Newsman VS Clown

[lame54]

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/newsman_fights_clown

Barry Nolan, a long-time broadcast journalist in the Boston area, was fired for his quiet, persistent protest against the selection of Bill O'Reilly for the Governor's Award by the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). The news brought to mind three quotes:

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"If only I could get Jim Briskin on my network, Hada thought gloomily. The ranking TV news clown, so popular, with his flaming scarlet wig and genial, informal patter."
-- Philip K. Dick, "What'll We Do With Ragland Park?" (1963).

"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."
-- Hunter S. Thompson, 1985

"There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil - remain detached from the great."
-- Walter Lippmann, 1920

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Nolan might have been reading Lippman when he decided last week that standing for his profession was more important than protecting his career. The news clown, the power of his popularity, feted as a journalist by the thieves and pimps, was just too much for him...