Volume 46, Number 3 · February 18, 1999
Decline and Fall
By Russell Baker
Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties
by Murray Kempton
Modern Library, 425 pp., $19.95
Murray Kempton disdained the word 'journalist.' He was a reporter, he said. To news people of his generation, it was an important distinction. For those who had taken a fancy to the trade, as he had, in the 1930s, 'journalist' had the ridiculous sound of the local society reporter giving himself airs. A seasoned foreign correspondent whom I consulted in 1952 for advice about reporting from London cautioned that, over there, reporters actually called themselves 'journalists.' It seemed hilarious to both of us, but I was astonished, on arriving in Fleet Street, to discover that it was true.
Review, 3411 words
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