Long-time Washington Post columnist David Broder died today at the age of 81. He’ll be missed, as one of the most careful and knowledgeable Washington correspondents in our history — qualities that are on the decline in modern journalism.
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What, me worry? Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:37:42am |
The passing of the old school of journalism.
Will we ever see it again?
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researchok Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:42:05am |
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Kragar Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:43:18am |
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Targetpractice Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:49:04am |
re: #1 marjoriemoon
Will we ever see it again?
Not so long as the line between information and entertainment remains blurred. When I tune into the nightly news, I do so to find out about what's going on in the world, in the nation, in the state, and in my local community. If I wanna hear about Charlie Sheen's breakdown, I'll turn to E!. If I want to hear about the sports highlights, I'll turn to ESPN. And if I want to learn a new recipe for dinner, I'll turn to the Food Network.
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Tumulus11 Wed, Mar 9, 2011 11:50:09am |
. David Broder was a good man.
Rest in Peace.
'[Doris Kearns Goodwin] told a story about when she was working with President Johnson on his memoirs down at the ranch, and Johnson had told her in one of the, you know, oral interviews, he had told hundreds, thousands of audiences about his grandfather who had died at the Alamo. Her job was to, you know, be the fact checker. You know, verify everything. So she said, "I summoned up my nerve one day and said, 'Mr. President, I have gone through all the records and I can't find your grandfather's name on the victims at the Alamo.'He shot her this really hard look and finally said, 'Well. That's right. He didn't. He actually died at the Battle of San Jacinto. And Texans know that that was much more important in our history than the Battle of the Alamo. But nobody outside of Texas ever heard of the Battle of San Jacinto. So I moved it.'
She said, well, you know, that sounded plausible to her. And then the next step, obviously, was to check the records for the Battle of San Jacinto--he hadn't died... He had died in bed.
She said, 'The reason I tell you this story, is that when you come across something in the personal account of somebody who is going to be President of the United States, no matter how trivial it may seem to you at the time, that is a myth and not reality. Pay attention.'
And I can still hear her voice, and the hairs go up on the back of my neck. She said, 'Because somebody who can invent and believe the story that his grandfather died at the Alamo, can take a very equivocal incident in the Gulf of Tonkin and turn it into a pretext for war that gets thousands of people killed.
// David Broder in a Frontline interview by Steve Talbot -July 11, 1996.
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FemNaziBitch Wed, Mar 9, 2011 12:00:58pm |
The few journalists left (i.e. NPR) have a hard time making a living. Sensationalism is soooo much more profitable.
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William Barnett-Lewis Wed, Mar 9, 2011 12:02:31pm |
re: #1 marjoriemoon
Will we ever see it again?
Maybe.
Remember that this "old school" of journalism, that we now mourn, grew out of the horrible era of Yellow Journalism that actively started the Spanish-American War and it's descendants. Pulitzer's guilt over being involved in that lead to his laying the groundwork for that "old school".
Modern journalism needs to separate itself from the entertainment industry again and it needs to find a mechanism to finance itself again (big corporate news will never be good journalism) but these things are only difficult, not outright impossible.
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sattv4u2 Wed, Mar 9, 2011 12:02:47pm |
re: #1 marjoriemoon
Will we ever see it again?
If only!
RIP Mr Broder.
Funny, but not 3 months ago I just finished (re)reading The System
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celticdragon Wed, Mar 9, 2011 12:40:24pm |
RIP.
And yes, he was a good man. For what it is worth, though, he demonstrated some of the best (informed, smart)...and worst (surrenders journalistic integrity for access to power)...trends in beltway journalism.
His legacy is mixed, in my view, but that does not prevent me from wishing comfort to his family who have lost a loved one.
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celticdragon Wed, Mar 9, 2011 12:41:52pm |
re: #6 recusancy
The original magical balance fairy.
That is the problem. Broder is widely blamed for giving credence to that viewpoint. All the same, maybe it's best if we hash that out on another day.
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martinsmithy Wed, Mar 9, 2011 2:16:47pm |
Often an interesting and sometimes a great read when his columns would appear in my local paper.
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