Stephen Crane, the novelist and journalist best known for the Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, covered the brief Greco-Turkish War and the Spanish-American War, somehow completing his assignments without graduating from a string of colleges. Somehow Crane muddled by, despite not possessing a great deal of historical knowledge, military insight, or specific expertise about either the conflicts he was paid to cover or those fighting in them. Perhaps he was just lucky these were short wars. Ernie Pyle worked on a much longer and wider stage than Crane, and was known for his folksy, down-home stories of regular people serving in World War II. Pyle didn’t complete his degree at Indiana University, but he didn’t let that stop him from getting syndicated by more than 300 newspapers. He picked up a Pulitzer on his way to becoming the most famous war correspondent in American media history.
Joe the Plumber = Stephen Crane?
At least there's a shocking admission of negligence on PJTV's part later in the piece:
I’m not expecting Pyle’s humanizing folksiness, nor Yon’s gritty incisiveness, nor Crane’s vivid imagery from Wurzelbacher. I don’t know if he can craft a coherent sentence or conduct an revealing interview. And perhaps he’ll be an absolute disaster as a journalist, even as he’s created a PR explosion for PJTV.At least PJTV admits this particular fiasco is a publicity stunt. Now, how its readers are supposed to expect anything else from what they consume at PJTV isn't a stunt is their problem.
(emphasis added)
[via TNR]
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