A newsman: the repository of the wisdom of the ages
Image via Wikipedia
A post unrelated to anything at all…
I remember seeing this reprinted in The New Yorker years ago, and I’m posting because I came across it on the web, and because I find it highly amusing and wanted to be sure I could always find it in my archives. And because I hope some of you–newswomen included–find it amusing, too.
A newsman:
A newsman knows everything. He is aware not only of what goes on in the world today, but his brain is a repository of the accumulated wisdom of the ages.
He is not only handsome, but has the physical strength which enables him to perform great feats of energy. He can go for nights without sleep. He dresses well and he talks with charm. Men admire him, women adore him, tycoons and statesmen are willing to share their secrets with him.
He hates lies and meanness and sham, but he keeps his temper. He is loyal to his paper . . .
. . . and when he dies a lot of people are sorry, and some of them remember him for several days.”
- Stanley Walker, 1898-to-1962, city editor, New York Herald Tribune
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
Love this. Makes me miss the sights and sounds of a physical newsroom — newspapers stacked high, coffee cups scattered, keyboards banging, editors yelling…
Paul, do you know the T/S connection to the New York Herald Tribune? “News is more than what happens.”
Walker also wrote a couple of great books about newspapering in the days when it was a big, swaggetring thing: “City Editor” and “The Nightclub Era.” Both are long, long out of print, but turn up on Alibris and similar sites.
Makes me want to reach for my fedora and Speed-Graphic…
Like Andrea, I terribly miss newsrooms. When I worked at the Daily News, the entrance halls were lined with huge repro’s of legendary front pages. You felt (you were) a part of history and something larger. The DN even had its own small airplane at one point in its history.
I do visit the NYT but, elegant and hushed, it feels like an insurance office.
Caitlin, next time you come by the T/S office I’ll show you my Elvis fly swatter and ‘Headless Body Found in Topless Bar’ mug.
In response to another comment. See in context »