Today's
word on journalism
May 8, 2008
Liberal
Patriot:
"Molly
Ivins was an unabashed patriot,
and it drove right-wingers nuts.
Conservatives somehow got it fixed
in their brains that patriotism
meant being in lockstep with their
ideology, that dissent was treason.
Molly made a career of reminding
them otherwise, always careful to
point out how cute they were when
they acted like fools."
--Gary Cartwright, senior editor,
Texas Monthly, 2007. Molly Ivins
(1944-2007), a sharp-witted and
clear-eyed columnist who died of
cancer last year, was an unapologetic
liberal. She once observed, "There's
nothing you can do about being born
liberal -- fish gotta swim and hearts
gotta bleed."
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| About Us : : The
WORD |
From
the desk of media guru Ted Pease
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM
was born in 1996 as a means of persuading my students
at USU to check their email regularly for class assignments.
The WORD is a daily squib about journalism, language and
writing, free expression and constitutional liberties.
The, um, email "service" grew from a few dozen
university student-victims in 1996 to about 1,600 volunteer
subscribers today.
While some of the WORD's current victims are still my
current and former students, most are grown-up volunteers
who should know better: businesspeople, writers and journalists
from Tokyo to Bangor, Maine; PR executives; lawmakers;
NPR anchors; book authors; poets, boatbuilders, wordsmiths
and my mom.
The WORD appears on email weekdays during the academic
year, but is carted off for unvoluntary commitment at
the St. Mumbles Home for the Unremittingly Verbose during
the summer. And, as you can see, the WORD also appears
year-round on The Hard News Cafe, the award-winning student
news website at Utah State University. A book is in the
works -- and has been for eight years, so don't hold your
breath.
If you would like to join the growing numbers of eager
but misguided WORD subscribers (it's free!), simply email
tpease@cc.usu.edu
and ask to subscribe. Or if you know someone who you think
would like to be afflicted, send that email address and
watch the fun begin!
LD
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