[happygrl]

Imagine if E.B. White had been killed in WWII - that's the magnitude here.

Hmmm...do I sense some sarcasm here ? What say you ?

I don't see the comparison between Kelley and White, who was both a novelist and a writing stylist. Enlighten me, please, if you would.

[Paladin2b]

I think people are missing the point about Michael Kelly's integrity. He was no right-wing ideologue. Michael Kelly was a liberal, but he stemmed from the old school of hard-drinking, union member, non-college educated New Deal or GI Bill Irish Catholic reporters who used to dominate the nation's newsrooms and helped advance liberal causes like the Civil Rights Movement and cleaning up crooked government. They were the "Reagan Democrats" of pundits who turned right because of Clinton & Co.

He skewered people like Gore, Clinton, and particularly other lefty journalists because he perceived their liberalism was a pre-packaged, rareified product of being compartmentalized from the rest of American life. He was from a family of reporters, he marinated in the idealism of newspaper union halls, and he was a NEWSPAPERMAN, a "shoe-leather reporter", not a "media figure". He lived to pound the pavement, work to get the story, and be in sync with the rhythms of the newsroom. You can't say that about too many talking heads these days.

[Mark de New Brighton]

I don't see the comparison between Kelley and White, who was both a novelist and a writing stylist. Enlighten me, please, if you would.

E.B. White was a novelist and a writing stylist. He also was the best essayist of his generation and one of the best essayists of the entire 20th Century. If you want proof, get a copy of his collection of essays from the New Yorker from the late 30s and early 40s, titled One Man's Meat.

Although White's work and Kelly's work are not exactly analogous, I personally believe that at his best, Kelly's work approached White's standard of excellence. Although Kelly died as Ernie Pyle did, his career is more like White's than Pyle's, so that's why I made the comparison. No sarcasm at all. Genuine sadness.

MdNB