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COLUMBIA JOURNAL —s =o 4e —a se =ZFB t JANaUACRY /FERyBi RUeA RY al SN REIL) Plus Se eae aay The - ~a~aq Wall Street r,F1 .7 : r TEAS) VEL Cys 2r.l p ;O ae s ae M«wM R oke b/t ,e Ox0H u e? te eC s a q WDecbeoueE QU basncedbeoeeDbataesdalecstdeloadl L#aBlXa sR BHKN 333K a 3-DIGIT 4488 1 RBAN 0 4 J E300xX0: ; SHSAMPLE 6 XA ROX U MICROFILMS SERTALS 300 N ZEEB RD ANN ARBOR, MI 48103-1553 Either you're with it... TO ADVERTISE CALL 212-536-5336 TO SUBSCRIBE CALL 1-800-722-6658 oe /Ce 4 man or you're not. he Award-Winning Op-Ed Page of The New York Times The New York Times has EW YORK TIMES OP-ED sunpay, JULY 9i0n8 AHmEeRrBiEcRaT Engineers of De ath been honored with the Gold Clinton pidnwinace Award for Best Op-Ed Page Caves (for the second year in a row) by the Association of Opinion Page Editors and Penn State’s School ~2 Finally, builders of of Communications. ; thecremaioriums x... tell their story. The judges were John Seigenthaler of Freedom Forum/USA Today, Ray Jenkins of The Baltimore Evening Sun and Jock Lauterer of Penn State University. The Times won the 1994 The strain on the furnaces Gold Award for its July 18, was colossal 1993, Op-Ed page, which featured a contribution My duty was to help Germany by a British historian, win the war Gerald Fleming. His article, “Engineers of Death,” was based on his research into recently available wartime Keeping archives in Moscow, which the closet door closed reported the testimony of on gay soldiers four German engineers and technicians who designed and built concentration camp crematoriums during World War II. The page also featured an “In America” column by Bob Herbert, about President Clinton’s policy on gays in the military. FEATURES Yakety-yak Why the press likes the I-man The lost art of interviewing By Tom Rosenstiel z3 When the eyes of Texas aren’ t upon you True North: how Ollie and the media really got along This is the story of the Jules Feiffer cartoon: O.J. who? vested interest that hired the firm Prague: the expatriate option ... that fronted the study .. . that skewed the numbers . . . that spread A teen-run paper makes news in Atlanta through the press . . . and finished off Are you an insurance risk? a vital piece of health care reform The rap on The Source By Trudy Lieberman 28 Resource: covering the world of the Muslims Star School Follow-up: the age factor On the fast track to network news CAPITAL LETTER By Jeff Gremillion 32 Newt Gingrich’s Frankenstein By Christopher Hanson Demystifying Mr. Greenspan TECHNOLOGY Who Can Fathom the Fed? Barbarians or Gatekeepers? By Eileen Shanahan 36 By Stephen D. Isaacs The Lure of Fedthink By Paul Starobin 40 A Journal Briefing: Whitewater From the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal Eugene Richards: Edited by Robert L. Bartley, et al. Social Realist Reviewed by James Boylan By William McGowan Speaking of Journalism By William Zinsser Vernacular Video Reviewed by Bruce Porter For the growing genre of camcorder journalism, nothing is too personal By Pat Aufderheide 46 PUBLISHER’S NOTE LETTERS DARTS & LAURELS SHORT TAKES THE LOWER CASE COVER: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TOM TAVEE “TO ASSESS THE PERFORMANCE OF JOURNALISM . .. TO HELP STIMULATE CONTINUING IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROFESSION, AND TO SPEAK OUT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT, FAIR, AND DECENT” From the founding editorial, 1961 CIRJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 ee eee eeSne ee ea eae eee Woarlld lNeiwse: ‘WTerudthi estCConosmeqaunenecaess “Covering Regional and Ethnic Conflicts” was the subject of the it can’t do complicated things, like creating a functioning Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s November 17 First democracy where none ever existed, or dismantling a bil- Amendment Leadership breakfast. Floyd Abrams, senior adviser lion-dollar drug industry that is the only crutch for a crippled to the Poliak Center for First Amendment Studies and William J. third world economy. Brennan Jr. Visiting Professor at the school, was the moderator. International news coverage has been further complicated The panelists were Seymour Topping, administrator of the by the information revolution. The generation that learned Pulitzer Prizes and Sanpaolo Professor of International about the world through World War II had a canonical set of Journalism at the school; David Marash, correspondent for ABC media to rely on that responded to a hierarchical structure. News; and Anne Nelson, a former director of the Committee to That structure has been blown apart over the last few years. Protect Journalists, whose remarks are excerpted here: One person’s primary news source might be an on-line financial service transmitted to her home computer while another’s here is a crisis in international news reporting in the United might be a tabloid television “news” show on cable. States — and not one