The Camera Cannot Lie, But

For 50 Years My Father Worked For The Railroad.

I Love Craftsmanship Of Any Kind, A Job Well Done Either By My Chiropractor Or Carpenter, And I Am Addicted To Print, The Type, The Ink. But My Basic Passion Is Journalism And I Can't Live Without Being Online.

It's A Fascinating Time, I Think. I Do Believe That With All The Qualifications I've Said - [such As] The Uncertain Accuracy Of The Web - Nonetheless The Access To Speeches, Documents Is Unparalleled With The Ease Of Gathering Information. If I Had Had That Access When I Was An Editor Or Coming Up, It Would Have Made My Life So Much Easier. As It Was, Everything Took So Much Longer.

Television And Radio Are What I Call Sequential Media; They're Not Simultaneous Media. With Simultaneous Media, You Can Scan Your Eye Down An Electronic Or Print Page And Pick Among Six Or Seven Stories You Might Like And Want To Read. With Television And Radio, You Have To Wait Until The Guy's Finished Talking About The Balloon Boy, Which I Don't Have The Slightest Interest In, To Find Out That All Hell's Broken Loose In Baghdad. Because They've Chosen That Day To Start With The Balloon Boy.

What I'm Driving At Is Let's Not Lose Sight In Our Excitement Of The Democratization Of The Media That Some Things Are Bad, False And Ugly - And No Amount Of Electronic Gloss Will Make Them True, Beautiful And Accurate.