Published on Wed, 09/27/2023 - 12:00am
“The public, you know, thinks that a man on a newspaper is valued because he knows what to write, but the truth is, he holds his job because he ordinarily knows what not to write.” - Isaac Erwin Avery, city editor, Charlotte Observer (19001904) Simple recording of history as it happens, with a minimum of hyperbolic or vitriolic opinion and spin control, occurs less and less these days. What a renegade figure skater ate for breakfast has become front page news, relegating the reporting of the public record to the inside pages of the newspaper and the latter half of the network news broadcast. We seem to have become absorbed and fascinated by tragedy, intrigue and soap opera behavior, as though another misfortune might somehow elevate us from the oft-times humdrum rhythms of our individual lives.
