Free Republic

Twenty-five years ago, during a holiday soiree at the home of longtime Baltimore Sun editorial writer and book reviewer James H. Bready, a friend of mine—like his Sun colleague Bready, now retired—balanced a goblet of white wine and plate of cheese and cold cuts, roared with laughter, pointed at his loud tie, and said, “The only bad thing about Christmastime is that there are so many parties packed into a 15-day span that it’s embarrassing to run into you and realize I’m wearing the same suit of clothes!” At the time, Mike was a hard-working education reporter, a classic “newspaperman”...

Graydon Carter’s War The Mind of a Great Editor Is a Terrible Thing To Waste By RUSS SMITH Mr. Smith writes weekly columns for New York Press and Baltimore’s City Paper. I wonder when Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is going to wake up from his increasingly public nightmare. Mr. Carter, a charming and intelligent man, has clearly not come to grips with the stark reality, as Spy magazine would’ve said 15 years ago, that the go-go 1990s are over and the gaudy colors that washed over that decade have given way to black and white. In fact, Mr. Carter’s...