Of the eight stories in the latest issue, six deal with corporate or business control of the press. And that's just scratching the surface. When I began newspapering in 1965, the journalistic bywords were objectivity and accuracy. My mentor was an antiwar activist and a leading light of Ramparts magazine, yet he left his opinions at the newspaper's entrance. Those functions were left to editorialists, commentators, and analysts, who did not trespass beyond the borders of the editorial, op-ed, and review pages.
Stories have punch lines or Aesopian morals.
Who, what, when, where, and why don't seem to be enough. Television reporters and anchors find it necessary to complement their verbiage with the wrinkled brow, the turned mouth, the ironic tilt of the head. It is clear from viewers' calls to C-SPAN that many Americans reject some journalists' elitist notion that people must be led by the nose to an opinion. But several points were omitted that might lend a fuller picture of the immediate aftermath of the Post 's demise. Within hours of the announcement that the Post was closed, several former editors scrambled to help city desk reporters find jobs.