Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004. It is OK to for a publication, or an individual writer, to be superior to readers.
Ps and Ws, increasingly in recent years, attempt to be either equal to the reader or beneath them. The first is thought to appeal to the reader more strongly. The other is to avoid offending readers and drive them away. Both are negatives, the second obviously so.
How is the first concept negative? Because it presumes that the publisher or writer otherwise behaves as if the reader is below them. But to act as an equal is an act. The second, looking up to the reader, naturally is illogical. Both are nonsense. It’s not an overall superior or inferior issue. It is a specific one, related to the information being communicated.
The act of writing, or publishing, or posting online, or broadcasting or narrowcasting or shouting from the soapbox, from the rooftop, or even passing a tiny note in class, must presume the giver has some thought (knowledge, fact, comment, ribald joke) that the would-be recipient does not. Yet.
I get these comments and know colleagues get similar ones: You take the Wall Street Journal, you of all people? … How can You work at that paper when that so-and-so writes those editorials? … My husband and I dropped the paper when they endorsed so-and-so because we decided we couldn’t trust their news pages.
I have responded: I like the Journal; I have to skip the editorial page, but the rest gives me clear and fair information. … I don’t mind my paper’s editorials. I’m embarrassed by lots of the national stances, too. But I bet you agree their local opinions are progressive. I give examples, and they glare at me. … You still hold a grudge from a 2000 editorial endorsement? In four years have you heard where the paper’s coverage is wildly off what’s available elsewhere? You would have. You buy the paper when you want the details TV can’t give. I get more glares.
Do these people boycott cafeterias and all-you-can-eats? If the buffet offers broccoli and they don’t like broccoli, do they begrudge those who do? They should, but who’s heard complaints like that?
A woman a few weeks ago told me she wished the paper would not run those comic strips but just these comic strips, the ones she likes. Is this coming from young adults who don’t subscribe? Yes, two of the three examples above. The other was older, and the comics censor was a fogy, too.
Let’s quit apologizing for distributing information and any kind of opinion. If we act guilty we are guilty. We’re not guilty. We won’t lose. You can go broke pandering. -30-
