town, remains the single most influential determinant of what most people in the community learn about the world. Therefore his own world view—its breadth or narrowness, its humanity or meanness, its curiosity or apathy—will be reflected in people who depend on his paper, and will affect their ability to manage their own lives sensibly and effectively.”
—Charles W. Bailey, on stepping down as editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, 1983 (Thanks to alert WORDster Peter Watson)
“The newspaper editor, especially in a one-paper town, remains the single most influential determinant of what most people in the community learn about the world. Therefore his own world view—its breadth or narrowness, its humanity or meanness, its curiosity or apathy—will be reflected in people who depend on his paper, and will affect their ability to manage their own lives sensibly and effectively.”
—Charles W. Bailey, on stepping down as editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, 1983 (Thanks to alert WORDster Peter Watson)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Today's Word—Gordon B. Hinckley
Killer bees of the press:
“Our generation is afflicted with critics in the media who think they do a great and clever thing in mercilessly attacking men and women in public office and in other positions of leadership. They are prone to take a line or a paragraph out of context and pursue their prey like a swarm of killer bees. They lash out with invective and snide innuendo against those who have no effective way of fighting back or who, in the spirit of the teachings of the Master, prefer to turn their cheeks and go forward with their lives.”
—Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), president and prophet (1995-2008), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1990. Hinckley knew his media targets: he directed the LDS Church’s Radio, Publicity and Mission Literature Committee for five decades before joining the church's upper leadership in 1961. He died yesterday at age 97.
“Our generation is afflicted with critics in the media who think they do a great and clever thing in mercilessly attacking men and women in public office and in other positions of leadership. They are prone to take a line or a paragraph out of context and pursue their prey like a swarm of killer bees. They lash out with invective and snide innuendo against those who have no effective way of fighting back or who, in the spirit of the teachings of the Master, prefer to turn their cheeks and go forward with their lives.”
—Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008), president and prophet (1995-2008), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1990. Hinckley knew his media targets: he directed the LDS Church’s Radio, Publicity and Mission Literature Committee for five decades before joining the church's upper leadership in 1961. He died yesterday at age 97.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Today's Word—On Newspaper Reading
Guilty Pleasures:
“A newspaper is like a bad woman. It takes your time, it steals your money, it robs you of your self-respect. And yet, you give up all these gladly in exchange for a few fleeting moments of pleasure.”
—Derick Daniels, city editor of The Miami Herald, advising a young reporter, ca. 1959. (Thanks to alert WORDster Phil Meyer)
“A newspaper is like a bad woman. It takes your time, it steals your money, it robs you of your self-respect. And yet, you give up all these gladly in exchange for a few fleeting moments of pleasure.”
—Derick Daniels, city editor of The Miami Herald, advising a young reporter, ca. 1959. (Thanks to alert WORDster Phil Meyer)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Speaking of Pollsters and Pundits...
By Mike Lane. See http://cagle.com/
More "Say No to Pollsters!" http://www.caglepost.com/column/Arianna+Huffington/5159/Say+%27No%27+To+Pollsters+A+Call+To+Action.html
Today's Word—Losers of the Fourth Estate
It's the News, Stupid!
“The big winners so far have been the voters, who can now see their states counted, not counted out. The big losers have been the members of the Fourth Estate. Too many of us forgot something central to our work: it’s called news because we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
—Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist, on the press’s poor political prognostication, 2008
“The big winners so far have been the voters, who can now see their states counted, not counted out. The big losers have been the members of the Fourth Estate. Too many of us forgot something central to our work: it’s called news because we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
—Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist, on the press’s poor political prognostication, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Today's Word—Cartoonists
Take no prisoners:
“Cartoonists are the free safety of the editorial board. They don’t care whether it’s a run or a pass. They just want to hit someone hard.”
—Lee Judge, Kansas City Star editorial cartoonist (http://judgesopinion.kcstar.com/), at national editorial writers convention, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Dick Hughes)
For online op-ed cartoon archives, see http://cagle.com/
“Cartoonists are the free safety of the editorial board. They don’t care whether it’s a run or a pass. They just want to hit someone hard.”
