Feb 27 2009
This was a difficult week. It saw Clarke Thomas, surely one of Pittsburgh's greatest newspapermen, mourned by his colleagues and friends. His memorial service Thursday was a fitting recognition of his extraordinary life. It moved all of us who were there, and perhaps in unexpected ways.
In the very week that priests distributed ashes to remind us of our mortality, there was Clarke's shining example to challenge every mourner with the implicit question: What will they find to say about us when our time comes? (Say not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.)
I fear my memorialists will have a hard time of it - he liked jokes! - but if I can't imagine what they will say then, I do know what people say about me now. Some of it is good and reassuring. Some of it, not so much .... I know, I know, at least they are reading.
The esteem in which Clarke was generally held was much on my mind as the negative reaction started to roll in about my column Wednesday concerning the uncertain future of the newspaper industry. The Scripps Howard News Service distributes the column nationally and it took a few days before readers in such states as California and Wyoming started to check in.
These were people for whom liberals are bad by definition, stupid and dishonest beings who hate America. Of course, they never knew anyone like Clarke, who was smart, honest as the day is long and a great lover of America. They don't know me either; they just assume they do because Rush Limbaugh educated them about the type.
These were people thoroughly accepting of the stereotypes peddled in the propaganda war that conservative politicians and their promoters have waged against the media, including newspapers, for the last 40 years.
Nor did the critics of newspapers who e-mailed me show the slightest understanding concerning the difference between opinion writers like myself who are paid to have a point of view and reporters who are charged with just reporting the facts. To them, it's all the same. Because I criticized conservatives in that column, that was taken as proof that all the reporters at the PG and every paper in America is therefore liberal.
Of course, I speak for no-one but myself, just as my conservative colleagues Jack Kelly and Ruth Ann Dailey do. But, remarkably, the local critics who wrote to me are so invested in their view of the PG as completely liberal that they can't bring themselves to admit that we have conservative columnists like Jack and Ruth Ann. They are nearly invisible to them. None so blind as those who cannot see.
As for finding a sense of humor in this crowd of critics, forget it. Undertakers would be too mirthful for this crowd.
I fear the dumbing down of America is just about complete. I once defined a journalist in my column as follows..... "A writer who is accused of bias by people who are hopelessly biased."
I recognize that even Clarke Thomas had his critics in his day, but he was unflappable. I fear I am a bit flappable, but it's been a tough week.
Feb 25 2009
The economy is a strange beast - it feeds on confidence. Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his next best thing to a State of the Union address with a heaping helping of optimism for the economic beast and all who wish it to prosper.
It is possible to fault his speech (and some did) as somewhat short on specifics. It is possible to wonder how the deficit will be cut drastically when all his grand plans are proceeding.
But anyone with a spark of human feeling would be hard-pressed not to respond positively. It was a masterful speech (and I write as one who didn't think his inauguration speech was particularly inspired). On this night, Obama's oratory skills were on full display. Even those on the Republican side of the aisle were moved to get up frequently to applaud lest they be seen as rocks about to be submerged by the rising tide of enthusiasm.
While the stock market didn't respond positively this morning, the American people can take hope after this speech that such a projection of leadership will make a difference over the long haul. Intelligence and unflappable confidence is the very definition of leadership - and it's been a long while since we have seen it.
By contrast, the Republican response by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was an embarrassment. This was his chance to make himself known to the American public. Those who stayed around to hear it are likely to have been seriously under-whelmed or worse, including the Republicans among them.
Granted, Obama last night was a tough act to follow but to serve up cold, stale ideology with an unappealing delivery did nothing for the GOP cause. If Jindal is the party's great hope for the future, then I fear it's back to the drawing board.
Feb 23 2009
I was saddened to learn of the death of Clarke Thomas, who went out of his way to be kind to me some 30 years ago when I did my first stint on the PG editorial page, and subsequently over the years, even though we were as different as chalk and cheese.
He even forgave me when I made fun in the paper about his book on local ethnic communities and their customs "They Came to Pittsburgh." (Being an incorrigible wise guy, I called it "They Came to Pittsburgh - and Did Funny Dances.")
