I think newspapers are, maybe because they've been around for so long, the straightest medium of communication that there is. When people read something in a newspaper, I think they feel, and I think they probably have a right to believe, that it's true. I mean, they haven't selected themselves as Boston Phoenix readers or New Yorker readers. They have to read if they want to know whether the street's going to be blocked tomorrow. If I'm writing a column that appears in Time , I think I have a little leeway because it's meant to be funny.
Most columnists have characters.
Nobody actually believes those people are real. Harold the Committed is not. I used to use Harold the Committed to make fun of the Nation , basically. I thought that old Nation readers oughtn't be let off scot-free. Oh, the wily and parsimonious Victor S. Navasky.