Parting editorial wheat from chaff: readers need insights from editorial writers, not just a mirror of their own mercurial whims.Editorial pages are for opinion, but not the sort that changes from issue to issue, day to day, as if the world were new every morning, the way it is to geese and fools. But the kind of opinion that is based on some thought-out, regularly tested beliefs. Therefore, know thyself The Ancient Greek aphorism "Know yourself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν or gnothi seauton) was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi - according to the Greek periegetic . (And, yes, I know that's not original advice.) The editorial writer should know what his convictions are, so he won't be blown this way or that by changing fashions. When he finds it necessary to alter or refine or deepen or abandon a conviction, as he almost surely will if he is honest--the process is called growth--he should be aware of it. That's why he--or she--needs to have a liberal education, so all this whirlwind of a little wheat and a lot of chaff chaff 1. chaffed hay; called also chop. 2. the winnowings from a threshing, consisting of awns, husks, glumes and other relatively indigestible materials. that is the news won't be novel to him. So he can separate it out for the reader. (Adlai Stevenson once said a journalist is someone who carefully separates the wheat from the chaff, then prints the chaff. God, the truth hurts.) Readers don't need to have their own mercurial mercurial /mer·cu·ri·al/ (mer-kur´e-il) 1. pertaining to mercury. 2. a preparation containing mercury. mer·cu·ri·al adj. feelings mirrored and magnified every morning, much as we all like that sensation. At least for a little while. Till we start to think about it. Rather, we need the kind of insight that compels. We can't hope to give readers that if we don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. our convictions and try to apply them. A lapsed editorial writer at the Democrat-Gazette named Chris Battle--he's now managing a gubernatorial candidate's campaign here in Arkansas--once told me a story about his grandfather. As a sophisticated young man, he was once explaining to the old man that not all issues are black and white, that there are different shades of Noun 1. shades of - something that reminds you of someone or something; "aren't there shades of 1948 here?" reminder - an experience that causes you to remember something gray, there's not always a right and wrong, yadda-yadda.... To which his grandfather replied, "Son, there's always a right and wrong. You just have to find it." EDITOR'S NOTE Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : Not long ago, an editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, commonly abbreviated locally as the Dem-Gaz or Demgaz, is a daily newspaper published in Little Rock, Arkansas. By virtue of one of its predecessors, the Arkansas Gazette was about to start teaching a college course in editorial writing, and asked the paper's three editorial writers in Little Rock, including Pulitzer-prize winner Paul Greenberg, for some tips to pass on to his class. Here are their responses: Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer-prize winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. E-mail paul_greenberg@ arkansasonline.com |
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