—Lee Judge, Kansas City Star editorial cartoonist (http://judgesopinion.kcstar.com/), at national editorial writers convention, 2007 (Thanks to alert WORDster Dick Hughes)
For online op-ed cartoon archives, see http://cagle.com/
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Today's Word—Think Again
Thinking Is Hard Work:
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil right leader
News Note: In re. yesterday's repurposing of my 1999 column on Martin Luther King Jr., the Utah State Legislature opened yesterday on MLK Day to protests from minority groups, including the NAACP; a legislative leader referred to the day as "Human Rights Day," which the holiday was named until Utah became the last state in the nation to rename it for the slain civil rights leader.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil right leader
News Note: In re. yesterday's repurposing of my 1999 column on Martin Luther King Jr., the Utah State Legislature opened yesterday on MLK Day to protests from minority groups, including the NAACP; a legislative leader referred to the day as "Human Rights Day," which the holiday was named until Utah became the last state in the nation to rename it for the slain civil rights leader.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Column: MLK Day
Note: This column first ran in the Logan (Utah) Herald-Journal on Feb. 4, 1999. Lightly updated, I like to share it with my students every year. Here in Utah, the holiday was finally renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Day (which is wasn’t in 1999), but the state Legislature continues to begin its annual session on this day—which I still find disrespectful. In this 2008 campaign season when a black man is a serious contender for president, Dr. King’s dreams—some coming true, but many still distant—are especially worth revisiting. TP
Three decades years later, King’s dream won’t die
By Ted Pease
© 1999
Normally, I am an incurable optimist. But there are times when I despair for American society—is there any hope for us? Will we ever be able to learn from our past mistakes? This week, remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is one of those times when I'm not so sure.
In spite of social conditions in the 1960s, Martin Luther King had a dream for American equality. He helped the rest of us dream it with him, and made us believe it.
That was more than four decades ago. Dr. King was young—in his 30s—black and incredibly powerful in his faith, his dream, his vision for an America that would correspond to the nation that the Constitution’s framers had also dreamed of.
The dream, said King, was that one day in America, people would be judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Most of the time I truly believe that we Americans have indeed grown that much, to the point where, as a society, race really doesn’t matter, and that our view of others is not—like beauty—just skin-deep.
But I am a white man. For people who aren’t white—more than one-third of all Americans—race matters almost more than any other single thing in their lives. So what do I know?
Here in Utah, about 12 percent of the population is “minority”—that is, not white. We are the 13th whitest state in the Union. I think people here really do try to live up to moral expectations of decency and acceptance in their dealings with others, but in Utah we can’t even celebrate the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and honor the ideals he espoused, worked for, died for. Instead, what is designated as Martin Luther King Day on the federal and national calendar is “Human Rights Day” in Utah, as if we dare not acknowledge the power and vision of a black man. (This changed in 2001. TP)
When I was a kid, my parents loaded me onto a bus and took me into Boston to “march with Martin Luther King.” I’m not sure how old I was, or how well I understood what we were doing with the masses of people moving slowly around the historic Boston Common, making new history in a city not known for its racial acceptance, and singing, over and over, “We Shall Overcome.”
But I have sharp and distinct images from that day that still move me, more than 40 years later. King was there that day, and I remember listening to him speak from the small gazebo on the Boston Common. It wasn’t the “I Have a Dream” speech for which he is most famous, of course—he made that mark on our nation’s history and our culture’s conscience during the famous “March on Washington” on Aug. 28, 1963. I don’t remember his words that day in Boston, but the dream was real in the sound of his voice. Like an unforgettable taste on my tongue, I can still feel his voice and his dream.
It’s not that I have any quarrel with Utah designating a day to honor the precepts of human rights. After all, Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 79 now had he survived, certainly did stand for human rights for everyone. In fact, let’s declare every day “human rights day” in Utah. But why can’t we as a state honor King himself—if only once a year—and why, if we as a state believe in what King dreamed of, does the Utah Legislature pick that day to open its session and get on with business as usual? What message does that send? It’s disrespectful to King and people of all races who espouse his ideals.