that should simply be blamed on the People in the news business are constantly facing the reporters, the gatekeepers, or the owners. We know that there question “Why should we care?” about international stories. is stagnation, and even shrinkage, in the number of international sto- We need to think hard about the answers that are implicit in ries in the media and the number of correspondents in the field for news coverage. Should people care about international crises most U.S. media outlets. But the primary reason for this decline is based on humanitarian concerns? If so, what are the criteria an audience that expresses less and less interest in the international for how much information is presented about them, and how stories that do appear. What we’ re increasingly missing, as a culture, directly the U.S. should be involved? is connective tissue to bind us to the rest of the world. Yet when crises are extensively covered, as in Somalia, the Mid-twentieth-century Britons were connected to far-off story creates its own momentum. There is strong evidence that, continents by the legacies of their disappearing empire. World in the news media’s impetus to cover and play out the story, and War II had the same sort of impact on the U.S. public — in the public’s will to “do something” to relieve the suffering, everyone knew someone, loved someone, who had been the United States undertook a policy that helped no one and shipped off to a place they once couldn’t pronounce. The possibly did harm. We should ask whether the media have a underlying lesson to this experience was not that Americans responsibility, as they present their devastating images of suf- had become avid consumers of international news for all time fering, to acknowledge that these images could impel the coun- to come. It was something less cheering: you can only rely on try towards intervention, and to take on the question, “What is international news to turn a profit when it’s actually domestic present in this situation that intervention can actually fix?” news. And the most certain way for international news to There are other good answers to the question “Why should become domestic news is a a U.S. military intervention we care?” but they aren’t easy answers. We are living in an — when it’s “our boys” — “over there.” era where the forces that rule our lives are more internation- I know a great many decent people working in American alized than ever. International trade is coming to dominate newsrooms who are passionate about covering international our economy; the distinctions between local cultures and a stories, beating their heads bloody against all the obstacles world culture are disappearing. News travels around the put in their way. They end up going after strong images of world in a matter of moments. Most Americans don’t under- war and starvation — because that’s what they think will stand these phenomena, and they need to. reach their audience. But it is impossible, as a human being, We are inhabiting a strange moment in which the story to fully absorb these horrific images without experiencing selection process of a group of [CNN] editors in Atlanta has a the will to do something about it. remarkable degree of influence on the world’s primary peace- So as coverage of an international crisis builds, the will to keeping force. The United Nations, paralyzed for decades by do something, anything, about it becomes overwhelming. It the superpower deadlock in the Security Council, must respond drives public opinion, it drives the administration, and it to an international agenda that seems arbitrary and episodic. drives the story’s shelf life. But all too often, doing “some- Governments from around the world are looking to the United thing, anything” about a crisis means military intervention Nations for leadership, yet our own political process has not for lack of a better alternative, and in news terms, the more sorted out the most basic questions of whether foreign policy dramatic the intervention, the more seemingly effective. should be conducted as an elite or a public concern. Either Unfortunately, intervention is a blunt instrument. It can way, we Owe it to the world that the decision is an informed only accomplish simple things. It can reopen oil pipelines. It one. Our international news coverage must measure the conse- can remove or restore a head of state — on a good day. But quences of its impulses to help us achieve that end. oa CIRBJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 Oh PUBLISHER JOAN KONNER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ROGER ROSENBLATT THE AGE OF IRON real Journalism” imposed on them. PYRITE, MAYBE? GEORGE GERBNER EDITOR SUZANNE BRAUN LEVINE Professor and Dean Emeritus MANAGING EDITOR The Annenberg School for Communication In cyR’s new Technology column (“The University of Pennsylvania GLORIA COOPER Golden Age, Maybe?” November/ Philadelphia, Pa. SENIOR EDITORS MIKE HOYT December), Stephen