A brief history for Day 2 of President-Elect Trump
Back in the distant past, I went to college. I was a family
anomaly, and while high school teachers advised me to indulge my love for the liberal arts,
my working class instincts took over. Rather than pursuing Shakespeare and
theater arts, I opted for what I saw as a parallel profession and studied
journalism, with a concentration in political science.
My first big news job was at the Windsor Star. As assistant night
news editor in 1985, it was my job to rewrite stories – even the critical
front-page ones, when necessary ! – and come up with snappy headlines. I loved that type of work. I still do – although now at the New York Post – thirty-one years later.
I remember when – for the first time at the Star – the top
editors decided to lead the paper with political poll results. I was shocked
and outraged. Before then, polls were regarded as stale window dressing. Meaty
reporting on ideas, themes and relevant social-political history was what I
loved to sink my teeth into. Damn the day, I thought at the time, when polling
of the people who actually answered the pollsters – the bored, the lonely and the
depressed, as a childhood friend of mine who freelanced for a polling concern had
told me – would account for serious journalism. I felt so strongly about it that I began to
resent being associated with a public service that stooped that low, was that
lazy.
I wasn’t alone in this line of thinking. One of my favorite
quotes from a politician was by former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
(1895-1979). He wasn’t doing as well in these new polls as the pundits
expected, and he was asked by a reporter about what he thought about this
emerging fixation by news outlets.
I paraphrase: “Every dog should piss on one.”
Next: Running for Your Life: Leaf It to Me
