Insanity-Inducing Headlines

“It’s a rare week, these days, that you don’t encounter some new, extreme plan for staying sane in a world of insanity-inducing headlines. 

“People used to recommend one device-free day a week, or the occasional ‘digital detox’ retreat. But in recent months we’ve heard from the journalist who switched to a print-only news diet; the writer who’s lived tech-free since 2016 (his handwritten article for this paper was typed in by an editor) — and Erik Hagerman, an Ohio man profiled in the New York Times, who lives on a pig farm with no access to news, and who pumps white noise into his ears when he visits his local cafe, so he can’t overhear stray updates. 

“One day, . . . such schemes may go too far, leaving Hagerman and his ilk in the position of those Japanese soldiers who fought the second world war until the 1970s. When Trump gets impeached or defeated, or dies of a Doritos overdose, how will they ever find out?” 

—Oliver Burkeman, columnist, “Headlines making you anxious? Delay reading them,” The Guardian, April 6, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Weekly World News, of course. So much easier to swallow.

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Buddy

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Oh, Be Quiet

“[William] Safire, a master of the form, was fond of likening column writing to standing under a windmill: No sooner did you feel relief that you had ducked a blade than you looked up and saw a new one coming down.

“He thrived on this, but after 17 years I didn’t like what the relentless production of a newspaper column was doing to my writing. That routine can push you to have stronger opinions than you actually have, or contrived opinions about subjects you may not care deeply about, or to run roughshod over nuance to reach an unambiguous conclusion. 

“Believe it or not, an opinion writer can sometimes get sick of his own voice.”

—Frank Rich, columnist, “Confessions of an Op-Ed Columnist,” The New York Times, March 13, 2011. (Thanks to alert WORDsters Richard Prince & Dick Hughes)

• Editorial Comment: Hey, believe us, we can believe it.

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Calla Dew Closeup

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Priorities

“I read the three books in less than two weeks; friends ask how that was possible. The trick is to avoid not only Facebook and Twitter but also: celebrity news, cable news, Oprah, Jerry Springer, American Idol, The Swan, other reality-TV shows, professional wrestling, violent pornography, positive psychology and right-wing Christian fundamentalism.” 

—Kirk Nielsen, reviewer, “Can We Rescue the Republic Before the Dark Politics Take Over?” Alternet.org., 2009. (Thanks to alert WORDster Phil Meyer)

• Editorial Comment: Good general advice for a healthy life: avoid that dreck and read as many books as you can.

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Octopus

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

A New List

“[T]he United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and ‘top media influencers,’ which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they’re putting out to the public. What could possibly go wrong?” 

—Michelle Fabio, columnist, “Department Of Homeland Security Compiling Database Of Journalists And ‘Media Influencers’,” Forbes.com, April 6, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Sounds strangely familiar.

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“Ohhh, Nooo!” Plateface #62

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

#MeToo?

“Over the past 18 months, at least 15 women have come out publicly with allegations of sexual harassment at Fox spanning decades. Of them, just one has landed a job in TV news, and at least five have failed to find any full-time employment. None of the women who filed sexual harassment claims against Fox have found jobs in news. Most haven’t been seen in the media in years.” 

—Yardena Schwartz, contributor, “Silence breakers speak out against news industry’s hypocrisy: Women who speak out about sexual harassment are often blacklisted by other news organizations,” Columbia Journalism Review, April 5, 2018.

• Editorial Comment: Sure, “Shame on Fox.” But shame on the rest of news business, too.

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Turn Left

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

‘No Real Purpose’

“New York communicated with [Sinclair CEO David] Smith in mid-November, after requesting an interview. ‘Appreciate the interest in your wanting to do a story but we don’t talk to the print media as a general principal as we find them to be so devoid of reality and serving no real purpose. Have a great holiday,’ Smith said in response. 

“Later, he added, ‘Again my experience has consistently been that even with an interview it’s of no consequence in terms of spin, facts or distortion, political bent etc. The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away. Just no credibility. see ya.’” 

—Olivia Nunn, reporter, on her email efforts to interview Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David Smith, “Sinclair Chairman Claims Entire Print Media Has [sic] ‘No Credibility,’” New York magazine, April 3, 2018.

(Interesting Résumé Note: Before taking control of Sinclair Broadcasting Co. in 1985 with his brothers, media mogul David Smith was “a partner at Ciné Processors, a bootleg porn manufacturer” owned by his father.)

• Editorial Comment: Mr. Smith is not a big reader, I’m guessing. Meaningless dribble is right.

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Overinflated

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Splitting Headache

“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.” 

—Sir William Osler (1849-1919), Canadian physician and one of four founding professors of Johns Hopkins University.

 

• Editorial Comment: Sounds right.

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Wispy

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Don’t Sneeze

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 50 years ago today. He had delivered his last sermon, the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, in Memphis the night before, remembering that he had almost died 11 years before when a black woman stabbed him at a book signing. The New York Times reported that the wound was so severe that he’d have died had he sneezed.

“In his last sermon, King reflected on that experience, recalling that a ninth-grade girl wrote him afterward to say she was glad he hadn’t sneezed. . . .

“‘I too am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters.

“‘If I had sneezed I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. 

“‘If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.’”

—Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil rights leader, in Aaron Couch, “In last speech, Martin Luther King Jr. ‘not concerned’ about early death,” The Christian Science Monitor, 2011. Image: Joseph Louw, The Lorraine Motel, Memphis. 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: The dream is still out there. Somewhere.

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RIP

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

The Sinclair Brand of Journalism

WORDmeister note: Sinclair Broadcasting, the nation’s largest owner of local TV stations (200), requires its news anchors to read this on-air. See if you aren’t moved by this in some way:

Hi, I’m (HostA) _______, and I’m (HostB) _______…

(B) Our greatest responsibility is to serve our (town/area) communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that (TV station newscast) produces.

(A) But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.

(B) More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.

(A) Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control “exactly what people think.” This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

(B) At (TV station name) it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand Truth is neither politically “left nor right.” Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.

 —Timothy Burke, “How America’s Largest TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers in Trump’s War on the Media,” Deadspin.com, March 31, 2018.

 

• Editorial Comment: Agreed. This *is* extremely dangerous to a democracy. But let’s give John Oliver the final word: “Nothing says ‘We value independent media’ like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult.”

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Grandmother Rock

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

Repeat After Me

“Local television is still one of the most popular ways Americans get their news, which makes what Sinclair Broadcasting is doing seem all the more heinous. . . . 

“It’s sickening to watch local journalists who are forced to read something that trashes their own profession.”

—News & Guts, newsman Dan Rather’s news media production company, “Sinclair Broadcasting: A Clear and Present Danger,” April 1, 2018.

  

Watch: Deadspin.com compiled video of “news anchors” at some of Sinclair’s 200 local TV stations delivering, word-for-word, their corporate masters’ message. See “How America's Largest Local TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers In Trump’s War On The Media.”

 

 

• Editorial Comment: George Orwell had nothing on this. Chilling.

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On Foggy Pond

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard