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Raines reflects on journalism, loss and lawyers (Nausea Alert)
The Aspen Times ^ | July 21, 2006 | Greg Schreier

Posted on 07/21/2006 6:42:22 AM PDT by abb

Howell Raines might have viewed his meteoric fall from journalistic grace as a dead end, but he instead saw a new opportunity.

The former New York Times executive editor, who resigned after the Jayson Blair scandal, talked about his new memoir at the Aspen Institute on Thursday. "The One That Got Away: A Memoir" is a tale of fishing, but an allegory for life.

Raines strayed from the book to lament the direction journalism is headed in - a path he feels is too strongly dictated by consumerism. He also discussed what it means to be a writer and journalist, and the emotion of loss.

"I think loss is the most universal human experience," Raines said of his exit from journalism and The New York Times in 2003.

But his book is an exploration of "what you do with an event that's irreversible, and how you decide if it's a dead end or a doorway."

While he had indeed lost something important, he realized how expendable his editorship was: It was just a job. He could start over as an author.

"I had now the opportunity to do something very few people have a chance to do at the age of 60," Raines said. "I'm very interested in the idea of creativity in the later decades."

His writing style is storytelling, he said, where he tries to write as lyrically as possible "without going over the top." Much of his influence comes from family members, who recalled stories of farming and hard work in the rural Southern countryside.

Raines also explored the purpose of newspapers and how they are changing. At The New York Times, he hoped to bring a more lyrical approach to writing. The old model of simplicity was no longer sufficient for readers.

"The World War II model that you write at a sixth-grade level became obsolete because of changes in society," Raines said. He noted that readers now are more educated and demand a more sophisticated product.

He was also critical of the consumer approach to journalism, particularly media moguls like Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch heads News Corp., which owns Fox News and Myspace.com, among other organizations.

"He has perpetrated the idea that there has been a liberal conspiracy in the news business," he said. "The degradation in the information marketplace is a threat to journalism."

There is a sacred bond between newspapers and readers that promises "we will find out as much as we can and tell you as much as we can," Raines said.

Newspapers may be shifting to a digital future because of declining readership and ad revenues, but he is hopeful that books will never be read on a computer.

"People don't want to sit at a screen and read a book," he said.

One audience member asked about the role of media leaks. Raines opted not to go in-depth since he no longer is a working journalist, but offered a bit of a leak of his own:

"Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line."

Greg Schreier's e-mail is gschreier@aspentimes.com


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dbm; howellraines; liberalmedia; newspapers; nyt; nytimes; raines
"I coulda been a contendah!"
1 posted on 07/21/2006 6:42:24 AM PDT by abb
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To: abb

His writing style is storytelling...

So, sorta like his old job.


2 posted on 07/21/2006 6:45:48 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: abb

It always amazes me how these idiots think that everyone on earth is just dying to read their books! They have such egos---and never the good sense to be embarrassed.


3 posted on 07/21/2006 6:46:34 AM PDT by basil (Exercise your 2nd amendment - buy another gun today)
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To: abb
"Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line."

Hoodaa thunk? Not lawyers those sniveling, retched, morally bankrupt pieces of ...

4 posted on 07/21/2006 6:52:17 AM PDT by BluH2o
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To: abb

loss ? you can't lose what you never had....


5 posted on 07/21/2006 6:54:30 AM PDT by stylin19a
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To: abb

Here's a better idea, Howell: Call Dan Rather and Al Gore and see if you can get together a comedy act--something like Larry, Curly, and Moe.


6 posted on 07/21/2006 6:58:42 AM PDT by Savage Beast (9/11 was never repeated--thanks to President George Bush.)
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To: abb
"I had now the opportunity to do something very few people have a chance to do at the age of 60," Raines said. "I'm very interested in the idea of creativity in the later decades."

Raines is doing high altitude training as preparation for Florence, Colorado.
7 posted on 07/21/2006 6:59:26 AM PDT by Bubba M. Aurelius
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To: abb
He also discussed what it means to be a writer and journalist

How would HE know?

8 posted on 07/21/2006 7:16:15 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: abb

Okay, let me get this straight. Raines wants news to be more "lyrical" and more like story telling, and is "critical of the consumer approach to journalism", correct?

So then, Raines doesn't want consumers to drive what journalists write, he wants journalists to tell everyone STORIES! Well, that certainly seems to be what the NYTimes is all about. Don't give the consumers the news they want, pass along a bunch of leftist stories and package that as news!


9 posted on 07/21/2006 7:34:40 AM PDT by Obadiah (I wanted to play Mousetrap. You roll the dice, you move your mice. Nobody gets hurt.)
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To: abb

DBM recently lamenting its own emotion of loss seems rather lyrical to me.


10 posted on 07/21/2006 9:00:47 AM PDT by Milhous (Twixt truth and madness lies but a sliver of a stream.)
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To: abb
There is a sacred bond between newspapers and readers that promises "we will find out as much as we can and tell you as much as we can," Raines said

When you filter out the truth to promote your agenda the bond is broken Howell.

11 posted on 07/21/2006 6:54:21 PM PDT by rocksblues (Liberals will stop at nothing.)
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To: abb

Hey, Howell, you forgot to put the moose out on the table. Wasn't that always a symbol of open communication?


12 posted on 07/21/2006 8:35:59 PM PDT by GoBucks2002
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To: abb
"The World War II model that you write at a sixth-grade level became obsolete because of changes in society," Raines said. He noted that readers now are more educated and demand a more sophisticated biased product.

Well, there you have it!  We have a better educated society and they demand more biased news. 

Goes to show you just out of touch liberals are.  Education is WORSE, not better.  The reading comprehension of the average person has probably been reduced to the third grade level since all we do now is sit in front of the TV and let them tell us what we want to hear.  To really learn about life you must be able to read AND COMPREHEND what you see.  After that, you must rationalize what you read and them decide for yourself what the truth, explanation, instruction or method read about really is. 

You can save a lot of time trying to filter out BS simply reading FR each day.

13 posted on 07/22/2006 8:54:36 AM PDT by DH (The government writes no bill that does not line the pockets of special interests.)
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To: DH
This kind of bias goes back at least to the self-important blather-mouths James Reston, David Halberstam, and Anthony Lewis, who were convinced that "news analysis" (i.e., their own opinions) would be more important than "news" and that they could opinionate all they wanted to without the traditional boundaries. Like-minded liberals went into mutually-induced orgasms at the idea that such "sophisticated analysis" could now appear in the pages of the NY Times, masquerading as news. Now self-important liberals could simply tell everyone what to think, all the time, saving the public the need to think for themselves. That is what people like Raines considered to be progress, and that is why they are apoplectic that talk radio, the web, FoxNews, etc. can challenge their MSM fiefdoms.
14 posted on 07/23/2006 9:03:09 PM PDT by Enchante (Democrats: Trust Nancy Pelosi to Win the War on Terror!! (gag))
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To: Obadiah
more "lyrical" and more like story telling

Fraudsters like Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, Mary Mapes and Dan Blather, et al are also much enamored of the "lyrical" approach to news - they tell any story they want, without regard to facts. It's called FICTION, Mr. Raines. This charlatan is one of many self-styled "journalists" who is really a failed novelist - people like Raines would much rather be writing novels, but they lack the talent so they fill the news pages with their lib-leftist fantasies and call it "journalism" - that's exactly how we got Glass, Blair, Mapes, Rather, and Raines.
15 posted on 07/23/2006 9:07:32 PM PDT by Enchante (Democrats: Trust Nancy Pelosi to Win the War on Terror!! (gag))
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To: abb
"Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line."

Almost all politicians are lawyers.
16 posted on 07/23/2006 9:08:57 PM PDT by John Lenin (We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture)
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To: John Lenin

"Almost all leakers are lawyers. That's the bottom line."

Almost all politicians are lawyers.





I'm sure Raines knows what he's talking about on leakers - this is why NO military or sensitive intel agency should have any lawyers with access to anything (unless they are John Bolton - Scooter Libby types who know their a** from a hole in the wall). Lib lawyers are strangling our society, our nation, our world with their idiocies. In addition to the leaking, the execution of our War on Terror is tied up with lawyerly idiocies. This has been apparent throughout the '80s and '90s, and was shown once again during the initial campaign in Afghanistan when we couldn't take out top Al Qaeda and Taliban figures without lawyerly sign-off which sometimes didn't come.


17 posted on 07/23/2006 9:25:38 PM PDT by Enchante (Democrats: Trust Nancy Pelosi to Win the War on Terror!! (gag))
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To: abb
"The World War II model that you write at a sixth-grade level became obsolete because of changes in society," Raines said. He noted that readers now are more educated and demand a more sophisticated product.

Nonsense. Reporting the facts of a news story without including your own prejudices requires a careful discipline that Howell Raines is incapable of. Observers are not more educated. Theym are increasingly miseducated. Nobody who is sophisticated would confuse objective news reporting with storytelling. If you want storytelling, read a novel or a fairytale. Or a newspaper edited by a writer of make-believe like Raines.

18 posted on 07/23/2006 9:37:11 PM PDT by stripes1776
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To: abb
"He [Rupert Murdoch, or the "bogeyman"] has perpetrated the idea that there has been a liberal conspiracy in the news business," he said. "The degradation in the information marketplace is a threat to journalism." ---Howell Raines

"The Reagan years oppressed me." ---Howell Raines

Poor Howie, tilting at capitalist windmills.

19 posted on 07/24/2006 6:49:57 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Pray for our President and for our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and around the world!)
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