I. Isaacs says that EVAN JENKINS the “basic problem of journalism has CENTERS OF ATTENTION ART DIRECTOR always been length.” And since technolo- RUTH ANSEL gy now allows both journalist and reader ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR to file and retrieve anything on demand, Lloyd Cutler is right about some points: PEGGY ROALF including full texts and background mate- Washington coverage tends to vastly ASSISTANT EDITOR JEFF GREMILLION rial, the “basic problem of journalism overemphasize the president and downplay CONTRIBUTING EDITORS evaporates into the ether,” and “the golden everyone else (“On the Presidency and the JAMES BOYLAN, D.D. GUTTENPLAN, age of real Journalism is about to begin.” Press,” CJR, November/December). That’s CHRISTOPHER HANSON, All that with as much of a straight face as true in the way major news organizations TRUDY LIEBERMAN, MICHAEL MASSING, BRUCE PORTER, STEVE WEINBERG print can bear. deploy their resources — over-covering a RESEARCH ASSOCIATES In fact, the basic problem of journalism president’s every sneeze and golf game — LIZA FEATHERSTONE, MARGARET KENNEDY is not “length” but media conglomeration and in the way most every newspaper, even EDITORIAL/PRODUCTION ASSISTANT and the consequent reduction of staff, those without their own White House ANDREW HEARST diversity, and time to do an adequate job. reporter, plays Washington news. INTERN As to the retrieval of reams of background Travel to almost any city on any given CHRISTOPHER T. NOLTER material, there is no evidence that the day, pick up the local paper, and page-one Sd number of news readers who search Washington news is, de facto, White House ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER databases is any larger than (or different news, culled from the AP, The Washington DENNIS F. GIZA from) those who use the library to do their Post, or The New York Times. It is a grossly ADVERTISING DIRECTOR research — free. distorted portrait of Washington — as if the LOUISA D. KEARNEY Technology makes news processing president exists in a vacuum — which can’t ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE faster and more efficient for those who just be blamed on the White House regulars MAVIS SCANLON DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT own or can access and have the time, but on the editors back home at the smallest HELEN THURSTON money, and interest or need to use it. But newspapers. BUSINESS ASSISTANT one-third of all children and nearly half of For its part, the Clinton White House SIERRA EVERLAND African-Americans never see a computer insists on courting the Post, the Times, and LEADERSHIP NETWORK in school, and even fewer see one at a small number of other extremely power- KIKI PARIS home. Only about one in three of the more ful opinion-leading organizations; it has ® affluent homes has a computer. For the not, however, sought to diffuse its message FOUNDING PUBLISHER EDWARD W. BARRETT (1910-1989) vast majority, newspaper technology among other news outlets. And believe it or EDITORIAL ADVISERS means speeding up, chopping up, and not, there are others: papers from Seattle to PHILIP S. BALBONI, JIM CAREY, BARBARA jazzing up the news. For journalists, it Palm Beach maintain their own people in COCHRAN, ROBERT CURVIN, ARTHUR GELB, means further loss of control to a few Washington but this White House has DON HEWITT, ALEX JONES, JOHN LEO, J. ANTHONY LUKAS, SALLY BEDELL SMITH, wholesalers and global marketers of media largely ignored them in order to court more JUDY WOODRUFF “software.” influential organizations. By this point dur- o Technology, as it is used, also speeds ing the Bush administration, I’d met in COLUMBIA mindless instant twenty-four-hour small conferences with Bush twice; so far, JOURNALISM imagery of mayhem and trivia, and exac- I’ve yet to be in such a setting with Clinton. REVIEW erbates the gap between the information A good number of hometown editors 700 JOURNALISM BUILDING rich and information poor. Diversity of have the same problem the Clinton White COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY perspectives, not fitting into the House does. They buy into the influence of NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 machine, and democratic citizen initia- the Post, the Times, and the AP — to an EDITORIAL: (212) 854-1881 tive, not technocratic fantasies, can liber- extent, understandably. What’s not so under- E-MAIL: [email protected] ate journalists — and the uses of tech- standable is that, like Lloyd Cutler, they BUSINESS & ADVERTISING: (212) 854-2716 SUBSCRIPTIONS: (800) 669-1002 nology — from the new “golden age of complain bitterly about the outcome of their CIRJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 Uh purchase — only to make it again tomorrow. possible grounds. RICHARD PARKER The readership may seem lethargic, but Washington correspondent isn’t it possible that the media tend to over- Albuquerque Journal react? Maybe it