As it turned out, Clarke taught me an important lesson that was later to help me immensely when I became the editor of a small paper out in California - that lesson being the importance of staying close and connected to the community.
After the Watergate scandal, a whole crop of ethical sensitivities arose in the land. In journalism, they took the form of journalists retreating from all sorts of community affiliations lest they be thought compromised. In the purest (or craziest) form, the beyond-reproach journalist would not even be registered to vote with a particular party, might not even vote at all, and would be extremely careful in making friends with anyone.
This might be called the journalist-as-monk view of the profession, the goal being to be seen as politically chaste. I always thought it was bunk, and of course it has made no difference; the more pious journalists became the more despised the profession became. Polecats are now more popular.
Still, I must admit that some revision was probably in order. In living memory, an editor of the PG was on a suburban school board, a situation that Young Nellie and her dog might realize was a potential conflict of interest. It's good too that freebies like the bottles of whiskey that used to arrive openly from flacks at Christmas time have now largely disappeared.
Clarke Thomas showed me how you could be involved deeply in the community without compromising yourself. He certainly wasn't a member of any school board and he wasn't much of a drinker (I told you we had little in common) but he went out of his way to make friends with countless people across racial, economic and political lines.
When The Pittsburgh Press was still going back in the 1980s, it did a survey of the 100 most influential people in Western Pennsylvania. As I remember it, Clarke placed about 17th, higher than the editors of the two papers and many local politicians and other luminaries.
Apart from his friendly manner, his special gift was that nothing was boring to him - people responded to him because he was genuinely interested in what they were doing, no matter what it was. And as many friends and acquaintances as he had, nobody thought he had a conflict of interest, for the simple reason that it was plainly obvious that he was a decent person.
When I went out to Monterey, California, in 1988 to be the editor of The Herald, then owned by the Block family, I had Clarke's example in mind and I made a real effort to do in that small community what he did in Pittsburgh. Of course, his view of journalism was shaped by his small paper beginnings. On smaller papers, the local community is the bread and butter of the business.
Clarke's life confounded the right-wing stereotype of liberal editorial writers. He was a devout churchgoer (his parents were missionaries in Africa), a veteran and a patriot who viewed communism as an affront to his liberal principles and, yes, a do-gooder who actually did a lot of good and was respected by all for doing it. By natural inclination, he was socially conservative but experience and wisdom taught him tolerance.
This week the world has one good person fewer. Goodbye kind friend.
Feb 20 2009
This blog is promoted as "Life with a slice of humor." Today, however, I think I'll cut the wry and just sigh. This is my reaction to the news that Allegheny County Councilman Charles P. McCullough, an attorney, has been charged with 23 criminal counts concerning the misuse of a widow's trust fund.
I know Chuck McCullough, not very well but enough to form an impression. Frankly, I like the man. I am dismayed because, as bad as the allegations in today's front-page story seem, I do not think he is a criminal. That he may have acted unwisely, even foolishly, I don't dispute, but I am nevertheless inclined to believe his strong protestations of innocence.
When the Post-Gazette first broke the story nearly two years ago, it fell to me to write the follow-up editorial. In the interests of fairness, I called him up to see if he had anything to say about it.
This is the difficult and distasteful thing about my job as an editorial writer who is always on a mission to publish an opinion (which, by the way, is a different mission from that of a reporter, who is not charged with taking sides).
Sometimes you call up people in this job you know you are probably going to end up slamming in an editorial. While this is meant as a courtesy, it seems at times almost discourteous. It's like saying to someone: Would you prefer I punch you in the nose or the stomach? Either way, you are probably going to get punched unless you come up with a really good story to persuade me otherwise.
He understood the situation but he agreed to speak with me anyway. Understandably, he didn't want to come into the PG, his perceived tormentor, so we met at Starbucks on Market Square where he explained his side of the story while we had coffee. He seemed to me forthright and sincere. His plausible explanation added to the doubt that had nagged me from the beginning about this story.
