Post by d204mom on Apr 21, 2008 12:49:38 GMT -6
IMO another huge Lynch misstep was that Subdivision War piece. In 2000 Ashbury was tarred and feathered & now it's someone else's turn courtesy of our school board.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-change_column_bd20apr20,0,517678.story
chicagotribune.com
Paper, not teen, missed mark
Tribune staff report
April 20, 2008
Every once in a while, we newspaper columnists, raging and fulminating at our keyboards, go too far—we overstate, we gloss over nuance, we generalize unfairly, we witlessly give offense or otherwise lose our rhetorical way.
And if we're lucky, we have an editor who saves us.
That editor pulls us aside and tells us, "I know what you're trying to say, but this piece isn't working. What you've written is (confusing/gratuitously inflammatory/unfair/silly). I recommend you (insert constructive suggestion here) and try again."
Freelance columnist Mohammad Sagha of the Naperville Sun wasn't lucky.
A week ago Friday he submitted a column on the subject of patriotism that didn't work. Its argument didn't quite track and it was too intemperate and sweeping to be persuasive. Here's a passage:
"The 9/11 generation is being raised somewhat similarly to how the youth of the Red Scare were raised, which included confusion, misinformation, fear, nationalism and undue support of our elite rulers.
"But we have traitors on our hands. We have war hawks, instigators, oppressors and conquering emperors who have brought nothing but death and anguish to the Iraqis."
Not to slag a brother in ink. Writers with more age and experience than Sagha—he's a 17-year-old high school senior—have written worse. And judging by a set of other columns he sent along, he has written better since he began appearing every other week in the Sun last fall.
Monday morning, the Sun published his fiery essay. Monday afternoon, his editor e-mailed him to say the Sun would no longer be publishing his column.
Why? A florid apology from Sun publisher Jim Lynch the following day offers clues:
Lynch blasted Sagha's "inflammatory, ill-informed comments" and added that "The Sun does not in any way endorse or approve of Mr. Sagha's comments and regrets they were published." He noted, "Sometimes mistakes are made."
A clever use of the passive voice. Who made the mistake here? The editors, who had an entire weekend to do their job.
Yet who paid the price by losing his gig and getting a public scolding?
No wonder we sometimes rage and fulminate.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-change_column_bd20apr20,0,517678.story
chicagotribune.com
Paper, not teen, missed mark
Tribune staff report
April 20, 2008
Every once in a while, we newspaper columnists, raging and fulminating at our keyboards, go too far—we overstate, we gloss over nuance, we generalize unfairly, we witlessly give offense or otherwise lose our rhetorical way.
And if we're lucky, we have an editor who saves us.
That editor pulls us aside and tells us, "I know what you're trying to say, but this piece isn't working. What you've written is (confusing/gratuitously inflammatory/unfair/silly). I recommend you (insert constructive suggestion here) and try again."
Freelance columnist Mohammad Sagha of the Naperville Sun wasn't lucky.
A week ago Friday he submitted a column on the subject of patriotism that didn't work. Its argument didn't quite track and it was too intemperate and sweeping to be persuasive. Here's a passage:
"The 9/11 generation is being raised somewhat similarly to how the youth of the Red Scare were raised, which included confusion, misinformation, fear, nationalism and undue support of our elite rulers.
"But we have traitors on our hands. We have war hawks, instigators, oppressors and conquering emperors who have brought nothing but death and anguish to the Iraqis."
Not to slag a brother in ink. Writers with more age and experience than Sagha—he's a 17-year-old high school senior—have written worse. And judging by a set of other columns he sent along, he has written better since he began appearing every other week in the Sun last fall.
Monday morning, the Sun published his fiery essay. Monday afternoon, his editor e-mailed him to say the Sun would no longer be publishing his column.
Why? A florid apology from Sun publisher Jim Lynch the following day offers clues:
Lynch blasted Sagha's "inflammatory, ill-informed comments" and added that "The Sun does not in any way endorse or approve of Mr. Sagha's comments and regrets they were published." He noted, "Sometimes mistakes are made."
A clever use of the passive voice. Who made the mistake here? The editors, who had an entire weekend to do their job.
Yet who paid the price by losing his gig and getting a public scolding?
No wonder we sometimes rage and fulminate.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune