I can't imagine why, but I felt called to write about the history of publicly televised Congressional hearings in Washington. Also, 7 other things worth knowing today.
Really great issue. One of the reasons I lone Understandably is the sense of history and of thoughtfully informing readers about unusual, sometimes obscure, things and characters. Whereas Twitter, cable TV is full of people believing they are bold and original while talking about the latest fashionable (often inconsequential) things and saying exactly the same things about them. Anyway, fascinated to learn of G.David Shine. The guy had a valet in his dorm room at Harvard and married a Swedish beauty queen. Got caught up with McCarthy and Cohn, left politics and never talked about it again. Became an actor and Hollywood producer. Has six children. Then went down aged 68 in a plane piloted by his son. What a life.
On McCarthy, I studied him years later. He began by making a unresearched statement about the presence of communists as a junior senator at a womens political meeting, that was published in the national news. He had to “save face”, so made up even more when asked about his source. It was fearmongering and he got attention and continued because he loved the attention. Now mind you, I was from an extremely conservative family who wanted to report my teachers to the UnAmerican Activities Committee because they said “we’re all members of the human race”. So when I dug into McCarthy when I was a senior in school, what I found was shocking. Many people lost their livelihoods because of innuendo. Families were torn apart. The nation was at each other’s throats all based on a man who had no proof for his statements and loved media attention. Put him in with Cohn and you had major trouble. I presented my findings in an English class on Shakespeare and ended with the transcript (on tape) of McCarthy being brought down. He was clearly panicking and would attack anyone to get out of the hole he had dug for himself. The class was stunned. Shakespeare would have been proud.
Really enjoyed today's newsletter, but what really made me laugh out loud was the last item in 7 other things. Only in American would a court make an auto insurance company pay damages when someone contracts an STD from having sex in a car.
Another great newsletter! Since I read your newsletter first (every weekday!) I was unaware of the Gannett news. It was especially interesting since I spent nearly my entire newspaper career at USA Today, starting a year prior to its launch. I left the following comment under the WaPo article:
Gannett is now owned by a hedge fund and the implications are self evident. It’s all about the bottom line and no longer any semblance of providing a breadth of news coverage to the public. I always heard that the purpose of a newspaper is to provide an audience for advertisers. That audience at least, at one time, used to receive something in the bargain.
Gannett did everything possible (even before selling to a hedge fund) to push readers to digital to save money on print, even though they were still quite profitable, to maintain the illusion of quarterly growth. They also began moving print to a less than daily model, again for the bottom line of newsprint, distribution, and staff. The purpose of the days chosen are now related to being a wrap to distribute advertising.
Now it appears Gannett has decided to homogenize it’s news, making it even more bland. It is a sad legacy for USA Today, a newspaper that was once billed as “The Nation’s Newspaper.”
It seems like The Washington Post and the New York Times are two of the few remaining newspapers that continue to offer balanced and robust coverage in both print and digital. I continue to read them both and no longer have an interest in perusing the miserly offerings of Gannett products.
Thanks for this article. I am heartened by previous comments also expressing thanks. It is encouraging to hear people see the big picture and the realities of short and long-term implications of actions. Hopefully to the extent that they will stand on guard for the lines in the sand that can't be crossed without very real and severe consequences for the person who tries to cross, no matter who it is. (I'm reminded of Gandalf on the bridge... "YOU SHALL NOT PASS").
Bill - I love Understandably. Today I have a minor correction. (As a writer you may appreciate that I didn't insert "but" between those 2 statements, as it generally serves to negate the first statement.)
You didn't introduce us to Welch until halfway through, and then either forgot to tell us who he was, or assumed we knew: "Quick final detail so this will make more sense—McCarthy and Welch apparently had an agreement ..." I stopped at this point to look him up, and discovered he was the Army's chief counsel.
My observation aside, great story-telling as usual. I'm a child of the 50s and knew little about McCarthy other than generalities. You've inspired me to learn more.