Most of us “just don’t think about race that much,” as one of my students here at Utah State University said to me one day last fall. “Why does it matter?” she said, meaning that a person’s race shouldn’t matter.
Well, she’s right: it shouldn’t matter in the way she meant. Race shouldn’t be a barrier to opportunity, education, lifestyle, expectations, the way we live our day-to-day lives and raise our kids and interact with each other on the street or in schools or at work. But it does matter, and race still is a barrier to people who aren’t white, for whom race is “the single most defining aspect of all parts of my life,” as a black former colleague once told me.
In 2008, four decades after James Earl Ray murdered Martin Luther King, the dream is still alive, but still unfulfilled. Some think America is no less racist and divided now than it was in the 1960s, when a presidential commission said we were “two societies, one white, one black, separate and unequal.”
The reason that race matters today—and not just for people who aren’t white—goes beyond the precepts of basic human decency on which our faith and our beliefs as Americans are founded. It matters because we are still living in two (at least) separate and unequal and largely incommunicative societies where, as Martin Luther King pointed out a generation ago, words still seem to count more than deeds, and skin color is more important than character.
Three decades years later, King’s dream won’t die
By Ted Pease
© 1999
Normally, I am an incurable optimist. But there are times when I despair for American society—is there any hope for us? Will we ever be able to learn from our past mistakes? This week, remembering the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is one of those times when I'm not so sure.
In spite of social conditions in the 1960s, Martin Luther King had a dream for American equality. He helped the rest of us dream it with him, and made us believe it.
That was more than four decades ago. Dr. King was young—in his 30s—black and incredibly powerful in his faith, his dream, his vision for an America that would correspond to the nation that the Constitution’s framers had also dreamed of.
The dream, said King, was that one day in America, people would be judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Most of the time I truly believe that we Americans have indeed grown that much, to the point where, as a society, race really doesn’t matter, and that our view of others is not—like beauty—just skin-deep.
But I am a white man. For people who aren’t white—more than one-third of all Americans—race matters almost more than any other single thing in their lives. So what do I know?
Here in Utah, about 12 percent of the population is “minority”—that is, not white. We are the 13th whitest state in the Union. I think people here really do try to live up to moral expectations of decency and acceptance in their dealings with others, but in Utah we can’t even celebrate the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and honor the ideals he espoused, worked for, died for. Instead, what is designated as Martin Luther King Day on the federal and national calendar is “Human Rights Day” in Utah, as if we dare not acknowledge the power and vision of a black man. (This changed in 2001. TP)
When I was a kid, my parents loaded me onto a bus and took me into Boston to “march with Martin Luther King.” I’m not sure how old I was, or how well I understood what we were doing with the masses of people moving slowly around the historic Boston Common, making new history in a city not known for its racial acceptance, and singing, over and over, “We Shall Overcome.”
But I have sharp and distinct images from that day that still move me, more than 40 years later. King was there that day, and I remember listening to him speak from the small gazebo on the Boston Common. It wasn’t the “I Have a Dream” speech for which he is most famous, of course—he made that mark on our nation’s history and our culture’s conscience during the famous “March on Washington” on Aug. 28, 1963. I don’t remember his words that day in Boston, but the dream was real in the sound of his voice. Like an unforgettable taste on my tongue, I can still feel his voice and his dream.
It’s not that I have any quarrel with Utah designating a day to honor the precepts of human rights. After all, Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 79 now had he survived, certainly did stand for human rights for everyone. In fact, let’s declare every day “human rights day” in Utah. But why can’t we as a state honor King himself—if only once a year—and why, if we as a state believe in what King dreamed of, does the Utah Legislature pick that day to open its session and get on with business as usual? What message does that send? It’s disrespectful to King and people of all races who espouse his ideals.
Most of us “just don’t think about race that much,” as one of my students here at Utah State University said to me one day last fall. “Why does it matter?” she said, meaning that a person’s race shouldn’t matter.
