Well, Dean, maybe you're too young to know anything about William Allen White, who died in 1943, after having served as editor and publisher of the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, which he had purchased in 1895 for $3000, and which, in a photograph of the whole staff in 1935, showed about 30 employees.
But in his time, he was one of the most influential newspaper publishers and editors in the United States and perhaps the world. And he had as much influence as William Randolph Hearst, Colonel Robert R McCormick, or Adolph Ochs.
White became famous more or less overnight in 1896, the year after he took over his small newspaper, when an editorial he had hurredly written while waiting for a train, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" came to the attention of Mark Hanna, one of they chiefs of the Republican Party, who had it reproduced and sent all around the country. (Sort of a century-old example of blogging, when you think about it.)
Even though the "Sage of Emporia" served as an elder statesman of the Republican Party, even opponents such as Franklin D Roosevelt figuratively sat at his feet to listen.
Now, about this Maureen Dowd. Most working reporters and editors or pretty smart people. They know phonies when they see or read one. People like Dowd can get away with being outright bitches; as some newshens are. Or they can take advantage of lovers in high places in order to get a good story; as some newshens do. But one thing they can't get away with is outright false reporting. Not with all these smart working reporters and editors increasingly checking out the work of suspected journalists such as Maureen Dowd. That can destroy journalistic reputations faster than you can shout "Kill that story" back to the copy desk.
And this is where the Internet comes into the story. That's where the news of Dowd's taking Bush way out of context first came to light, wasn't it?
You see what I'm saying here? Small town journalism is not at all dead and buried. It just changed its venue and its status has morphed into some unimaginably more important than William Allen White could ever have imagined before he died 60 years ago. Any competent blogger can become a latter-day Sage of Emporia. Sort of like dinosaurs evolving into birds.
What I am saying is that the way Maureen Dowd has been brought down is more important than the fact that it happened. Has she been wiped out? Probably not. But Once you lose your reputation in the news and commentary business, you never really get it back.
So in some way, you and a host of other bloggers are already part of this trend, Dean, even though you may never have thought about what effect the blogsites may be having on national affairs.
By the way, before you take any of this too seriously, White was known to spout all kinds of conventional wisdoms, and now and then, so do you. But that's okay.
I had forgotten William Loeb. But boy, oh boy, that editor could smash political campaigns like one of us on a gunrange bowling over steel targets on match day.
Al Franken is worse. Always. He reminds me of one of those characters in movies about the New York gangs. The one who exercizes his mouth one time too many, is taken into the basement of some dive after hours, and worked over. With a solemn warning,
"Next time, smart ass, we dress you up in a concrete kimono and park you in the middle of the East River."
It strikes me as a very strange question, honestly.
I honestly don't give a rat's ass about Bill O'Reilly, who on a good night reaches maybe 300,000 people. But if others want to compare his "I won this award, when I meant to say that award" to lying about matters of national security and world leaders, and refusing to issue a timely retraction and apology, well, okay by me I guess.
Let's all of us stay on focus, which is Maureen Dowd and the obvious unprofessional way she used an ellipsis (three dots) to reverse the meaning of part of a foreign policy speech by the US president. And for obvious political reasons, no less.
Someone analyzed her column in detail, news of this spread to the general public via the internet in general and particularly the blogsites. A small town newspaper in Texas cancelled her column because of its purposeful dishonesty. Even with major restorative editorial surgery, her professional reputation probably will never recover, and without it, nobody will trust her again.
So what now? A New York or Washington liberal version by her of Nixon's "Checkers" speech, or perhaps Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky" speech? Her problem is that she is not an important elected official; but only a columnist. Not worth prime time to anyone.
Right now, her value to the Bush administration, as an albatross hung around the necks of the president's political enemies, outweighs any damage she can do to him with her columns.
Probably, from here on out, no editor is going to run her columns without checking out everything she wrote. Even if she says it's Tuesday, someone will have to check the calendar. But around deadline time, newspaper editors are as busy as cat's asses in springtime, as they used to say. That means her syndication value is a lot less than it was a week ago.
The New York Times right now is taking more concentrated hits than ever before at one time over the veracity of their reporters and of this, this pampered pouting princess. Trust is their only product, and that is now under serious question.
So I would guess that right now, up in the top floors of whichever Gotham skyscrapers NYT's corporate attorneys and PR staffs are hidden away in, the lights are burning late at night and the suits with starched shirts are carefully reading contract clauses. Looking for some way to drown her while making it appear she fell off the ship.
