Poynter Online
Go


Top Story

Young Journalists Use Facebook Ads to Reach Prospective Employers
Most Recent Articles
1.X-Ray Reading Helps Interpret Author's Intentions
12:05 AM Feb. 10, 2010
2.USDA Drops National Animal ID Plan
12:01 AM Feb. 10, 2010
3.Live Chat Today: What Position Should I Apply for When Company Has Multiple Openings?
12:01 AM Feb. 10, 2010
4.AP stories are back on Google News again
7:21 PM Feb. 9, 2010
5.Foursquare partners with New York Times for Olympics
4:39 PM Feb. 9, 2010
Most E-mailed
Recent Comments
Recent Tags
Community Activity

Poynter Training
Poynter Seminars
Small, in-person training experiences.
1.NewsU: Picture Editing 101: Essentials and Ethics
Apply NOW
2.Poynter Fellowship for College Journalists
Apply by March 1
3.Making Your Opinion Matter
Apply by March 22

News University
Today's most popular courses on NewsU, Poynter's e-learning site for journalists.
Webinars
Our online classroom is just a click away. Learn more.
All Webinars

Poynter Forums

View Forum Post

Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 8/26/2008 1:03:35 PM
Title: A Reason to Grieve
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
I submitted the following piece to the Op-Ed pages of the Chicago Tribune and then the NY Times. Neither accepted it. I am now sending the piece to you, hoping that it might appear on your website.

Michael H. Ebner
Department of History
Lake Forest College J1
Lake Forest, IL 60045

A Reason to Grieve

As I contemplate the downsizing of the Chicago Tribune -- some 80 editional positions eliminated thus far this month -- it brings to mind how my grandfather – Herman Metsky – introduced me to newspapers. What I vividly recall is that repeatedly, circa 1950, he sought to instruct me on the wiles of Colonel McCormick, the iconic publisher of the Tribune who anointed it as "The World’s Greatest Newspaper." My grandfather always invoked a comparable epithet to tarnish him: " . . . the most dangerous man in America." I cannot recall anything more about my grandfather’s political sensibilities. What I do recollect is that we regularly dissected the unfolding of baseball seasons, much of our fodder furnished by newspaper sportswriters and columnists. But as I came to understand more about Robert R. McCormick, I now surmise that Herman Metsky aligned himself with the likes of Franklin Delano Ro osevelt and Harry S Truman. Colonel McCormick vilified them both and they returned the sentiment. Remember the image of Truman – beaming – as he held aloft a Tribune bearing the premature banner headline "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Yet Herman Metsky and Colonel McCormick each shared a passion for virtues of the daily, big-city newspaper. Both devoted their entire working lives to the industry. While the Colonel presided over the Chicago Tribune, Herman Metsky sold newspapers one-by-one on the streets of Newark, New Jersey. I think his career began – age ten or so -- at the moment he immigrated to the United States from Czarist Russia in 1905. Pulling himself up one or two rungs on the ladder of American mobility, he began as a street vendor of newspapers and never left his calling. Later he rented a green shed at a busy retail corner and ultimately he operated a modest shop in an aspiring middle-class neighborhood. Every time I encountered my grandfather at that shop he plied me with two or three different newspapers. I found myself enthralled, at a rather tender age, reading them avidly. And I never abandoned the daily habit. /CONTINUED

View Complete Forum Topic

Username
Password
New User? Signup Now
Poynter Careers
See All Jobs
Add Your Resume
Post Your Job
Become a Member
More media jobs