Thursday, June 09, 2005
Those worth remembering are truly never forgotten
Much to Slats' surprise and delight, a reader yesterday posted a blog comment in which reference was made to I. F. Stone. Slats is going to presume that many of you do not know the name, or its significance, and that is why it was so delightful for a reader to have not only posted a reference to, but also a quote from, I. F. Stone.
Stone was an independent journalist who published his own newsletter for over 20 years, starting in 1953, until ill health prevented him from continuing. Stone was a muckraker who questioned all that government did, giving careful scrutinization to the actions of those holding our nation's electoral power.
For the most part, he did it by scouring the daily papers and seeing significance when others overlooked it. A small paragraph of an item, buried on an inside page and given only several sentences, would set Stone digging into government documents and records until he emerged with a gem of a story worthy of front page attention.
Stone was one of the first journalists to alert the nation to the dangers of Joe McCarthy's outlandish witch hunts, and was also one of the first to seriously question the government's veracity regarding what was alleged to have happened in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Stone used the government's own words and actions to build his case against it. He did the same with the politicians and bureaucrats who held the various positions within government and thus actually comprised it.
Stone's enthralling work had lapsed from memory in recent years, despite its enthralling nature to a much younger Slats several decades ago. Until reading the quote as posted yesterday from a reader of this blog, it had not occurred to Slats just how much of an influence I.F. Stone has been, for his style is one that has subconsciously been emulated here.
In trying to raise awareness of what your government leaders in Seminole County are doing with the power you have given them, attempts have been made to include as many direct quotations from them and direct references to their actions as has been possible.
All of that, it is now realized, comes from the subtle lingering influence and effect of having read I. F. Stone's work so many years ago.
A special "thank you" and a tip of the hat to Tuscawillan, the reader who yesterday posted the comment that included the quote from Stone. And thank you, too, to I. F. Stone, 16 years after his death, for inspiring us still.
Somewhere around here, likely in a box obscured under others, is a copy of a little paperback book, several decades old, called the I. F. Stone Weekly Reader.
The rest of tonight will be spent seeking to locate it, in the hope it can be enjoyed it while drifting off into an early-morning slumber. That, of course, begets an even more fervent hope that doing so does not inspire any somnolent visions of Carlton Henley, Butch Bundy or Lee Constantine, but it is a risk well worth taking.
Stone was an independent journalist who published his own newsletter for over 20 years, starting in 1953, until ill health prevented him from continuing. Stone was a muckraker who questioned all that government did, giving careful scrutinization to the actions of those holding our nation's electoral power.
For the most part, he did it by scouring the daily papers and seeing significance when others overlooked it. A small paragraph of an item, buried on an inside page and given only several sentences, would set Stone digging into government documents and records until he emerged with a gem of a story worthy of front page attention.
Stone was one of the first journalists to alert the nation to the dangers of Joe McCarthy's outlandish witch hunts, and was also one of the first to seriously question the government's veracity regarding what was alleged to have happened in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Stone used the government's own words and actions to build his case against it. He did the same with the politicians and bureaucrats who held the various positions within government and thus actually comprised it.
Stone's enthralling work had lapsed from memory in recent years, despite its enthralling nature to a much younger Slats several decades ago. Until reading the quote as posted yesterday from a reader of this blog, it had not occurred to Slats just how much of an influence I.F. Stone has been, for his style is one that has subconsciously been emulated here.
In trying to raise awareness of what your government leaders in Seminole County are doing with the power you have given them, attempts have been made to include as many direct quotations from them and direct references to their actions as has been possible.
All of that, it is now realized, comes from the subtle lingering influence and effect of having read I. F. Stone's work so many years ago.
A special "thank you" and a tip of the hat to Tuscawillan, the reader who yesterday posted the comment that included the quote from Stone. And thank you, too, to I. F. Stone, 16 years after his death, for inspiring us still.
Somewhere around here, likely in a box obscured under others, is a copy of a little paperback book, several decades old, called the I. F. Stone Weekly Reader.
The rest of tonight will be spent seeking to locate it, in the hope it can be enjoyed it while drifting off into an early-morning slumber. That, of course, begets an even more fervent hope that doing so does not inspire any somnolent visions of Carlton Henley, Butch Bundy or Lee Constantine, but it is a risk well worth taking.
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