"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Wednesday 11 November 2015

WE SHALL OVERCOME

Every weekday at six p.m. I feel well refreshed . I have watched another excellent interview with Charlie Rose. It's an hour long but in t.v.time that equates to at least half that time again. 

There are no interruptions for commercials . Charlie is free to probe wherever curiosity takes him.His guests are always pleased to plumb the depths  and share every nuance of their  experience. 

Last night's guest was Dean Baquet,Executive Director of The New York Times.

Both journalists are obviously masters of their art. 

The conversation opened with a demonstration of a cardboard insert that  included with the paper to a million subscribers. It opened into a box with spectacles for viewing a video that told a story.

A place in Africa , so isolated,  the only way to deliver food to thousands of children who would otherwise starve , was by drop from a plane. The video produced reality of being in the field where the cargo  landed and being one of the children collecting the bags.

The  rest of the hour was occupied by talk of the future of story-telling, the role of technology, how  things will change.

The best is yet to come. 

The  editor's experience from the time he dropped out of college at nineteen ,took a job at an afternoon newspaper in New Orleans ,his previous job with a Los Angeles newspaper, how it ended and his current responsibility were covered.

Though names came up, no further reference was made to Trump and Carson. 

For these two journalists, keeping people sufficiently informed to make their own decisions is  key to workable democracy.

Everything I heard was positive.

Freedom of  expression is in good hands. With them and whoever they influence along the way. 

Charlie Rose is a Jew from South Carolina .

Dean Baquet is black, from the State of Louisiana .

We shall overcome. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...


In today's multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious world, where borders have increasingly less significance, the second and third last lines of your post were completely unnecessary.

Charlie Rose has been a beacon of intelligent discourse for decades. I do not know Dean Baquet but his newspaper is one of the world's greatest.

Any conversation between these two people would have by necessity been enlightening.

Anonymous said...

I agree. We should try to keep the American election antics as a side-bar. There are almost 3 months until Iowa has
its caucus.

Anonymous said...

I recall watching as food was dropped to people isolated by war and politics. It was amazing & humbling.
We are so fortunate & seldom even think about it.

Anonymous said...

@12:10
That was pretty snide. Are you still smarting about the results of the federal election ?

Anonymous said...

@18:58

I'm guessing that 12:10 isn't in the defeated government's constituency. Plus, I don't find that comment to be snide.