About Editing and Writing

From a Washington Post column by Daniel W. Drezner headlined “Everything old is new again in the mainstream media”:

See if this sounds familiar: The mainstream media is broken. These gatekeepers are panicked about losing their power because of the emergence of cheap ways for people to communicate directly with interested readers….I am writing, of course, about 2002.

Back in the day, there was the mediasphere and the blogosphere and a whole big debate about what this divide meant. I should know — I was one of those folks who grabbed a Blogger account and started writing because of my difficulties getting an op-ed published. I was not atypical: Most of the first generation of bloggers that gained followings were either academics writing for a public audience or former columnists and editors experimenting with the blog format….

From a New York Times Those We’ve Lost story by Neil Genzlinger headlined “Jack Schwartz, Key Cog at New York Newspapers, Dies at 82”:

Jack Schwartz, a lifelong newspaperman, knew early that he was best suited to the kinds of jobs that are valued in a newsroom but largely invisible to the reading public.

In the fall of 1959 he landed a job out of college as a reporter for The Long Island Press, based in Queens, and a few months later found himself covering his first big story, a hotel fire on Atlantic Beach, on the South Shore. But he never actually went to the scene; instead he pieced the story together from telephone interviews and wire service copy.

From a Washington Post story by Robin Givhan headlined “Samira Nasr, a fashion first at Harper’s Bazaar: “I just want to bring more people with me to the party”:

Over the course of three decades, Samira Nasr has run a well-paced marathon through a fashion system filled with flamboyant egos and prickly temperaments, all while maintaining a low-key reputation as someone with integrity, impeccable taste and a commitment to hard work. She is also terribly skilled at her job, which has been to tell visual stories using clothes and accessories. In July, she claimed a victory and stepped into history when she became the editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar — making her the first person of color to lead the fashion glossy in its 154-year history.

From a New York Time story by Neil Vigdor headlined “Phony McPlowface Has a Shot in Naming Contest. ‘Abolish ICE’ Does Not”:

The suggestions came in by the thousands, with the inevitable puns and nods to Prince, Minnesota Twins legends and, of course, snow.

There was Raspberry Brrr-et, Road Carew and Minnesota nICE, all credible options as clever names for state snowplows.

When the Minnesota Department of Transportation recently asked for the public’s help with naming eight snowplows as part of a contest, an even more popular suggestion was the phrase “Abolish ICE,” according to an analysis by The Minnesota Reformer, an independent news website, which obtained the 24,000 entries in a public records request.

From “20 Pieces of Writing Advice from William Faulkner,” posted at lithub.com.

On “being a writer”:

“Don’t be ‘a writer’ but instead be writing. Being ‘a writer’ means being stagnant. The act of writing shows movement, activity, life. When you stop moving, you’re dead. It’s never too soon to start writing, as soon as you learn to read.” (from an interview excerpted in The Daily Princetonian, 1958)

On the best training for writing:

From a story on caranddriver.com by Annie White headlined “Chief of Cherokee Nation Says ‘It’s Time’ for Jeep to Stop Using Name”:

For the first time, the Cherokee Nation is asking Jeep to change the name of its Cherokee and Grand Cherokee vehicles.

“I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car,” Chuck Hoskin, Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, told Car and Driver. . . .”The best way to honor us is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country, our history, culture, and language and have meaningful dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness.”

From a Washington Post obit by AP writer Hillel Italle headlined “Genevieve Young, editor who helped shape ‘Love Story’ and other books, dies at 89”:

Genevieve Young, a book editor who worked with authors ranging from Herman Wouk to Betty Rollin, played a key role in the writing of Erich Segal’s “Love Story” and oversaw the estate and foundation of her former husband, photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks, died Feb. 18, 2020, at her home in New York City. She was 89.

From a post on lithub.com by Adam Grant headlined “I Rethink, Therefore I Am: On the Importance of Second Opinions”:

With advances in access to information and technology, knowledge isn’t just increasing. It’s increasing at an increasing rate. In 2011, you consumed about five times as much information per day as you would have just a quarter-century earlier. . . .The accelerating pace of change means that we need to question our beliefs more readily than ever before.

From a New York Times obit by Clay Risen headlined “Peter G. Davis, Music Critic of Wide Knowledge and Wit, Dies at 84”:

Peter G. Davis, who for over 30 years held sway as one of America’s leading classical music critics with crisp, witty prose and an encyclopedic memory of countless performances and performers, died on Feb. 13.

First as a critic at The New York Times and later at New York magazine, Mr. Davis wrote precise, sharply opinionated reviews of all forms of classical music, though his great love was opera and the voice, an attachment he developed in his early teens.

From a Washington Post review by Susan Benkelman of the book “Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at ’60 Minutes'” by Ira Rosen.

Television news producers operate outside the spotlight, figuring out story angles, sweating the details and persuading reluctant sources to go on camera. They also manage impossibly difficult personalities, get blamed for segments that go off the rails and generally don’t get credit for things that go right.