is more important for a com- Arlington, Va. munity to be led in debate about how best to preserve aloha than to worry about whether MYSTERY WRITER another scandalous allegation is news. RONALD P. Lou! Bill Gates and Microsoft have long since Associate professor solved David Halberstam’s only flaw as a Washington University writer (“The Education of a Journalist,” St. Louis, Mo. COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW CJR, November/December). GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES When I arrived on the copydesk of the DEADLINE HEADLINE GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE old Nashville Tennessean in late 1958, FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS: David already not only was a solid reporter, On September 5, we published a stupid but he was the world’s sloppiest typist. In headline: ATOMIC BOMBERS CRITICIZE ENOLA SUSTAINING GRANTS CABOT FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST his haste to put words on paper, he would HOMOSEXUAL EXHIBIT. It [changing the name XXXX Out, type above words, underneath GAY tO HOMOSEXUAL] was a careless mis- THE AARON DIAMOND words, on top of words. It was up to the take that occurred on deadline, as do most FOUNDATION unsung pencil-and-pastepot crew to walk stupid mistakes at smaller newspapers. It over to his desk a few times a night to have was not the result of gay bashing or any JOURNAL REGISTER COMPANY him decipher the hieroglyphic. What usual- other overt (or subvert) political maneuver. ly emerged was a pure gem. We fully expected to be humiliated in THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. I remember him not for the many big “The Lower case.” What we didn’t expect MACARTHUR FOUNDATION stories he wrote but for the small, often was to be accused of “overzealous applica- overlooked stories that he made his own. tion of traditional terminology when THE NEW YORK TIMES One example: an old man and woman lived describing a certaii type of sexual orienta- COMPANY FOUNDATION in abject poverty. The man died. While tion” in your “Darts and Laurels” section. turning over their mattress, the woman To raise this headline above the level of THE OVERBROOK FOUNDATION found some $5,000 he had squirreled away. SUGGEST SEX ACTS IN OFFICE [The Lower THE SAUL AND jANICE POLIAK Undertakers convinced her the late depart- case, CJR, November/December] and to CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ed would want her to blow it all on a lavish suggest that any ulterior motive existed — FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES funeral. She did. Dave took that story and especially in the absence of hard facts — is made it sing and dance with arms and legs, offensive to myself and the Herald. TIME WARNER INC. in Mencken’s words. MARK M. SWEETWOOD DOLPH HONICKER Editor e The Tennessean Northwest Herald Nashville, Tenn. Crystal Lake, III. FUND FOR JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS AND ETHICS PARADISE RETAINED MUG SHOT SHOT DOWN THE DEER CREEK FOUNDATION ¢ COLUMBIA Spencer Sherman’s criticism of Honolulu’s Your September/October cover story, “How JOURNALISM press (“Letter from Hawaii,” cJrR, O.J.’s Lawyer Works the Press,” purported REVIEW September/ October) missed the real angle: to be about Simpson’s lawyer Robert L. Sherman thinks Hawaii’s press should Shapiro. I’ve seen the Simpson coverage 700 JOURNALISM BUILDING COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY learn to be more like the mainland press; and I know there are pictures of Shapiro NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 but in fact, the nation’s newspaper readers alone, Shapiro with fellow attorneys, and could learn a lot from Hawaii's. Shapiro in front of a microphone. Yet you Columbia Journalism Review (ISSN 0010 - 194X) is published bimonthly under the auspices of the faculty, Sherman’s terms, “provincial,” “unethi- chose a cover picture that barely shows any alumni, and friends of the Graduate School of Journalism, cal,” “timid,” “uncompetitive,” and “short- of Shapiro’s face and focuses on Simpson. Columbia University. Volume XXXIII, Number 5 January/February 1995. Copyright © 1995 Graduate viewed,” are applied as easily to mainland Of the two inside pictures, in fact, only School of Journalism, Columbia University. Subscription papers as to any of Hawaii’s. More interest- one really shows Shapiro. The other is of rates: one year $19.95; two years $34.95; three years ing is that Hawaii’s population resists jour- the back of his head and —- surprise! — $47.95. Canadian and foreign subscriptions, add $4 per year. Back issues: $5.50. Please address all subscription nalists making events seem more newswor- Simpson’s face. mail to: Columbia Journalism Review, Subscription thy than they are. As Sherman notes, Hawaii Why did you choose to use these particu- Service Department, P.O. Box 1943, Marion, Ohio 43302; is “largely made up of Asian immigrants,” lar photos? Because Robert Shapiro’s mug (800) 669-1002. Editorial office: 700 Journalism Building, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 10027; (212) 854- (actually, they are more likely the descen- doesn’t sell magazines. O.J. Simpson’s face 1881. Business office: 700A Journalism Building, dants of Asian immigrants) who “covet pri- does. Shame on you for jumping on the Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 10027; (212) 854- 2716. