Jimmy Breslin: ‘Thanks for the use of the hall’

Jimmy Breslin was called the guru of shoe leather by his colleagues because he used a lot of it. Even in his late seventies and early 80s, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist still climbed stairs because, as he put it, “the story is never on the first floor.” Breslin was a reporter’s reporter, much loved in …

‘Dem Bums’ are coming to town; Time to root for the home team

Baseball is America’s national pastime. Well, that’s what US sportswriters and columnists have been saying since the National League was founded in 1876. I’m not so sure now, given the amount of publicity afforded to the National Football League and the Super Bowl, and the National Basketball Association, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s March …

Is blogging really necessary?

Ellen Fanning: “Isn’t it a bit silly that people in your position in political life are expected to tweet and blog on all this stuff, instead of just going out and talking to people?” Bob Carr: “I think it is silly. I think interest may have peaked. Look, all these blogs, I’m sure many of …

Twitter journalism: Think before you tweet

Trying to make sense of the week’s news from the Boston Marathon Bombings has been very difficult, to say the least. For those of you who read my previous post, The Boston Marathon heroes: We will remember them (http://wp.me/p1Ytmx-cY), you can see I took the easy option of describing the courage of the first responders. …

American heroes: ‘Dollar Bill’ and Stan the Man

A hero is someone you look up to, someone you can depend on in any situation, someone who would give up his or her life to save others. I’ve been thinking about heroes ever since I met the writer, Joe McGinniss, at the Sydney Writer’s Festival last month (see previous blog: http://wp.me/p1Ytmx-4N ).  McGinniss wrote …

Tweeting the future of journalism

This is not deja vu all over again. This is not a rerun of last week's blog in which I wrote about taking part in a journalism forum at Presbyterian Ladies' College in the inner west Sydney suburb of Croydon. (If you would like to read that, just scroll down to my previous posting.) Just think …

Finkelstein Inquiry: Someone to watch over me

It’s as inevitable as the excruciatingly slow Mitt Romney victory in the Republican presidential primaries in the US: A war in Australia between the teachers and the practitioners of journalism. The Federal Government’s Finkelstein Media Inquiry started the war when it recommended greater regulation of the industry, including a government-funded body to watch over and judge the …

A Super Tuesday with Jimmy Breslin

Super Tuesday became Mediocre Tuesday, or Predictable Tuesday, according to US pundits this week. Mitt Romney won six states, including the bellwether, Ohio, but impressed nobody, except himself. Rick Santorum took Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota, and came close in Ohio, blessed by evangelical voters, but is nowhere near the Holy Grail. Newt Gingrich easily …