Well, she’s right: it shouldn’t matter in the way she meant. Race shouldn’t be a barrier to opportunity, education, lifestyle, expectations, the way we live our day-to-day lives and raise our kids and interact with each other on the street or in schools or at work. But it does matter, and race still is a barrier to people who aren’t white, for whom race is “the single most defining aspect of all parts of my life,” as a black former colleague once told me.
In 2008, four decades after James Earl Ray murdered Martin Luther King, the dream is still alive, but still unfulfilled. Some think America is no less racist and divided now than it was in the 1960s, when a presidential commission said we were “two societies, one white, one black, separate and unequal.”
The reason that race matters today—and not just for people who aren’t white—goes beyond the precepts of basic human decency on which our faith and our beliefs as Americans are founded. It matters because we are still living in two (at least) separate and unequal and largely incommunicative societies where, as Martin Luther King pointed out a generation ago, words still seem to count more than deeds, and skin color is more important than character.
Today's Word—Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.
Equality Revisited:
“Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader, Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963
“Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader, Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963
Friday, January 18, 2008
Today's Word—"Reign of Witches"
Tiring of presidential campaigns? Be patient
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.”
—Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), 3rd U.S. president (1801-1809), 1798.
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.”
—Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), 3rd U.S. president (1801-1809), 1798.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Today's Word—Where Ideas Come From
Inspiration:
“Sometimes, standing in the wings, I feel [a] story brush against my face and think I'll remember it—maybe if I closed my eyes it would land on my shoulder like one of the Performing Gospel Birds. This book, while not nearly so fine, will have to suffice until it returns.”
—Garrison Keillor, radio host and author, Lake Wobegon Days (Thanks to alert WORDster Katherine Waller)
“Sometimes, standing in the wings, I feel [a] story brush against my face and think I'll remember it—maybe if I closed my eyes it would land on my shoulder like one of the Performing Gospel Birds. This book, while not nearly so fine, will have to suffice until it returns.”
—Garrison Keillor, radio host and author, Lake Wobegon Days (Thanks to alert WORDster Katherine Waller)
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Today's Word—Mobocracy
Democracy Defined?
“A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of ‘direct’ expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic—negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.”
—U.S. War Department Training Manual No. 2000-25, November 1928 (since withdrawn).
(Thanks to alert WORDster Greg Fasolt)
“A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of ‘direct’ expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic—negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.”
—U.S. War Department Training Manual No. 2000-25, November 1928 (since withdrawn).
(Thanks to alert WORDster Greg Fasolt)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Today's Word—Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes
Media Voyeurism:
“The paparazzi, a name created by Federico Fellini for a character in the film La Dolce Vita, are the bloodthirsty mosquitoes on the front lines of our gossip wars. But someone publishes the images they capture. The resulting buzz attracts not just the tabloids and cable news shows, but the gossipy sections that turn the mainstream into the meanstream media. As purveyors or consumers of such news, we are all complicit.”
—Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 2008 (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=135566)
“The paparazzi, a name created by Federico Fellini for a character in the film La Dolce Vita, are the bloodthirsty mosquitoes on the front lines of our gossip wars. But someone publishes the images they capture. The resulting buzz attracts not just the tabloids and cable news shows, but the gossipy sections that turn the mainstream into the meanstream media. As purveyors or consumers of such news, we are all complicit.”
—Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 2008 (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=135566)
Monday, January 14, 2008
Today's Word—The Noble Press
A newspaper creed:
“An institution that should always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.”
—The New York World, 1883
“An institution that should always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.”
—The New York World, 1883
Friday, January 11, 2008
Today's Word—Pundits
Talking Loud:
“The whole point about being a pundit is you don't have to be right, you just have to sound sure.”
—Matt Taibbi, reporter and pundit, Rolling Stone, who also predicted an Obama win in the New Hampshire primary, on The Colbert Report, 1/10/08
The press and pollsters, as pundit Arianna Huffington says, have a lot of "'splainin'" to do about how NH voters inexplicably didn't do what the pundits said they wanted to do. See http://cagle.com/news/NewHampshire2008/
“The whole point about being a pundit is you don't have to be right, you just have to sound sure.”
