What the Silence Said - More thoughts about the late Robert Bartley (WSJ Editor)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Friday, December 12, 2003 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[pittsburgh gop guy]

Over the years a certain legend has grown up around Bob Bartley that he was a writer of forbidding, dazzling and sometimes distant intellect -- aloof, shy and given to turning conversations into becalmed seas of silence. Whatever the truth in the legend, it only partly explained the man. There is more.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

More thoughts on the passing of the WSJ's Bob Bartley - a mere one week after being awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

[Lancey Howard]

We'd get letters from fastidious grammarians pointing out editorial usage violations not found in any dictionary. Bob wrote back to one: "Sir, the dictionary exists to recognize the new usages created by people like me."

ROTFLMBO!!

[Lancey Howard]

This article is a great tribute to a great man.
I am glad that DANIEL HENNINGER is on the job at the WSJ.

[Auntie Mame]

Wonderful, both Mr. Bartley, and this tribute to him.

Thank you for posting this.

[Imal]

Our loss is Heaven's gain.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

I thought this article touched on so many points that made Bartley great. I am sure that there are many people out there that share many of the same qualities that Bartley personified. But they were not a part of the WSJ for so long, and did not have a forum to advance our values like Bartley did. Nor would 99.9999999% of them be as eloquent about it.

I love it when the message matches the man. When conservatives run into trouble (Newt, Rush), the press jumps all over them to point out the hypocrisy. I wish people like Bartley got more press, but it is not in their nature - which is a good thing. (and in short supply in this day and age!)

[OESY]

One of the best tributes comes not surprisingly from Peter Kann, CEO of Dow Jones & Co., per your post (thank you) of today's WSJ Letters to the Editor. Below are the first two paragraphs of Kann's letter -- with selected lines emboldened by me for emphasis:

"Over the span of a nearly 40 year career at the Journal, including fully three decades as editorial page editor and editor, Bob had a profound influence on the Journal, on journalism, and on public life in America and beyond. He clearly was one of the greatest editors in the long history of this company. Just as clearly, he was one of the major intellectual forces on our lives and times. . . .

"Bob himself was always modest about his influence and accomplishments. He preferred the designation 'newsman' to all others. And it fit. Bob never was content to sit back and simply opine about events around him. Rather, Bob continuously reported, investigated, uncovered and challenged. He took pleasure in controversy, in challenging conventional wisdom and prevailing orthodoxies of all sorts. He was never a defender of some walled ivory tower, of the status quo; rather he saw himself as an insurgent on the intellectual battlefields beyond. And he took quiet pride in standing out there all alone, as he so often had to do on issues over the years...." -- Peter Kann, CEO of Dow Jones & Co.

Robert Bartley dead at 66: Post #87)