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and vacy” and “shun controversy.” Hawaii’s resi- bandwagon that already has made this case at additional mailing office. No claims for back copies hon- dents intuit that their world is often not as it the most over-publicized event since Geraldo ored after one year. National newsstand distribution: is portrayed. They understand that the osten- opened Capone’s vault. You should adhere Eastern News Distributors, Inc., 2020 Superior St., Sandusky, Ohio 44870. Postmaster: send Form 3579 to sible scandal is usually a ploy by some per- to higher standards and set a better example. Columbia Journalism Review, P.O. Box 1943, Marion, son who wants to manipulate them into buy- LYNN EDGE Ohio 43302. Printed in the U.S.A. ing or voting or decrying on the shallowest Birmingham, Ala. CIRJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 WHOWHATWHENWHEREWHY the i-man Jones — that he refused to do and the commentaries on Imus’s Washington station. “I didn’t media elite want any part of it. It’s over my line,” he says. Kondracke nev- ertheless concedes that he he I-man was definitely on sometimes tunes in, and that a roll. Scowling behind the Imus can be funny. mike in his high-tech basement Russert, NBC’s Washington studio in Astoria, Queens, he bureau chief and the host of ridiculed Bill Clinton, sparred Meet the Press, says he finds with White House adviser Paul some bits “distasteful,” but Begala, yukked it up with Al adds, “It’s a very smart variety D’Amato, swapped insights show. Anyone who dismisses it with ABC’s Jeff Greenfield, is being al ittle aloof and arro- and arranged a date for his * gant. If you’re interested in Why do big-name journalists like Imus in the morning? brother, Fred. politicians and pundits, they are Then, without missing a the deputy managing editor of of a dumpster.” No wonder more refreshingly candid on beat, Imus turned to me and The Washington Post, and the media types find him fascinat- that program than where you announced what was really on publicist for 60 Minutes. ing: he breaks all our rules. normally see and hear them.” his mind: the traumatic expe- All of which raises the cos- Some of us relish the naughti- “It’s done in such good rience of washing his “wiener” mic question: What gives? Why ness ofa man who can call the humor,” says CBS’s Rather. with rodent-like Mickey do card-carrying members of president of the United States “If you can’t take a joke, go Mouse soap during a recent the media elite tune in to a guy a “fat pantload” and still get somewhere else.” stay at Disneyland. Talk about who, when he’s not dissecting him on the program. Getting friendly with Imus, quick transitions. the news, is just as likely to be Another factor: he shares however, can be dangerous. Over the past year, as his playing a parody of Rush Lim- our cultural zeitgeist. He reads Nightline’s Jeff Greenfield syndicated radio show has baugh singing “That’s Why the The New York Times and The once made the mistake of spread to forty-five cities, Don First Lady is a Tramp,” crude- Washington Post and the New inviting Imus to a dinner party. Imus has become a morning ly insulting Peter Jennings, or York tabloids, watches Mac- The I-man made fun of the ritual for much of the incestu- discussing his aforesaid wiener? Neil/Lehrer and Meet the invitation on the air and then ous media community. And Here’s one theory: journal- Press and knows rock ’n’ roll. raffled it off to a listener, journalists do more than listen: ists must strive to be objective His brilliant comedic bits with whereupon an embarrassed Dan Rather, Tim Russert, Con- and measured. Imus gets to the impersonators who play Greenfield withdrew it. nie Chung, Anna Quindlen, viciously attack people we Richard Nixon, Ross Perot, True, Imus doesn’t have the Frank Rich, Cokie Roberts, must be polite to. As straight Walter Cronkite, and Rush top-rated morning show (he’s and Greenfield are among the man Charles McCord, seated Limbaugh appeal to the insid- fourth in Boston, tied for regular call-in guests. Politi- to his right, reads the headlines, er audience. fourth in New York, and twen- cians too, from Bob Dole to Al Imus says whatever hideous Not to all of us, however. ty-sixth in Washington). But Gore, who recently asked to thing pops into his head. One Morton Kondracke, executive many of his two million daily come on /mus in the Morning. recent morning, Imus called editor of the Washington, D.C., listeners — about two-thirds of You get good buzz from the