—Matt Taibbi, reporter and pundit, Rolling Stone, who also predicted an Obama win in the New Hampshire primary, on The Colbert Report, 1/10/08
The press and pollsters, as pundit Arianna Huffington says, have a lot of "'splainin'" to do about how NH voters inexplicably didn't do what the pundits said they wanted to do. See http://cagle.com/news/NewHampshire2008/
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Today's Word—Respecting Freedom
Teaching Freedom:
“The public does not have strong support for student expression — an unfortunate reality given that students may not appreciate our constitutional democracy if they live in an environment that does not respect their rights to freedom of expression.”
—David Hudson, First Amendment scholar, on “State of the First Amendment 2007” survey (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19031)
“The public does not have strong support for student expression — an unfortunate reality given that students may not appreciate our constitutional democracy if they live in an environment that does not respect their rights to freedom of expression.”
—David Hudson, First Amendment scholar, on “State of the First Amendment 2007” survey (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19031)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Today's Word—Election-Year Advice
Baloney-Detection is Hard Work:
“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us--and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.”
—Carl Sagan, scientist and author, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” 1995 (from The Demon-Haunted World)
“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us--and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.”
—Carl Sagan, scientist and author, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” 1995 (from The Demon-Haunted World)
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Today's Word—"And So Forth..."
The people’s forum:
"As liberty of the press is so essential to the improvement of the mind, we shall consider our paper, a free paper, with, however, proper and usual restrictions.… But the columns of this newspaper shall always be open to free and temperate discussions on the matters of politics, religion, and so forth."
—Elias Boudinot, editor, The Cherokee Phoenix, in its first issue, Feb. 21, 1828 (Thanks to alert WORDster Becky Tallent)
"As liberty of the press is so essential to the improvement of the mind, we shall consider our paper, a free paper, with, however, proper and usual restrictions.… But the columns of this newspaper shall always be open to free and temperate discussions on the matters of politics, religion, and so forth."
—Elias Boudinot, editor, The Cherokee Phoenix, in its first issue, Feb. 21, 1828 (Thanks to alert WORDster Becky Tallent)
Monday, January 7, 2008
Today's Word—FCC Debacle
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM—Brave New World!
Monday, Jan. 7, 2008!
This marks the return of the WORD to trouble an already troubled new year. Floods in Fernley, rioting Kikuyu, blizzards, fungus and whatnot—and let's not even start with presidential politics!
I hope you had happy, restful and peaceful holidays. The WORD, tiring of sloth at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, broke out three days after Christmas and, disguised as a pundit, invented TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM—The BLOG! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome.
Meanwhile, here we go again, dear friends....
Lump o’ coal:
“We generously ask big media to sit on Santa’s knee, tell us what it wants for Christmas, and then push through whatever of these wishes are politically and practically feasible. No test to see if anyone's been naughty or nice. Just another big, shiny present for the favored few who already hold an FCC license--and a lump of coal for the rest of us. Happy holidays!”
—FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, on end-of-year rule changes permitting more media ownership consolidation, Dec. 18, 2007. (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey) see http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/289217.html
Monday, Jan. 7, 2008!
This marks the return of the WORD to trouble an already troubled new year. Floods in Fernley, rioting Kikuyu, blizzards, fungus and whatnot—and let's not even start with presidential politics!
I hope you had happy, restful and peaceful holidays. The WORD, tiring of sloth at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, broke out three days after Christmas and, disguised as a pundit, invented TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM—The BLOG! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome.
Meanwhile, here we go again, dear friends....
Lump o’ coal:
“We generously ask big media to sit on Santa’s knee, tell us what it wants for Christmas, and then push through whatever of these wishes are politically and practically feasible. No test to see if anyone's been naughty or nice. Just another big, shiny present for the favored few who already hold an FCC license--and a lump of coal for the rest of us. Happy holidays!”
—FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, on end-of-year rule changes permitting more media ownership consolidation, Dec. 18, 2007. (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey) see http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/289217.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
