Sunday, May 10, 2009

What real newspapers do

Most newspaper work is less thrilling than the climax of "State of Play" (worst movie title ever?) described below.

More typical is the reaction I had during the previews, when Tom Hanks in the upcoming "Angels and Demons" said the Catholic Church had ordered a "brutal massacre." My instant thought: What's the difference between a brutal massacre and a run-of-the-mill massacre? Would it be possible to have an "amiable massacre"?

That's how newspaper work warps your mind.

2 comments:

Ken & Carol said...

We are glad to have you on our side David. But didn't your journalistic vibes also give a little tremble on hearing that it was the "Catholic Church" that "ordered" the massacre?

Anonymous said...

Massacres often lose not only their flavor - they are not even labeled as such in American newspapers. It only depends on who is doing the massacring:

200 Albanians in Kosovo in 1999? Massacre.

God only knows how many Iraqis ... 1991 forward? Liberation.