Who’s On First?

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Asking the right questions is important, especially for a journalist. Over at LifeZette, Mark Tapscott has three question he suggests Jim Acosta should ask Robert Mueller:

1.) Did Hillary Clinton collude with Russians in 2016?
2.) This is equal justice?
3.) Was Fusion GPS an unwitting Russian tool?

Inquiring minds want to know.

2 thoughts on “Who’s On First?”


  1. CRISIS OF THE MONTH

    Although it is often difficult to admit it, writers do not work entirely alone. True, the hard work of actually composing a story, word by painstaking word, sentence by agonizing sentence, is almost always done in complete solitude. Nobody there except you and your writing instrument. (And the characters who are boiling out of your brain.) When the task of composition is going on, no writer wants anyone else in sight. Or sound, especially sound. Telephone rings, spousal queries, even dogs yapping outside can drive a writer to distraction. If it happens often enough, mayhem or murder can be the result. Divorce, more often.

    But other persons contribute to the development of a story, some before the writing begins, some afterward. Sometimes these contributions are beneficial, sometimes harmful. The successful writer learns to be sensitive to the words of others: accept the good ideas with as much grace as you are capable of; reject the bad advice with equal tact. If you can.

    “Crisis of the Month” began with my late wife’s griping about the hysterical manner in which the news media report on the day’s events. Veteran newscaster Linda Ellerbe calls the technique “anxiety news.” Back in journalism school (so long ago that spelling was considered important) I was taught that “good news is no news.” Today’s media take this advice to extremes: no matter what the story, there is a down side to it that can be emphasized.

    So when my darling and very perceptive wife complained about the utterly negative way in which the media presented the day’s news, I quipped, “I can see the day when science finally finds out how to make people immortal. The media will do stories about the sad plight of the funeral directors.”

    My wife was also one of the top literary agents in the business. She immediately suggested, “Why don’t you write a story about that?”

    Thus the origin of “Crisis of the Month.”

    –Ben Bova

    The story can be read here, hard to believe this is fiction.

    https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781481482592/9781481482592.htm

    Linda Ellerbe is a real reporter.

    I’ve heard it said that the first law of journalism is to confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.
    Linda Ellerbee

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