Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 1, 1996 Page: 2 of 16
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Donald Kaul 2^
__ i „ . accurate portnunt of apolitical
campaign, but who could have
written it? Klein, a Newsweek
columnist and CBS analyst, was one of the prime suspects
but he steadfastly denied having done it.
That was what drove everybody crazy when the Post
finally confronted him with irrefutable evidence and he
confessed. '/ F"\
HE HAD LIED! ,. : fev,",/
Ohmygod. Joe Klein, journalist, had lied to his friends,
to the public, to the world.
"Hiis “...violates the fimdamental contract between jour-
nalists, serious publications and their readers,” trumpeted
the New York Times in an editorial.
Mark Shields, normally the most good humored and
sensible of *“ jjjj
made our.
a little more sour
v
i I II hWBR
f/i
Learning should be life-long joy
we sour-and his colleagues* job more ihan a bole fZ'—~1 T
........ In A u/hicrv'r trpmhlino u/ith n. uMr Manvliih hmiiokt >11 lliai Wk in mu (At 11 ii'annt S
now obliged to _
defines herself as a
s as “a fellow who
-Since she has cc
who’d not
___________throughout I___
In a whisper trembling with ex- year. Meredith brought all that back to me. (At 13, it’s not r^ .
citement she said, “I got my ‘skoo quite so cool to show that excitement, although our own heJs
^Sheprocecdedlodescribe,inde-
in all Ncito te deni^ h^££^
a hot seat, thanks to the religious, indeed crackpots of the
in
tail, her Pocahontas back pack, her paper.)
“sciss-O-s”, her “mawkuhs” (She The reality of school is that the comers of the notebook
forgot were for school and used paper eventually start to curt, the holes tear and the paper a hot seat, thanks to the
them. Oh my, she’ll have to get new breaks away from the binder, die pencil points lose their •anjMwnopttsuincto __—r----------—— •
ones to save for school!) and her sharp edges and the erasers turn black with graphite and get fact no more than that, he has picked up a Brownie pointer J
“cwayons”. flat. Thoglue starts to glob up, dry up and get crusty. The two amongst rational men and women with his selection Of j
Thprp 16 littlsa that /Man nnnal fh/» Krv\L- rnunre am arvwi nAuaM^ uittK inU. «Am*ula 8 fillC lddV HS kCVTlOtC SD&lkGf fOThlSD8TiVCOf1Volition. And
lougheri|r ♦
Oh wow. I hadn’t realized it (silly me) but I suppose
they’re right Ever since I found out that Joe Klein told a
lie, I don’t feel the same about CBS or Newsweek, I don’t
trust the New York Times and, to tell you the truth, I’m not
so sure about myself. Journalism’s credibility has suffered
a blow unlike any since Nixon said “I am not a crook” and
nobody in the press corps broke out laughing.
Can we get real here, just for a minute? _
Klein’s reputation as a decent sort and a fair, accurate
kZThp^p, *5* »•«.«*-*. aggass^ggs;SgSESS:
record because he lied about being the author of “Primary MARY HENKEL excitement of a five-year-old about rings in the binder refuse to meet in the middle. In short, the ^in persuading Gen. Colin Powell to address the com-
Cbtors?-1 don’t think so. JUDSON to enter “the big school” for the first newness wears off. ing San Diego assemblage. Even as in all past national.
Klein said he didn’t put his name to the book in the first • ■ _ time. It’s a gende memory that most If only that newness wouldn’t wear off of a student’s ***** world history, no one has nor will likely ever move
instance because he was afraid it wasn’t anv good. Per- *outh jetty tx>rro» Gf m (j hope) ^vor ^ the backs of attitude toward school and learning! fanatics to reason.
hapa,butrorely it became quickly evident to bexh him and our minds for the rest of our lives. I never out-grew—in School and learning should not be dreaded or feared— LET ME turn now to a brief observation on the two
hiapublishers that remaining anonymous was a great fact I still haven’t out-grown—the thrill of opening a fresh so I wonder why so many kids are filled with fear and Penary independent parties, Libertarians and Reformers,
million dollar, to *akc me straight back to first grade. A fresh, new bode might as wellenjoy it! SXitrS^^
satisfy the idle curiosity of a bunch of jealous contempo- cover, sans scnbbles and scroUs, brings a shiver of antici- Learning should be a life-long affair that gets us up each
nries who wish they’d had the wit to write the book and P®***1- . tl L morning filled with the anticipation and joiedevivre that ^ “' ^ich might either
disclaim ownership. The point of all this is not to tell you a story about my I heard in my niece’s voice. f ind most creditability? There a lough call.
