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Comment Section
A newspaper should be the maximum of information, and the minimum
of comment.
Richard Cobden
English politician
(1804-1865)
On this newspaper, the separation of news columns from the editorial
and opp-ed pages is solemn and complete. This separation is intended
to serve the reader, who is entitled to the facts in the news
columns and to opinions on the editorial and opp-ed pages. But
nothing in this separation of functions is intended to eliminate
from the news columns honest, in-depth reporting or analysis or
commentary when plainly labelled.
Ben Bradlee,
Editor, 'Washington Post'
Editorials
The only journalism accounted worthy of a gentleman and a
scholar was the writing of leaders for The Times.
Sir Walter Besant
Only kings, editors, and people with tapeworm have the right
to use the editorial "we."
Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
THE TRAGEDY OF THE SHELLS: LORD KITCHENER'S GRAVE ERROR
Lord Kitchener has starved the army in France of high-explosive
shells. The admitted fact is that Lord Kitchener ordered the wrong
kind of shellsHe persisted in sending shrapnel a useless
weapon in trench warfare. He was warned repeatedly that the kind
of shell required was a violently explosive bomb which would dynamite
its way through the German trenches and entanglementsThe kind
of shell our poor soldiers have had has caused the deaths of thousands
of them.
Leader in the 'Daily Mail'
Written by its owner, Lord Northcliffe, this was the most
famous leading article in Twentieth
Century warfare. It was part of the campaign waged by his papers
against the shortages of
shells on the Western Front. After a further leader, a week later,
the 'Daily Mail' was
burnt on the Stock Exchange by 'patriotic' brokers and the paper's
circulation fell
overnight by more than a million, from 1,386,000 to 238,000.
1915
I don't know what you men think and I don't care I am right.
And the day will come when you will all know that I am right.
Now, Fish, what's on tomorrow's schedule?
Lord Northcliffe
Giving his stafff his reaction to the collapse
in sales. Subsequent events vindicated
the Mail's shell campaign.
1915
We never waste space saying, "On the one hand." We
just state an opinion in a Godlike voice.
Arthur Christiansen
Editor, 'Daily Express'
The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve
it, give it to him anyhow.
John Ciardi
1957
Columnists
If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.
Kingsley Amis
A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline
or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its
turgidity ratio.
William Safire
US journalist
1984
Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
William Safire
Giving advice on how to build
a readership for a column
1984
Of all the fantastic fog-shapes that have risen off the fog
of human confusion since the big war, the most futile and at the
same time the most pretentious is the deep-thinking, hair-trigger
columnist or commentator who knows all the answers just off-hand
and can settle great affairs with absolute finality three or even
six days a week.
Westbrook Pegler