Danny Bloom’s newspaper obit song: Praise from Carl Bernstein and at least 1/2 an Ear
In the newspaper love department, I’m a piker compared to Danny Bloom, an American journalist living in Taiwan.
Check out a YouTube of a song he wrote, I Just Can’t Live (Without My Snailpaper). I linked to it earlier from my semi-traitorous post telling how my old factory town newspaper in Ohio could use the Internet more effectively.
Now I hear that Danny’s song has two new fans from the old Washington Star, for which he was a freelance cartoonist. “Delightful,” says Carl Bernstein, mentioned in the song, which in effect is an obit for the paper editions that the Web is imperiling.
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The other fan is Diana McLellan—half of The Ear, the memorably impish gossip column at the Star. The Ear was a partial inspiration for The Elephant in The Solomon Scandals. Louise Lague was the other half.
“I bet you’re the only writer of a musical obit for newspapers in the world,” Ms. McLellan tells Danny, shown at right. “What energy! What rhythm! Long may you wave.”
So far, All Things Considered has not acted on Danny suggestion to play Snailpaper. That’s a mistake. Perhaps Danny can score at On the Media. Ideally, too, he can hear from someone else in his song, Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post in the Watergate days.
Related: Ning site for Washington Star alumni (where I found the newsroom photo) and a Facebook group and blog called “Overheard in the Newsroom.” Also see how Chris Meadows of the TeleRead e-book site reacted to Danny’s song.
Washington Post iPhone app panned by gutsy WaPo technology writer: Symptom of worse woes?
Seymour Solomon, the real estate magnate in my D.C. newspaper novel, is among the Washington Telegram’s biggest advertisers and pals around with both the publisher and the top editor.
But that doesn’t stop Jon Stone, the reporter in The Solomon Scandals, from investigating Sy’s Kong-sized political donations and federal office leases.
At the real-life Washington Post—not to be confused with my imaginary daily—who’s the equivalent of the intrepid Stone?
I nominate Rob Pegoraro (photo), the Faster Forward tech columnist. On consumer issues, Rob never seems to flinch, and yesterday he panned the Post’s new app for reading the paper on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. Even with the app selling for just $1.99 for a year of use, he is telling his Post readers to “save your money for now.”
Rob—I met him a few years ago when he was checking out an early version of the One Laptop Per Child computer—is once again right. In overall aesthetics and usability, the New York Times reader for the iPhone shreds the Post app, which is just one more example of the L Street’s online woes. If the Post is still into “Creative Tension,” why not take it beyond the traditional newsroom? As a rule I prefer a gentle, friendly, nurturing management in the Theory Y style. But on presentation issues, the Post’s Net operation is really that bad. Time for some firings, even?
Reporters vs. publishers and editors: On IQs, faulty edits, a Knopf editor and an unnamed columnist
The Solomon Scandals is a reporter’s novel, with editors and the publisher in the way of truth and decency.
If nothing else, an ideological chasm gapes in the newspaper business between editorial coolies and publishers. Reporters tend to be far, far more liberal at many dailies than are the publishers. So what to make of a new study saying that liberals as a group are smarter? Time for reporters to take over and rescue the industry? Should publisher Katharine Weymouth (photo) at the Washington Post bring back Nicholas “Left at the Post” von Hoffman as her replacement?
Outside the newspaper business, I’ll note a Gawker writer’s assault on Knopf or at least one of the editors there who failed to edit her own copy. Exactly. Didn’t I tell you? Writers are smarter.
Confession: Underneath I do have a soft spot for editors and publishers, or at least those at my old newspaper who tolerated me. I sold my Web site partly because I lacked the resources for the copy editors I wanted to hire, and I wouldn’t mind some here. The right editor speaking up could have saved a certain Washington columnist—I’ve mentioned her name enough for the moment—from lots of pain, a point I’ve made here before. I was pleased to learn of similar sentiments held by the Post’s Gene Weingarten.