I wouldn’thavedone iLHadl written the book and Mark cute little niece — although to be perfectly honest. Miss , ^
Shields walked up to me Mid asked if I was the author, I’d Meredith Elizabeth is absolutely adorable and smart as a Cheers to the new school year. May it be a year of ALLOW ME TO now turn 10 religion, particularly
have said: “Not me. amigo. Go ask Joe Klein." pistol-raida handful. excitement and learning and joy! Christianity as U is understood in these United States. I
And I wouldn’t have felt as though I’d violated the
profession of ‘
journalists
the time, i
hardenouf
And so
> to spell the names correctly.
- as damage to the credibility
_ „ of journalism
goes, one is tempted to ask: What credibility? I don’t know
anyone with half a brain who accepts what he hears or
reads without first miming it through a skepticism born of
experience and prior knowledge.
In any case, good journalism does not depend on the
trust of the reader or viewer for its credibility. It carries
credibility within it; in its documentation, its attribution
and its internal logic.
I knew an editor once who, when confronted with a piece
that did not meet those criteria, would shove ita little away
and say: “Interesting, if true."
That’s a good attitude for editors to have; for the public,
too. And Joe Klein lying about “Primary Colors” doesn’t
change it a bit.
Went out toBubba Bob Oagger’sHubCapsandWrecked
Can Shop the other day to find a radio antenna for my car.
Bubba Bob had the Olympic s on his mind. He
understand whutthey re havin’these silly
on the TV for. They got ever sport in the „
‘cept the important ones like trot-line ruinin', coon dog
_trackin’, arm wrasslin’. Ever time I
tennatormycar.
. He said, “1 don’t
t Olympic games
c world gom’ on
turn on the TV there’s a bunch of
guys or women runnin* around in
their shorts...sometimes jumpin’
feneps that don’t hold nothin’ in.
“And what’s with this silly sport
where female midgits from all over
the world with bodies t
£*■■11
the world with bodies that look like
they are their older sisters try to beat
' J each other in walking across a two-
----by-four without fellin’ off? What
Cactus Pryor land of sense does that make?
* ............—........ “Then there’s them big guys what
throw acannon ball that doesn't even explode as nr as they
can. Then they grunt and yell like a bunch of old bogs witn
new dap. Then they take their dinner plate and try to throw
it further than the next feller. Another bunch throws spears
with out even tryin to hit snythang.
“They gota bunch of divers with people Idlin’you whM
they did wrong.. Jike when landin’ havin’ the water bounce
out in.
‘ Why does anyone
■ TUlMt 1GMH..I
fiWHWFSTWIFUSS
■ CWR RMSIMG
RWNWMOM Wfttf
■ 6Y lOCtKTS?,,
[Ml
SSIONI
have spent most of this morning with de Tocqueville and
my collection of quotations from the letters and notes of
Thomas Jefferson, who as most readers know, I consider
to have been possessed of the greatest mind our Anglo
Saxon race has ever produced. From either I find no single
word that would offer anything but total contempt for the
current so-called Christian Coalition. With that it becomes
obligatory to offer the American counterparts to the fekirs
of the ancient Hindu bazaars, the Jerry FalweOs, Pat
Robertsons and their like. Quotations from Jefferson come
easily, from de Tocqueville, more complicated and prima-
rily influenced by contradictory comprehension of differ-
ences in gender amongst our people as he saw them in
1831. Without offering details on that score, I would offer
a line from the Frenchman that will not offend even the so-
called religious right, a line which may have been true at
the time when put on paper, but however doubtful at the
present: "Thus while the law permits tne Americans to 00
what they please, religion forbids them to commit what is
rash or unjust.”
Then to the Great Virginian, a few words from his notes
and letters, lines that should be adequate to give comeup-
pance to the aforementioned mountebanks and fekirs:
am a Christian in the only sense he (Jesus) wished one to
be”.
“I never will, by any word or act, bow 10 the shrine of
intolerance, or admit a right on inquiry into the religious
s."
attainable? Millions of innocent men,
, since the introduction of Christian*
yet w*
one 1
£
m
Letters to the edii
But he didn’t
, heard twict dally om radio swim
[ ■ _.__
ijr'fpvvr' wm
if - ■ m*ny>W'-1 - Jht n .*3
I- V t^l.. .i/JiV*1 V 1
grammar. Letters mustconta
evening telephone numbers
will not be withheld from publlcati
. Letters ol thanks should be si
MMM fit UMI
_ ...___
on.
submitted to
I convention, at
IHAVE!
•W
warn
ami
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Judson, Mary. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 1, 1996, newspaper, August 1, 1996; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth575268/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.