I stumbled across this yesterday and haven’t stopped giggling. This is a real book, circa 1965:
“The journalist enjoys good standing in his community. He is even likely to be held in awe.”
“The story that a reporter worried and sweated over will be read by thousands and perhaps millions of people who will be informed, enlightened or amused. … He has prestige and influence that most persons can never hope to attain.”
“The day may not be far off when a city editor will say to a reporter, ‘Check your space gear. You’re going to the moon.'”
This is about a half-a-generation before my time; the journalism I went into in the 1970s was kind of “All the President’s Men” with a touch of “The Front Page,” and then I added a radio station to it. I wouldn’t have been intrigued by “Ward Cleaver covers the school board,” especially if that had been a true characterization, and I’m having a hard time imagining who would have been.
Just how innocent was this country 45 years ago? Was it common practice to lie give kids such a sterilized view of the world they were moving into?
More frightening: do we still do it? (Hey, you parents: whaddya say?)
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