For months I resisted my managing editor's demands that I produce a daily 'People' column for the Miami News.
I pointed out that they inevitably became a listing of the meaningless antics of celebrities, and I reminded him of one of the paper's finest hours. It happened before I had come there, but I still remembered admiring their handling of a story of international importance, a story that was getting reams of attention.
At the bottom of the front page the Miami News always ran a 'bright', a pithy account of a funny, whimsical or witty news story of no significance.
On Nov 10, 1975, the daily bright said:
"Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were married again today in Africa."
It was a long time ago and I'm paraphrasing, but essentially that was it, that was all the Miami News carried.
If only today's media would treat Paris Hilton that way.
My boss might have suggested that I use the People column the same way, he didn't. One day he simply told me that if there wasn't one in the next edition, I was fired. There was.
Posted by Deck at June 25, 2007 07:00 AM