“No one throws a typewriter through a window” and everything that’s wrong about journalism in The Post

No one throws a sub-editor through a window, either … even when they take a red pencil to the very first line of an earth-shattering exposé


No one screams across the newsroom: “Do you have the Dalai Llama’s phone number? Or the Pope’s?”


There is no real estate lift-out featured with the headline “why it’s never been a better time to buy”


No one is asked to file 1000 words for page one and 500 “for the website”


No one is stabbed with a newspaper spike


It is journalistic tradition to ring a giant bell when you finish a story


There is no furious debate over whether to drop the Marmaduke, Hagar The Horrible or Cathy cartoons to make more room for bigger stories


Hot type and Xerox machines became obsolete in journalism at least a year ago


There is way too little smoking in the office


No one is pictured wearing a hat with a “press” card stuck in the brim


No intern is forced to do a Starbucks run for pumpkin lattes


Journalists never succumb to random monologuing


There are no car chases or action montages


Tom Hanks makes editors seem “dangerously likeable”


Bob Odenkirk is pictured using something called a “pay phone”


No one rolls up their sleeves to reveal a tattoo in an edgy German newspaper font


No one sits around trying to make puns out of the names of Thai restaurants


The latest “superfood” goes sadly unreported


In one scene, you can clearly see that someone has managed to solve the daily Sudoku


The Pentagon Papers are unveiled through cloak-and-dagger journalism rather than being discovered in a cabinet in a second-hand shop


My new thriller Game Of Killers: The Spartan is out now as an ebook and paperback.

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 04, 2018 01:31
No comments have been added yet.


Charles Purcell's Blog

Charles Purcell
Charles Purcell isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Charles Purcell's blog with rss.