Hot Air

. 
Measured Discourse

“When he [Man] ceased any longer to heed the words of the seers and prophets, Science lovingly brought forth the Radio Commentator.”

—Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright, in The Enchanted (1933)

• Editorial Comment: Pinheads.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Ivy League Outhouse






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 


TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. ted.pease@gmail.com. (Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Higher Education

. 
Stifle

“People are always asking me if the university stifles writers. I reply that it hasn’t stifled enough of them. There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good writing teacher.”

—Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), unstifled writer 

• Editorial Comment: Way ahead of you: Twitter pre-stifles them before they’re freshmen.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Ivy Outhouse






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 


TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Boom!

. 
Hear No Evil

“Even though he lives in Washington and works in government, he dumped his subscription to The Washington Post. He explained: ‘It was the treatment of almost any conservative issue. It was slanted and often nasty. And, you know, why should I get upset every morning?’ He added that The Post was ‘shrilly, shrilly liberal.’

“Just another guy in Washington who can’t stand hearing anything that doesn’t comport with his worldview? Well, this one happens to work on the United States Supreme Court.

“As Justice Antonin Scalia might say, ‘Boom!’ His interview with Jennifer Senior in New York magazine suggests that the tendency to limit one’s sources of information to avoid dissonance is not the province of a bunch of narrow-minded, politically obsessed characters who send mass e-mails from their mother’s basement.”

—David Carr, media writer, “It’s Not Just Politics. Our News Is Gerrymandered, Too,” The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2013

• Editorial Comment: As a press critic, Nino’s an originalist.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Ivy Outhouse






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 


TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Pompous Asses

. 
Editorial Opinion

“[Y]ou guys have an obligation … to avoid pompously bad writing and the kind of dullness that comes from letting flatulent asses pontificate about things they know no more about than the next man, if as much.” 

—Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), mystery novelist and screenwriter, in a cranky letter to the editor of The Atlantic, 1944.

• Editorial Comment: Robust and wide-open debate is alive and well.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Summer’s End






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 


TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Scrawls

. 
Perils of Typesetting

“Don’t be too harsh to these poems until they’re typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.” 

—Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), in letter to fellow Welsh poet Vernon Watkins, 1938 (Portrait by Augustus John) 

• Editorial Comment: I use handwriting for almost nothing but grocery lists. Which, by this theory, explains my uncertainty at the market. 

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Morning Mist





Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Be Happier

. 
Opinion Leader

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

—Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Founding Father, principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the 3rd U.S. president, had a love-hate relationship with the press. 

• Editorial Comment: A perspective apparently shared by more and more Americans.

 

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Roots





Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

We Have Twits

. 
Who Needs Journalists?

“‘Why do we need journalism when we have social media’ is the rallying cry of those who have a perspective to share. If you have something to say — a cool link you saw or a photo or a review of a restaurant — you go on Facebook and Twitter and Yelp and say it. Why do you need journalists to tell you about links or how good restaurants are when you have social media? 

“The short answer is: you don’t. The long answer is: You need journalists when you want an independent perspective. And that perspective — particularly for decision-makers — is essential.” 

—Philip Bump, “How Twitter is Ruining America,” The Atlantic, Oct. 10, 2013 

• Editorial Comment: Be careful what you ask for . . .

 

PeezPix by Ted Pease 

Dinghy Rack





Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Wit, Wisecracks . . .

. 
. . . and Inspiration

“I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound — if I can remember any of the damn things.”

—Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), writer, Algonquin denizen & famed wisecracker (Image: A 1938 book party at the Algonquin Hotel: seated, left to right, Fritz Foord, Wolcott Gibbs, Frank Case and Dorothy Parker; standing, Alan Campbell, St. Clair McKelway, Russell Maloney and James Thurber. CondeNast)

• Editorial Comment: Oh, never mind...

 

 

PeezPix by Ted Pease
 

Dinghy Rack





Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Obama & the Press

. 
Transparency

“[A]dministration spokesmen are often unresponsive or hostile to press inquiries . . . . Despite President Barack Obama’s repeated promise that his administration would be the most open and transparent in American history, reporters and government transparency advocates said they are disappointed by its performance in improving access to the information they need. 

“‘This is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered,’ said David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.”

—Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor, The Washington Post, in special report for the Committee to Protect Journalists, “The Obama Administration and the Press: Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America,” Oct. 10, 2013. 

• Editorial Comment: Hope for change.

 

PeezPix by Ted Pease
 

Dinghy Rack





Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Blind Optimism

. 
Nincompoops

“I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever. . . . 

“Not that journalism is always wonderful, it’s not, but at least we offer some way out, some integrity.”

—Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, in “Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the ‘pathetic’ American media,” The Guardian, Sept. 27, 2013

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Now I feel better.

PeezPix by Ted Pease
 

Surfer Dog






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com 


TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com.  
(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Dear Mary

. 
Correspondence Course

“Letter writing is nearly a lost art in this age of telephones and easy travel, and the receipt of written correspondence that is detailed and witty is a lost pleasure. 

“As a result, when Ms. magazine began publishing in 1972, few of us who were on the staff were prepared for the experience of reading the rich variety of the letters that were addressed to the editors. They allowed us to get to know thousands of our readers on a level of intimacy that one shares with only a few real-life friends. . . . Ms. was founded to give voice to the concerns of a movement, and the letters help us fulfill that purpose.”

—Mary Thom (1944-2013), writer and former Ms. Magazine executive editor, in Letters to Ms., 1972-1987 (1987) (NYTimes obit)

-->

 

• Editorial Comment: Note to self: Drop mom a line.

 

PeezPix by Ted Pease
 

Pastels on the Plaza






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com

(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: While I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. All contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.

Stoop News

. 
Slow Down

“There is now and will be a monster explosion in the means of disseminating material . . . but there’s still something to be said for sitting on the stoop reading a daily newspaper.”

—Chuck Ward, newspaper publisher

• Editorial Comment: Please pass the lemonade. And the sports section.



Image: Alfred Eisenstaedt

PeezPix by Ted Pease

Pastels






Original PeezPix archival prints, matted at sizes from 5x7" to 16x20" or larger, available for sale. ted.pease@gmail.com

(Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent to the 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: While I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. All contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah, and Humboldt State University, Arcata, California
To receive Today's Word on Journalism by email (FREE!), send "subscribe" to ted.pease@gmail.com

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.