Arnold, I don't recall: didn't you used to work for UPI? Or is my memory playing tricks on me?
I'm asking because I'm taking a journalism course this summer for my tech writing special interest in college.
The prof is pretty cool; he's not just some goober with a degree, he's been a real newsman before. He's already told some "war" stories. According to him Peter Arnett (for whom he worked once as a legman) is the "biggest fake in the world." Heh.
You got it right. I worked for UPI June-December 1962 at their Des Moines, Iowa bureau. The biggest news event of that year was Kennedy's nuclear missile crisis with Khrushchev and Castro for 13 terrible days in October. I got to read Kennedy's speech right from the A-wire teletype about two hours before the world heard it on radio and television. It was enough to curdle your blood, because everyone I knew thought that either Cuba was going to burn up, or it would be the whole world.
As for Peter Arnett. Probably no on-camera newsreader is ever a hero to the actual newsgatherer (legman) who puts the daily stuff together for him. When I worked UPI, we used to write all the stuff in two styles. One was for print media, the way you read it in the papers, the other, which we called "rip and read" was for the broadcast media. (They would rip it off the teletype and read it over a microphone or in front of a camera.) The clank-and-bang teletypes must be all in museums by now, but for all I know, they might still call this stuff rip-and-read.
I wasn't a very productive reporter and I didn't pull my share of the load for these guys. So they canned me after six months. After which, I got a duller but much better job as an industrial public relations operative in an old line manufacturing corporation with headquarters on Michigan Avenue overlooking Grant Park in Chicago. Moral of the story: Sometimes a kick in the ass sends you flying into a golden bird's nest.
Now, Casey, answer a simple one. What in hell are you doing staying up until 2:57am to post questions about obscure stuff such as an old UPI bureau? Turning night into day makes both night and day into an A-1 grind.
"Alas, it's but one small-town paper"?
Well, Dean, maybe you're too young to know anything about William Allen White, who died in 1943, after having served as editor and publisher of the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette, which he had purchased in 1895 for $3000, and which, in a photograph of the whole staff in 1935, showed about 30 employees.
But in his time, he was one of the most influential newspaper publishers and editors in the United States and perhaps the world. And he had as much influence as William Randolph Hearst, Colonel Robert R McCormick, or Adolph Ochs.
White became famous more or less overnight in 1896, the year after he took over his small newspaper, when an editorial he had hurredly written while waiting for a train, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" came to the attention of Mark Hanna, one of they chiefs of the Republican Party, who had it reproduced and sent all around the country. (Sort of a century-old example of blogging, when you think about it.)
Even though the "Sage of Emporia" served as an elder statesman of the Republican Party, even opponents such as Franklin D Roosevelt figuratively sat at his feet to listen.
Now, about this Maureen Dowd. Most working reporters and editors or pretty smart people. They know phonies when they see or read one. People like Dowd can get away with being outright bitches; as some newshens are. Or they can take advantage of lovers in high places in order to get a good story; as some newshens do. But one thing they can't get away with is outright false reporting. Not with all these smart working reporters and editors increasingly checking out the work of suspected journalists such as Maureen Dowd. That can destroy journalistic reputations faster than you can shout "Kill that story" back to the copy desk.
And this is where the Internet comes into the story. That's where the news of Dowd's taking Bush way out of context first came to light, wasn't it?
You see what I'm saying here? Small town journalism is not at all dead and buried. It just changed its venue and its status has morphed into some unimaginably more important than William Allen White could ever have imagined before he died 60 years ago. Any competent blogger can become a latter-day Sage of Emporia. Sort of like dinosaurs evolving into birds.
What I am saying is that the way Maureen Dowd has been brought down is more important than the fact that it happened. Has she been wiped out? Probably not. But Once you lose your reputation in the news and commentary business, you never really get it back.
So in some way, you and a host of other bloggers are already part of this trend, Dean, even though you may never have thought about what effect the blogsites may be having on national affairs.
By the way, before you take any of this too seriously, White was known to spout all kinds of conventional wisdoms, and now and then, so do you. But that's okay.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Speaking of the influence of small town newspapers, don't forget William Loeb of the Manchester (NH) Guardian.
If the New Hampshire primary ever meant anything (and it did) Loeb was the guy who could make or break your candidacy.