Newt Gingrich “a man who Roll Cail, is one example of a them men — are the kind of show. The morning I was on would eat roadkill,” O.J. Simp- journalist who finds Imus to be high-income, highly educated — our topic was “how jour- son a “moron,” Alice Rivlin a too much. He was so disgust- folks advertisers love. nalists can’t suck enough,” as “litthe dwarf,” Robert Novak ed by Imus’s routine — partic- Which leads to another rea- Imus so elegantly put it — I the man with “the worst hair on ularly a rap song called “Pimp son that big-name journalists got instant feedback from the the planet,” and Ted Kennedy Slap the Ho,” which bore some and politicians faithfully arise at editor of The Boston Globe, “a fat slob with a head the size relation to Clinton and Paula the crack of dawn to phone in. CIR JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 “Imus moves the merchandise,” ing Texas politicians: “If you for Corpus Christi to getajobon | tion, The Texas Observer cel- says Rather, who plugged his look back in that line some- ashrimp boat, jump ship in Mex- ebrated its fortieth anniver- new book in a recent appear- where, you’ll find a dwarf.” ico, move back to Texas among sary, and like many forty- ance. About 200 people showed Just what the thin-skinned the wetbacks, and somehow year-olds, the magazine found up for Rather’s Manhattan book son of the Texas hill country write a novel from that,” Dugger itself occupied with soul- signing that day, “and at least meant by his weirdly ingenious recalls. “Yet here was a real searching and reassessment. 100 of them said, ‘I heard you insult is unclear, but to me the chance to make a difference.” Still small and pathetically on Imus this morning.’ ” comment seemed aimed not so For a long time, the biweek- underfunded, its circulation Howard Kurtz much at Dugger — a man of ly journal did indeed make a hovering close to 7,500, still average height, by the way — difference. It was the only “a journal of free voices,” and Kurtz, a Washington Post but at The Texas Observer voice in the state seeking to tell still “the tyrant’s foe, the peo- reporter, is the author of Media itself. Small, pathetically the stories that so desperately ple’s friend,” the Observer Circus: The Trouble with Amer- underfunded, its editors and needed telling — stories of a finds that much has changed ica’s Newspapers. writers grossly underpaid, the corrupt and inefficient state since the days when Dugger Observer from the beginning legislature, of racial injustice, and his colleagues made it was a dwarf kicking at the shins of corporate rape and govern- worth reading. a mid-life of tall Texas Democrats it ment acquiescence, all the sto- Its “ardor and its talent” have thought had abandoned the ries The Dallas Morning worn down over the last twenty crisis in party’s liberal ideals. It was just News, the Houston Chronicle, years or so; its opinions have tall enough to bite the butt of and the state’s other urban become a bit shopworn. Despite texas the Texas party establishment dailies seemed happy to the occasional Observer scoop of Lyndon Johnson and John ignore. “By the sheer force of or compelling essay you won’t Connally and the oil, business, its ardor and its talent, it was find in any other Texas publica- — Dugger, founding and financial titans who con- read by everyone in Texas tion, the magazine is no longer editor, eminence grise, trolled the party and the state. whose opinions had authori- required reading and, in recent years, absentee Dugger was twenty-four ty,’ former Observer and With the coming of Texas father of The Texas Observer, when a group of Texas liberals Harper’s editor Willie Morris Monthly and the development spent a number of years asking offered him the job of running recalled in his autobiography, of a more enterprising capital uncomfortable questions of fel- their new magazine. The year North Toward Home. press corps in Austin, the low Texan Lyndon Johnson. was 1954, and they were an That was yesterday. Last Observer is no longer the sole When Dugger was not around, endangered species; McCarthy- | October, a couple of weeks outlet in the state for writers LBJ liked to grumble to visit- ism was rampant. “I was leaving | before the November 8 elec- eager to do serious politicai THE WORD FRIGID ALWAYS ENDS WITH A CAPITAL “ 7 ne The capital “R” has a circle OnlyFrigidaire® refrigerators around it, too. Because Frigidaire® have the quality, engineering and is more than an ordinary word, it’s heritage to bear the name. our registered trademark. So ifa refrigerator really isa ‘To many, it means the finest Frigidaire® say so. quality refrigerator available. It’s a If it’s not, use the other word name that's so popular some people that ends with an “R” Refrigerator. Wewould Frigidaire” call every refrigerator a Frigidaire® Unfortunately, that’s wrong. APPreciate it. ene rooAy. HERET OMORROW. © 1987 White Consolidated Industries, Inc esacennaeisa siiaililiuiiaiaainiaiiaiimaeaimml