Here was the problem for me: Chuck McCullough was alleged to have duped an old lady who perhaps wasn't altogether on the ball. But when the lady said she didn't approve the expenditures, suddenly we were led to believe that she was in full command of her faculties. Well, which was it? It could be that she just forgot what she approved.
Subsequently, of course, I punched him in an editorial but in a scrupulously fair way, which I know he appreciated. I also ended up voting for him for an at-large seat on county council, as did enough other people to get him elected despite the scandal.
Further, I think he has been doing a good job on county council, asking the right questions, being a bit of a gadfly. It is a great blow to the two-party system in this county, already feeble enough, to have Chuck McCullough crash and burn.
Actually, he hasn't quite burned yet. The presumption of innocence is usually honored more in the breech than the observance but for him I will observe it until it is proven otherwise. I wish him and his family all the best.
Feb 18 2009
I return to blogging today after a trip to Jacksonville, Fla., over the Presidents Day weekend. It was a family occasion - my wife and I were visiting her stepfather and his wife who live in Orange Park.
My two kids came down from New York City for the break, with my daughter Allison also bringing her fiance. They will be getting married next month, the certain subject of a future column. I understand that soap operas always throw in a wedding when ratings are down, so I have decided to take the hint, given my recent dearth of e-mail traffic.
It was at a family dinner on Saturday night that my son Jim informed that I had the "Sully" look, which I wrote about in my column this morning.
We were a bit unlucky with the weather. It was sunny with blue sky when we arrived but that turned to rain on Saturday and overcast and cold on Sunday. When it was time to leave on Monday, the weather was great again. Of course!
Still, a good time was had by all. With its sub-tropical climate, Florida is not unlike my original home in the south-east corner of Queensland, Australia, so I am predisposed to like it.
Unfortunately, like its Down Under counterpart, the area has seen tremendous housing growth in the last 30 years. The result is that the original Florida, a Garden of Eden, has become more and more a garden of malls.
My wife's stepfather lives is a tranquil old section of Orange Park overlooking the stately St. John's River. But you only have to go two blocks inland and you are caught up in killer traffic on a wide boulevard of commerce.
We saw a tantalizing glimpse of the old Florida in a boat trip organized by Riverkeeper, an environmental organization. The boat went up a relatively lonely stretch of the Ortega River, a tributary of the St. John's. We were looking for manatees and alligators and such but it was drizzling and all we saw were some bedraggled birds, although some were pelicans, my personal favorites. It takes a hard soul to look at a pelican and not smile.
With the wild terrain looking suitably primeval and inspiring our imaginations, we looked out on the passing river banks, ate out sandwiches and were happy.
Feb 12 2009
If you watch TV, you may have seen a guy called Vince promoting the ShamWow, a product that absorbs water like a super sponge. Vince says you will never need a paper towel again if you use the ShamWow. I have come to understand that Moses used an ancient type of ShamWow to mop up the Red Sea.
Of course, I am not sure I entirely believe Vince. He looks a looks like a guy whose other job is at a carnival and involves trying to entice the customers into the fat lady's tent.
Vince himself is thin and has spikey hair. He uses a highly amusing line of chatter - "This is made in Germany - you know the Germans always make good stuff" and "Hey, camera guy, are you getting this?" and "this sells itself."
So absorbing is his act, that I think it is time to take Vince out of the midway and put him in charge of blotting up the debt of failed financial institutions. In short, I think it is time for the FinWow.
It might not work but Vince will be a heck of a lot more entertaining than Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and, sad to say, perhaps more persuasive with the American people ... so long as the camera guy gets this. I reckon this FinWow thing will sell itself.
Feb 11 2009
The cold spell in January was not the most convenient for making the case for global warming, even if weather fluctuations are said to be one effect of the phenomenon. Still, the overall trend of temperature averages aside, there's plenty of Americans who don't care much for science and instead rely on their prejudices. To them, the environmental scare of global warming is for the birds.
Turns out that they are at least half right.
As documented by an Audubon Society survey released this week, half of 305 bird species in North America are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago. This is attributed to global warming. The Post-Gazette had a front-page story Tuesday on the birds being a-wing.
