REAL VILLAINS
In reading Harry Reasoner’s reminiscences about the first 25 years of network TV news I came across this piece on “villains” in his describing the reporting of the Little Rock, Arkansas school integration fracus in 1959: The key was understanding the story, and in turn there are two keys to understanding most stories. One is that there are always at least two sides to any story. The other is that the world doesn’t have many real villains, very many real bad guys, if you define a villain as a person who thinks of himself as a villain. I’ve only been aware of two figures in the news during my career with whom I would not have shaken hands if called to deal with them professionally. I suppose that what Thomas Jefferson called a decent respect for the opinion of mankind requires me to identify those two. They were Senator Joseph McCarthy and a man named Paul Krassner or something like that who…
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