Editor & Publisher dude weighs in

Or maybe the story is a walking contradiction, partly truth, partly fiction, as Kris Kristofferson (like Killian's typist) would have it.

That's how the editor of Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell, "sorts out fact from fiction" in the "60 Minutes Flap" as the "CBS controversy" grows "more curious."

Curious, indeed. Jim Romenesko, the acknowledged official blog of journalism, whose site is hosted at Poynter ("Everything you need to be a better journalist"), the wannabe official home of journalism, finally had a main column item on the CBS faked documents. After what? six days? And the result is a link to aging hippie lookalike Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publishing, ("America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry.") You just know the Boomers have taken over. It's like some alien movie where you keep hoping there is some physical mark at the wrist you can spot to warn you if the writing already isn't clue enough.

In case you need more convincing, there's a neat box to the right of the article with links left out of the article. Under "Concepts" there is word processor, letter writers, news pages, media response, Texas attorney. Talk about high tech. Related Articles, above, has a link to three items, including "Helen Thomas Slams Bush at Newspaper's Summer Social" (Pub. Aug. 03, 2004).

It was too much to hope that the aliens at E&P would act like responsible adults, not when they've spent a lifetime creating an alternate reality for themselves and their readers. You can't expect too much of people who have helped the newspaper industry self-destruct. They didn't need help to do it, but the encouragement was nice. And when you are looking for reasons for the deplorable standards in the media, look no higher than the Editor & Publisher.