{"id":244,"date":"2006-11-10T11:11:02","date_gmt":"2006-11-10T17:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/11\/10\/you-dont-say\/"},"modified":"2006-11-10T22:14:11","modified_gmt":"2006-11-11T04:14:11","slug":"you-dont-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/11\/you-dont-say\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people on Thursday asked me the same question, not just topic but exact words. If I had a more public job — not a computer-glazed copy editor — or had more friends with whom I had more frequent contact, getting the same question twice in one day might be less surprising. This was odd.<\/p>\n

So, Ben, what was the reaction in the newsroom to Tuesday’s election results?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Friend one, male 30s, was in the morning, basically at home in Fayetteville. Friend two, 40 or so years older than him, was at her home, 30 miles away in Bella Vista, in the afternoon. [Down, Paranoia, down boy; no way do they know each other and planned the attack. Heel; good dog.] I said:<\/p>\n

There was no reaction. We went around doing our jobs into the night Tuesday and again Wednesday.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their responses were the same, dramatic but quiet surprise, their raised eyebrows begging elaboration. That they seemed to accept. What answer did they expect? Do they think newsrooms have better water cooler conversations? Do they believe the newsroom sets built in TV studios are really like that? Do they believe the press indeed are all liberals and filled that cooler with champagne? [A related essay<\/a>] My elaboration:<\/p>\n

I have been in newsrooms on election nights a long time, November 1980 was my first one, when Reagan won. In this respect they’ve all been the same: There is no roundtable. We’re all working and we’re all tired. What conversation exists is over the numbers so far and precincts reporting, and why such-and-such results aren’t in yet. The Wednesday after also has a sameness: Everyone acts hung over. We’re joking just enough to get along, but the night people foresee another hard evening because the Thursday paper will be more complex with further data, reversals and comments, and the day people simply were up past their bedtimes.<\/p>\n

“Nothing?”<\/p>\n

“OK, Wednesday afternoon, somebody wondered aloud if Donald Rumsfeld had quit as secretary of defense two weeks earlier, would the GOP have picked up any more seats and would it have been enough to keep their majority.”<\/p>\n

Yes, that was me, who spoke. Another editor grunted that was a good question. None answered the rhetorical question to convey opinion. And we went back to our comma correcting. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two people on Thursday asked me the same question, not just topic but exact words. If I had a more public job — not a computer-glazed copy editor — or had more friends with whom I had more frequent contact, getting the same question twice in one day might be less surprising. This was odd. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/when-its-you-its-still-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":0},"title":"When it’s you, it’s still me","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005. Friendship needs addressing, maybe tomorrow. It's not a reaction to a news item, either, like most Bricks. But it is a reaction, to how this subject broadly came up in me, even though I don't know. With this as the latest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/proud-of-arrogance\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":1},"title":"Proud of arrogance","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005: Apparently, I spoke out of turn. I didn't mean to cause a stunned silence but rather say something I thought was not out of line, not unusual. I said the same thing to two different audiences, and got this same reaction:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":159,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/02\/plug-the-spin-spin-the-plug\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":2},"title":"Plug the spin, spin the plug","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005. It seems fruitless and self-serving to merely write stuff that's a reaction to stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff. Last month, I threw a Brick that Johnny Carson in death deserves all the credit for talent, longevity and knowing when to leave the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/wheres-the-band-wheres-the-band\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":3},"title":"Where’s the Band? Where’s the Band?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"*A line, near the end of The Music Man. I wasn't the only one Saturday afternoon on Fayetteville's Dickson Street to ask about the latest funereal Mardi Gras parade. A friend asked me the question, near the Walton Arts Center, before I had a chance to make my semiannual whine.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8405,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2026\/06\/why-us-and-when\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":4},"title":"Why Us. And When?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 24, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"An Editor\u2019s Note \"Why should (I) join Local 965\/AEA\/NEA?\" That is one of the two top questions that other 965 leaders and I get when friends and strangers learn of our affiliation. The other question is more of a statement: \"I didn't know the UA had a labor union.\" There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The 1966 AFSCME charter for Local 965, then the Arkansas Public Employees Union (APEU)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Local-965-APEU-AFSCME-charter-1966-1080x608-464kb.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Local-965-APEU-AFSCME-charter-1966-1080x608-464kb.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Local-965-APEU-AFSCME-charter-1966-1080x608-464kb.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Local-965-APEU-AFSCME-charter-1966-1080x608-464kb.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Local-965-APEU-AFSCME-charter-1966-1080x608-464kb.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":435,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/pet-a-penguin\/","url_meta":{"origin":244,"position":5},"title":"Pet a Penguin","author":"Ben S. 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