Yes, the time has come for each of you ink-stained wretches to park your Prius and go drive a tractor. (Oh, bring your vodka with you.) Stumbling through the internet...
Journalists Addicted to Intemperance
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Journalism
A Conversation With Mr. Dooley
Sometimes the best thing I can write for you is what somebody else wrote first. -- “What’s wan man’s news is another man’s throubles. In these hot days, I’d like to see...
Political Corruption in Romania: The DNA Database
“Criticism by politicians and politically motivated media attacks on individual judges, prosecutors and members of their families, and on judicial and prosecutorial...
Just in Case You Think Journalism Ever Changes
From Salmagundi, a series of satirical pamphlets written by Washington Irving, his brothers and friends in New York City from January 1807 to January 1808. The...
How Not to Interview the President
Allow me to revisit my short comment from the other day about Romania Libera’s interview with President Basescu. It seems that based on some questions and comments I...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 6)
A Simple Conclusion Feel free to dismiss all of this. After all, I’m from the US. What do I know? Things are different here. That’s what some people tell me. Perhaps...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 5)
“A Line That Moves Is No Line At All” I hope we all agree that theoretically, somewhere, there exists a line between what editorial does and what advertising should be...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 4)
“No matter what you think, your publication is not your product.” (An introduction to journalism that even the owners can understand – I hope.) The previous blog...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 3)
“If their ideas are so good, let advertising write the stories.” When I was a journalist (and I hope it’s still this way in the US) if an advertising executive walked...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 2)
“So what’s the problem? We didn’t tell them what to write.” Why did I pick this one example, the automated insertion of an advertising link into the editorial product,...
Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 1)
“Why I Stopped Writing for Dilema Veche” I didn’t think journalistic standards could get much lower in Romania. I was wrong. Thanks to a combination of the mindless...
Pencil
[Originally broadcast on Sept. 28, 2009, on The Frank Show, here.] Some years back, I read a quote from a famous British editor who was asked what it takes to be a...