On April 18, 1945, a Japanese sniper took out Ernie Pyle during a Pacific Island skirmish. Pyle was a beloved newspaperman, whose columns were anticipated by millions of readers of hundreds of newspapers. You couldn’t say that about a lot of journalists then, much less now.
Most war reporting was conducted at the officer level, at the Defense Department in Washington or when correspondents went to the front, with generals and admirals. Pyle marched and sailed and flew, mainly with soldiers but also sailors, marines and airmen. He wrote up their individual stories, always with names and home towns.
We of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists have called April 18 National Columnists’ Day since 1995 in Pyle’s honor and memory. The purpose is use the moment “to reflect on the way newspaper columnists connect, educate, comfort, encourage, celebrate, outrage and occasionally even amuse readers. …”
Pyle had his way, and there are many others. Yet in the 1930s he wrote a different column in a different style. It’s worth noting that before World War II, that column showed Pyle roaming through America, in a way similar to the late CBS newsman Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road.” The variety further proves the point.
In the first months of 2007, we have lost Art Buchwald and Molly Ivins. In the last week, Kurt Vonnegut died. Late in life the story writer penned a column for the magazine In These Times.
The next generation of columnists and the set now emerging from schools face a different set of media responsibilities for an electronically connected world.
What would Ernie do? -30-