Wow … that was quite an article re: the Congressional hearing from 68 years ago (!) - I have to admit that I just might view what comes of this event tonight with some askance. We’ll see …
Really great issue. One of the reasons I lone Understandably is the sense of history and of thoughtfully informing readers about unusual, sometimes obscure, things and characters. Whereas Twitter, cable TV is full of people believing they are bold and original while talking about the latest fashionable (often inconsequential) things and saying exactly the same things about them. Anyway, fascinated to learn of G.David Shine. The guy had a valet in his dorm room at Harvard and married a Swedish beauty queen. Got caught up with McCarthy and Cohn, left politics and never talked about it again. Became an actor and Hollywood producer. Has six children. Then went down aged 68 in a plane piloted by his son. What a life.
On McCarthy, I studied him years later. He began by making a unresearched statement about the presence of communists as a junior senator at a womens political meeting, that was published in the national news. He had to “save face”, so made up even more when asked about his source. It was fearmongering and he got attention and continued because he loved the attention. Now mind you, I was from an extremely conservative family who wanted to report my teachers to the UnAmerican Activities Committee because they said “we’re all members of the human race”. So when I dug into McCarthy when I was a senior in school, what I found was shocking. Many people lost their livelihoods because of innuendo. Families were torn apart. The nation was at each other’s throats all based on a man who had no proof for his statements and loved media attention. Put him in with Cohn and you had major trouble. I presented my findings in an English class on Shakespeare and ended with the transcript (on tape) of McCarthy being brought down. He was clearly panicking and would attack anyone to get out of the hole he had dug for himself. The class was stunned. Shakespeare would have been proud.
Hi Bill,
Really enjoyed today's newsletter, but what really made me laugh out loud was the last item in 7 other things. Only in American would a court make an auto insurance company pay damages when someone contracts an STD from having sex in a car.
I felt dendrites touching dendrites! Thank You for this
Loved the final of the 7!
That ought to be more known!!
Another great newsletter! Since I read your newsletter first (every weekday!) I was unaware of the Gannett news. It was especially interesting since I spent nearly my entire newspaper career at USA Today, starting a year prior to its launch. I left the following comment under the WaPo article:
Gannett is now owned by a hedge fund and the implications are self evident. It’s all about the bottom line and no longer any semblance of providing a breadth of news coverage to the public. I always heard that the purpose of a newspaper is to provide an audience for advertisers. That audience at least, at one time, used to receive something in the bargain.
Gannett did everything possible (even before selling to a hedge fund) to push readers to digital to save money on print, even though they were still quite profitable, to maintain the illusion of quarterly growth. They also began moving print to a less than daily model, again for the bottom line of newsprint, distribution, and staff. The purpose of the days chosen are now related to being a wrap to distribute advertising.
Now it appears Gannett has decided to homogenize it’s news, making it even more bland. It is a sad legacy for USA Today, a newspaper that was once billed as “The Nation’s Newspaper.”
It seems like The Washington Post and the New York Times are two of the few remaining newspapers that continue to offer balanced and robust coverage in both print and digital. I continue to read them both and no longer have an interest in perusing the miserly offerings of Gannett products.
Thanks for this article. I am heartened by previous comments also expressing thanks. It is encouraging to hear people see the big picture and the realities of short and long-term implications of actions. Hopefully to the extent that they will stand on guard for the lines in the sand that can't be crossed without very real and severe consequences for the person who tries to cross, no matter who it is. (I'm reminded of Gandalf on the bridge... "YOU SHALL NOT PASS").
(I’m sure nobody expected would be read almost seven decades later!)
I was always taught the punctuation comes after the ending parenthetical. What is correct here?
Bill - I love Understandably. Today I have a minor correction. (As a writer you may appreciate that I didn't insert "but" between those 2 statements, as it generally serves to negate the first statement.)
You didn't introduce us to Welch until halfway through, and then either forgot to tell us who he was, or assumed we knew: "Quick final detail so this will make more sense—McCarthy and Welch apparently had an agreement ..." I stopped at this point to look him up, and discovered he was the Army's chief counsel.
My observation aside, great story-telling as usual. I'm a child of the 50s and knew little about McCarthy other than generalities. You've inspired me to learn more.
Wow … that was quite an article re: the Congressional hearing from 68 years ago (!) - I have to admit that I just might view what comes of this event tonight with some askance. We’ll see …
Well I hope people just think I was raised in the U.K. then…