THE NEWS HACK'S CREED:
I know more than you.
I make lots more money than you.
I'm smarter than you.
I'm sexier than you.
I appear on TV all the time.
I work ten minutes a day.
I rule the universe.
I'm going to live forever.
You are an idiot.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 2:
A lie isn't a lie when it tells THE TRUTH.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 3:
I've come to realize that the looseness of the journalistic life, the seeming laxity of the newsroom, is an illusion. Yes, there's informality and there's humor, but beneath the surface lies something deadly serious. It is a code. Sometimes the code is not even written down, but it is deeply believed in. And, when violated, it is enforced with tribal ferocity.
--JOHN "OMERTA" CARROLL.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 4:
News isn't news when we don't report it.
PERMALINKS:
THE NEWS HACKS' DICTIONARY
THE EUGENE DAVID GLOSSARY
AMERICA'S MOST UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY WEB SITE!
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We know best, you see, and if you disagree it can only be attributable to some gross defect of character that renders you unfit for polite company.
I mentioned earlier the great difference between news hacks and politicans. That reminds me of a lyric from the long-ago flop musical How to Steal an Election:
And when you're on the ticket (Yes, sir!)
You'll learn rape is not a crime
When you do it to the voters
A million at a time! (Doodley doodley doodley)
Substitute "in the newsroom" (or rather, news suite) and "readers" (or "surfers") and you'll get the idea. News hacks, politicans -- as the great Don Marquis's alter ego archy the cockroach quoted a flea, "millionaires and bums taste about alike to me." And many news hacks and politicians are both.