A Dying Voice: Newspaper Columnists Finding It Harder to Reach -- And Stir -- the City

The Washington Post ^ | 8/6/02 | Howard Kurtz

[GeneD]

...Once, tough-guy columnists like Chicago's Mike Royko, New York's Jimmy Breslin and Boston's Mike Barnicle ruled the roost from the local bar, hanging with cops, barbecuing politicians and spinning tales of urban angst. But few local columnists these days have captured that compelling voice, and the reason has much to do with the way the world, and the newspaper racket, have changed....

Across the country, many metro columnists are polite or parochial or tend toward soft-feature blandness. Some newspapers seem to dole out the slots on demographic grounds -- fielding a white man, a woman and a minority -- who play to their constituencies. Few register on the outrage meter.

Unlike op-ed pundits, who often deliver opinions from Olympian heights, metro columnists are supposed to be out in the streets, more reporters than pontificators. But as journalists have become more firmly entrenched in the upper middle class -- writing books, sending their kids to private school, moving from market to market -- many readers have come to view them as out of touch with the community....

[GeneD]

Yes, this is Mr. Hair Shirt, one of Don Imus's contemptible damfool sidekicks (like Jeff "The Nerd" Greenfield, Kookie, Sen. Ethics, et cetera), but even Imus's sidekicks can have a point. This business is still suffering from Mike Royko's death, and this story is a manifestation of it.

About one thing little Howie is wrong: reporters aren't "upper-middle-class." They're upper-class -- and low-class.

NOTE TO ADMIN MODERATOR: I had to edit the title to make it fit the arbitrary 100-letter limit.