The Travis McGee Reader

Dec 10, 2009

Editor and Publisher

We used it to fish for jobs. It told us who got promoted. A dab hand at reading between the lines could use it to figure out who was about to be fired. It kept us up to date on which media baron was foraging for a fresh Goss. But most of all it demanded that we think about what we were doing as we went about the mundane business of telling the world what it was like.

Dirk Smilly of Forbes writes part of the obit:

With a stodgy layout and, until recently, retro typeface, the monthly journal was one of the most respected sources of news about the newspaper business. Over the years it covered the triumphs of Pulitzer Prize winners, the trials of kidnapped journalists in the Middle East, efforts to crack down on checkbook journalism and the ethical problems posed by tabloid values seeping into news.

The world will be a poorer place when the last E&P rolls off the presses. It may be even more saddening that so few understand exactly what was lost.

Our 'Bama Which Art

I suppose most of you have heard that President Obama was to be awarded a Nobel Peace prize. And now It has happened, moving an AP man to write this lead:

OSLO – President Barack Obama entered the pantheon of Nobel Peace Prize winners Thursday with humble words, acknowledging his own few accomplishments while delivering a robust defense of war and promising to use the prestigious award to "reach for the world that ought to be."

Pantheon?

Yes, we're all aware of the figurative use of language, but I wonder if it's really a good idea for our media to reinforce His cosmic image of Himself.

With windy paeans like this routinely disgracing the pen of honest journalism, His Obamaness can certainly afford to keep his own words humble.