The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-20
SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
 with nod to Mods and Becks," 2. F. As latest published by Me- Efaw-Hill Whittlesey.)
 Franklin Pierce Adams, familiar 70 radio listeners via Information Please and readers of New York newspapers for 33 years, is here with thanked for the holiday ;. . .. We worked harder though, reading Mods and Becks" (and selecting the following essays from its pages) than we would have labored reading the mail or looking at the ceiling waiting for the ideas to come :. :. Nearly every batch of mail brings query or two from aspiring journal ists requesting counsel on this or that about the newspaper craft. The following excerpts from his breezy newspaper columns are sub nnitted, instead:
 - A Few Things That I Have Learned in Newspaper Work: That the newspaper business is not so cruel as other businesses are said to be, or as it is supposed to be. Editors and publishers are more Sen- timental, and more tolerant toward incompetence, than employers in any other business or profession. .. That many neWSpapermen ought not tc be in the business, and that few non-newSpapermen ought to be in 1t =. That the best and the best paid reporters don't get half of what I think they deserve .. That most newspapermen care more about pleasing an editor or publisher than about serving the reading pub lie That copy readers, headline writers, that is - have more in- tluence on contemporaneous opinion than editorial writers have think it was Bert Lesion Taylor who told me that there are no dull stories; there are only bored re- porters.
 That reporters life-preserver is his curiosity. Let him lose that and he might as well go into the press agent business That a news paperman must be willing to sacri- flee his friends That it's the Pennsylvania Station, but Grand Central Terminal .. That blamed 1t on'' is wrong !. That plurality Is the lead of a candidate over one ether; majority, over all others. That it is wrong to say "on either side of the street" when you on each side That Eastern tele- graph editors think that telegram from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a mistake of the telegrapher, so they change 1t to Ann Harbor |. That ''hectic," ''transpire" and 'meticu- lous" don't mean what reporters think they do . That 1t is Pitts kurgh, Wilkes-Barre, and world series "a That it took me years to get q composing room to let the serial comma stand in my stuff: Paints, oils and varnishes instead of paints, oils and varnishes That newspapers devote too much space to politics That newspaper work is no training, in itself, for good writing; it will not make a first rate writer of poor writer :. Our freedom never has been men, aced by any administration or any publisher They even furnish scissors and paste, and for the rare occasions when we feel like writing . few words of our own, lovely typewriter.
 It occurs to use that the newspa- perYnan meets only. two classes: Those who want to know why he printed it and those who want to know why he didn't. And in the course of years the newspaperman, who in an teffort at honesty, prints many things and omits printing many things, loses many friendships friendships insecurely founded, perhaps, but friendships whose wab- bly, foundations seem safe until they crumble. Our advice to young men about to enter journalism IS tc enter 1t, for any other business or profession seems to us like shoot ing craps for no stakes. But to the youth we should add: Any friends YOU must consider so much vel vet"
 It seems to us that those who DCI6dIu UllC 4OudCcO obOoo AASSSNN~ of the Press want all the priv iieges with none of its responsibili- ties And yet we would not have Q single shackle on the press freedom. The law of libel is enough. You may say that taste is another brake, but one editors taste is an- other editors outrageous obscenity, which may be called by him-pos- s.bly sincere-red- -blooded courage.
 Our favorite diarist told her read CTS that she was glad she didn't have to write a column, meaning about third of column, on Sat- urday, "for," Mrs. Roosevelt says, ..from early morning until we got on the train that night, l scarcely had time to think .. Mrs. Roose- welt is still in the kindergarten stage of columning. Veteran columnlsts know that thinking and columnlng
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