News-Record.com

Something was nagging me as I was writing the last post but I couldn't make it out. Now I have.

The day that Hillary choked up in New Hampshire, I mentioned to a group of younger journalists the Muskie "crying" incident in New Hampshire during the 1972 presidential primary season. ("Younger" cuts a broad path in my aged world; I should be more specific and say journalists in their 20s.)

They didn't know who Muskie was. Do I think any less of them? No. Should they know the former governor of Maine, U.S. senator and Secretary of State in the Carter Administration? It would be nice, but not mandatory. For comparison, I didn't know much about Nixon's Checkers speech in 1952, and the only reason I ended up learning about it was because he became president.

History is important. Knowing that Muskie might have cried -- he said the moisure came from melted snowflakes -- adds texture to the Hillary chokes up story. Knowing that Mike Royko was an exceptional reporter is important if you use that information to learn from his writing.

Or his processes. Here's an observation from Paul O'Connor who worked for him: Mike was an excruciating writer. Meaning the columns -- when I worked for him -- came out verrrry slowly. Part of the reason for that was that he invested all of his considerable ego in each one.... Mike also liked to have the last word, or at least a complete grasp of the competitive editorial context into which he was writing. He would spend all day and into the night reading the wires and everything he could get his hands on written by his peers, to see if he could get a view into their take on stuff and thereby ensure he would not be writing a dreaded 'me too' piece. (Via Romenesko.)