While 35 miles doesn't seem much, some birds went much farther north. For example, the purple finch moved more than 400 miles farther north, the snow goose went 217.1 miles north and the turkey vulture moved 53.2 miles north. However, I am inclined to think that the turkey vulture, a bird with an ugly head only a turkey vulture's mom could love, may be moving around because it has exhausted all other possibilities to get dates.
In the last few days, a large flock of Canadian geese has taken up residence in sight of the offices of the PG editorial board. But who knows with Canadian geese? They may have confused the little patch of green next to the Point State Park parking lot - and the park itself - with a golf course, which seems to be their natural habitat at any temperature.
What is Nature up to and will prayers to the Almighty help? As it happens, my column this morning concerns the existence of a divine power, not exactly a thigh-slapping subject but I did my best. If you haven't checked it out, please do so. As it is, I fear my readers have fled 400 miles north.
Feb 10 2009
I missed the introduction to Obama's press conference last night but I did catch most of the questions. I thought he was knowledgeable, articulate, blessedly swagger-free and high-minded enough not to attack those Republicans determined to put country last at all costs. (Not that the stimulus package is perfect but a spirit of compromise across the aisle might have improved it.)
Oh, and I also thought that his appearance was tedious - which it pains me to say. My problem was with style, not so much with substance. To a possible charge of caring more about the theater of the moment, I would say that any prime time appearance on television requires a certain amount of entertainment value to be successful in engaging the American people, which, after all, is the whole point. The bully pulpit is either bully or it's boring, and last night I reckon it was mostly boring for all but political junkies.
I understand why Obama wanted to have a news conference in prime time but he would have been better served to have made a simple speech, succinct and memorable. Because reporters have to fill the "holes" in their stories (those parts of a story that naturally suggest other questions), they often have to ask the same question in different ways. This dull business should have been conducted in working hours.
As it happened, Obama was not much help with his answers, which tended to be repetitive and long-winded. Where were the short, sharp, snappy retorts? Apparently he has been hanging out too much with Joe Biden, vice president and noted windbag.
Still, we have gone from a president who didn't have an original thought in his head to one who is too thoughtful to get immediately to the point. This is progress and I suppose it is churlish to complain.
Feb 09 2009
I did something this morning I had not done in two months: I went for a run. The ice and snow had retreated, the chances seemed good that I would not be savaged by wolves or polar bears, so I left my excuses behind and ran through the streets like a mad person. It felt wonderful.
I have been jogging for 20 years but this winter the weather has kept me inside. I don't like to run indoors, especially on a treadmill, which I always thought too much a metaphor for life - you work and work and never get anywhere, or at least I don't.
I went my usual pre-winter two-and-half-mile circuit and did not break any records. In fact, I believe several snails jogged by me. But I was out there, cold but undaunted - and that was the main thing.
Feb 06 2009
That the Obama administration has screwed up in making selections for important posts in the government is something honestly admitted by many who have been the new president's supporters - the Post-Gazette has said so in an editorial, I suggested as much in my column, and heck, the president himself said so.
But the way Obama's critics go on, you would think that every last person picked has troubles. Moreover, some of these critics include people like Tom Daschle in their general indictment of the new administration. Memo to Obama critics: Tom Daschle won't be in the government, nor will Nancy Killefer, the choice to be the chief performance officer for the government who had her own tax problems.
True, not everybody who passed muster was perfect - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder were hardly exemplars of the lily-pure candidates Obama promised. But he set the bar very high - and this doesn't necessarily mean that these officials won't be as good or better than their predecessors.
So far, and my opinion might change with time, I view this is a storm in a teacup, stirred by critics who refuse to be fair and look at the big picture. This is not proof of the incompetence or mendacity of the new administration. Nor do these political fumbles make this the most corrupt administration in history, as you might suppose from reading some of the overheated partisan reaction.
What we have here is turbulence at takeoff. Turbulence at takeoff does not necessarily mean a troubled flight.
How about a bit of fairness? We are not even three weeks into this, for goodness sake.
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