Good catch, Ara!
I had forgotten William Loeb. But boy, oh boy, that editor could smash political campaigns like one of us on a gunrange bowling over steel targets on match day.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
No shit sherlock.
BTW, I posted this, about how Bill O'Reilly was nailed recently by Al Franken for shading the truth.
Dowd lied about the President; O'Reilly lied about himself. Which is worse?
Al Franken is worse. Always. He reminds me of one of those characters in movies about the New York gangs. The one who exercizes his mouth one time too many, is taken into the basement of some dive after hours, and worked over. With a solemn warning,
"Next time, smart ass, we dress you up in a concrete kimono and park you in the middle of the East River."
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
It strikes me as a very strange question, honestly.
I honestly don't give a rat's ass about Bill O'Reilly, who on a good night reaches maybe 300,000 people. But if others want to compare his "I won this award, when I meant to say that award" to lying about matters of national security and world leaders, and refusing to issue a timely retraction and apology, well, okay by me I guess.
Let's all of us stay on focus, which is Maureen Dowd and the obvious unprofessional way she used an ellipsis (three dots) to reverse the meaning of part of a foreign policy speech by the US president. And for obvious political reasons, no less.
Someone analyzed her column in detail, news of this spread to the general public via the internet in general and particularly the blogsites. A small town newspaper in Texas cancelled her column because of its purposeful dishonesty. Even with major restorative editorial surgery, her professional reputation probably will never recover, and without it, nobody will trust her again.
So what now? A New York or Washington liberal version by her of Nixon's "Checkers" speech, or perhaps Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky" speech? Her problem is that she is not an important elected official; but only a columnist. Not worth prime time to anyone.
Right now, her value to the Bush administration, as an albatross hung around the necks of the president's political enemies, outweighs any damage she can do to him with her columns.
Probably, from here on out, no editor is going to run her columns without checking out everything she wrote. Even if she says it's Tuesday, someone will have to check the calendar. But around deadline time, newspaper editors are as busy as cat's asses in springtime, as they used to say. That means her syndication value is a lot less than it was a week ago.
The New York Times right now is taking more concentrated hits than ever before at one time over the veracity of their reporters and of this, this pampered pouting princess. Trust is their only product, and that is now under serious question.
So I would guess that right now, up in the top floors of whichever Gotham skyscrapers NYT's corporate attorneys and PR staffs are hidden away in, the lights are burning late at night and the suits with starched shirts are carefully reading contract clauses. Looking for some way to drown her while making it appear she fell off the ship.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold, I don't recall: didn't you used to work for UPI? Or is my memory playing tricks on me?
I'm asking because I'm taking a journalism course this summer for my tech writing special interest in college.
The prof is pretty cool; he's not just some goober with a degree, he's been a real newsman before. He's already told some "war" stories. According to him Peter Arnett (for whom he worked once as a legman) is the "biggest fake in the world." Heh.
A good man...
Casey,
You got it right. I worked for UPI June-December 1962 at their Des Moines, Iowa bureau. The biggest news event of that year was Kennedy's nuclear missile crisis with Khrushchev and Castro for 13 terrible days in October. I got to read Kennedy's speech right from the A-wire teletype about two hours before the world heard it on radio and television. It was enough to curdle your blood, because everyone I knew thought that either Cuba was going to burn up, or it would be the whole world.
As for Peter Arnett. Probably no on-camera newsreader is ever a hero to the actual newsgatherer (legman) who puts the daily stuff together for him. When I worked UPI, we used to write all the stuff in two styles. One was for print media, the way you read it in the papers, the other, which we called "rip and read" was for the broadcast media. (They would rip it off the teletype and read it over a microphone or in front of a camera.) The clank-and-bang teletypes must be all in museums by now, but for all I know, they might still call this stuff rip-and-read.
I wasn't a very productive reporter and I didn't pull my share of the load for these guys. So they canned me after six months. After which, I got a duller but much better job as an industrial public relations operative in an old line manufacturing corporation with headquarters on Michigan Avenue overlooking Grant Park in Chicago. Moral of the story: Sometimes a kick in the ass sends you flying into a golden bird's nest.
Now, Casey, answer a simple one. What in hell are you doing staying up until 2:57am to post questions about obscure stuff such as an old UPI bureau? Turning night into day makes both night and day into an A-1 grind.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI