What papers do you read to form your world view?

I started writing this post after walking the dog on this blustery autumn morning. On the way out the door, we picked up the NY Times and, since it wasn’t raining, I tried reading while the hound stalked squirrels and nibbled on grass. I don’t recommend reading a newspaper while walking a dog. Most mornings, I only manage to read the portion of the front page above the fold. The art of folding a paper for compact reading is fine for riding the bus, but is complicated by a leash and a plastic bag full of excrement.

Newspapers have been on my mind lately. The most current reason is Sarah Palin’s inability to answer Katie Couric’s question about the newspapers or magazines she reads. She subsequently told Fox News that Couric annoyed her by not asking the right questions. Apparently, Couric should have asked these: "Governor Palin, would you share a few reasons why you think Barack Obama is a bad choice for America? Rather than answering me, would you mind just talking straight to the American people so my filters won’t get in your way?"

We now know that Palin reads the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist, among others. Were I the interviewer, my “gotcha” question would have been: “Which comic strip in the NY Times is your favorite?” And, I’d ask whether she does the crossword puzzle in pen or pencil. (For purely tactile reasons, I’m a pen guy -- pencil on newsprint is less pleasurable).

Oh, here are a few more media-related questions I’d ask Governor Palin: “You said that you watched Tina Fey’s impersonation of you with the volume turned down. Really? C’mon, really? The sound was turned down? Could nobody find the remote and turn the damned volume up? You're lying again, aren't you?”

The Toy Cannon household receives the Oregonian and the NY Times at our doorstep seven days a week. I’m at loose ends if I don’t have a paper spread across the table with my first cup of coffee. When my wife and I go out for breakfast on a Sunday morning, we tote along sections of the paper to read while waiting for the food. It may look like we’re not talking to each other, but there’ll be time for that while we eat.

I cling to newspapers like others cling to guns and religion, and I know I’m a member of a dying breed. Those of us who still read newspapers probably do so out of family tradition more than anything. When I was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the region had two dailies--one in the morning (The Chronicle) and one in the afternoon (The Examiner)--delivered by paperboys on bicycles with canvas bags slung over their shoulders. (I’m treading into Norman Rockwell territory now). My family was a morning paper family, so I grew up with Herb Caen and his daily dose of witty observations, neologisms (he coined both “beatnik” and “hippy”), and society name-dropping characterized as “three dot journalism” for the frequent use of ellipses to divide stories. I can't swear that I read these columns when I was young. When I read Herb Caen now, I wince a little and see his writing as an artifact of a different age and generation--a time of Mad Men and Joey Bishop. Still, I can't deny that they seem to have seeped through my pores, and I feel their influence every time I use an ellipsis ... (But where did the parenthetical asides come from)?

When Jonathan Nicholas wrote a regular gossip column in the Oregonian, both his content and cadence reminded me of a less able Caen. (Get it? ... Able/Caen ... Cain/Abel). I was never a big fan of Nicholas’ column, though I admit to having always read it. I guess I would rather read breezy gossip on People About Town than self-congratulatory, heart-string-tuggers that have become the current form of social columnizing. But I seem to have digressed.

The other reason I’ve been thinking about newspapers is because The Oregonian is trying to bribe at least 100 full-timers to quit (an estimated 50 from the newsroom) in order to stanch the bleeding from lost advertising revenue. In late June, publisher Fred Stickel sent employees a letter affirming the paper’s long-held “Job Security Pledge,” which promises that no full-time, non-represented employee will be laid off due to economic or technological changes. Stickel’s letter emphasizes one ominous caveat: “The Pledge does not/will not apply to situations in which our newspaper ceases to publish daily in its current newsprint form.” My prediction is that we’ll see the Oregonian drop its Saturday edition within the next year, thus ceasing to publish “daily” and clearing the decks.

Two months after that letter, a follow-up letter (posted here on the Portland Mercury blogsite) dropped the proverbial other shoe by offering a tempting buyout deal to full-time employees (less generous for part-timers). Columnist S. Renee Mitchell recently decided to jump, announcing the move in her final column last week. (She promised to continue serving humanity in other ways). On his blog, stellar music critic, David Stabler, announced that he will be staying. Those eligible for the buyout offer have until October 6, 2008 to announce their decisions, so brace yourselves.

Because of my job and my personal interests, I'm curious to learn which of the paper's ever-shrinking crew of cultural critics will remain, and how much further its arts coverage will wither. Setting aside my generally pro-labor bias, I don't object to articles written by freelancers. (Ex-Oregonian critic Bob Hicks has done some of his best writing as a freelancer both for the Oregonian and through his blog at Art Scatter). My concern is one of consistency and depth. If a writer such as Shawn Levy jumps ship, will the Oregonian turn to a changing cast of freelancers for its movie reviews? (By the way, Levy is writing a biography of Paul Newman due out next fall, so could probably use a little time off to put a rush on it. See his lengthy obituary of Newman here). I may not always agree with a critic, but am better equipped to interpret his or her latest review when read through the lens of past reviews and with some appreciation of that writer's sensibilities and voice.

The Oregonian is already a slim production. When I fillet the Sunday paper and stack the ads to the side, there's not much left to read. Even then, a good portion of the "news hole" (love that term) in the books and arts section is often eaten up by gratuitously large photos and photo essays.


I'll concede that a photograph is worth at least a thousand words. The right photo can illustrate a story, or at least provide a little visual interest to break up a particularly tedious piece of writing. (Don't worry, I'm almost done here). All I'm saying is if the Oregonian shrinks any more, or keeps getting filled by wire stories, or loses consistency and depth in its arts coverage, then I'm ready to walk away.

One last note of trivia: Herb Caen’s counterpart on the other side of the Chronicle's op-ed section was Stanton Delaplane, who was primarily a travel writer. With a quick Google search to confirm the spelling of his name, I found his NY Times obituary from 1988:

Stanton Hill Delaplane, an award-winning columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle who championed Irish coffee in the United States, died Monday of emphysema at his home in San Francisco. He was 80 years old.”

Delaplane won a Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for a series of articles about the secessionist movement calling for Northern California and Southern Oregon to become the State of Jefferson. An interesting story worthy of journalism’s highest honor. However, his most noteworthy achievement appears to be the promotion of an alcoholic drink. Let that be a lesson to aspiring young journalists!