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Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Late, Great American Newspaper Columnist
Selected Journalismby Murray KemptonSeven Stories, 460 pp, $29.95 FROM THE MIDDLE TO THE END of the twentieth century, the streets of New York City were source, subject, and muse to the writer Murray Kempton. He was a true working journalist, by which I mean that he spent many of his days biking around the city looking for his next story. Some knew him as an author with one or two well-regarded books under his belt, sure—but if we want to get at Kempton's essence, we will find him to be a perfect representative of a type that has all but disappeared: the old-school newspaper columnist. Unlike many of today's columnists, Kempton didn't limit himself to trafficking in political commentary or offering second-day reactions to the news. He saw himself as a reporter to the end, when he was pushing 80. 'All my life,' he wrote in 1995, 'when called upon to identify myself to the Internal Revenue Service . . . I have preferred to enter not journalist, not columnist, not commentator, certainly not author, but simply . . . 'newspaper reporter.'' Born in Philadelphia in 1917, he was raised by his mother and his aunt in Baltimore, where he spent his formative years listening to jazz (he was particularly into Count Basie and Bessie Smith) and reading articles by a local newspaperman named H.L. Mencken. Kempton briefly joined the then-liberal New York Post before World War II and rejoined the paper after the war. He'd spent most of the rest of his life working for daily papers like the New York Sun and Newsday, with a stint editing the New Republic in the mid-1960s. But he also freelanced for the weeklies and monthlies: This collection includes pieces written for Playboy, Grand Street, and the New York Review of Books. He never stopped working, filing columns up until shortly before he died in 1997. And indeed, throughout Going Around, one can read him reporting on anything and everything. He reflects on the lives of Emmett Till and Tupac Shakur, examines Donald Trump and Karl Marx, chastises Ed Koch and Roy Cohn Jr., and looks for meaning in the downfall of Robert Oppenheimer. He even writes with humor about getting mugged and having his bike stolen. This is not the niche work of a specialist, and nor is it the smoothly faux-sophisticated work of someone with Wikipedia (or, God forbid, ChatGPT) at their fingertips. Instead, Kempton's writing is that of an observant person in conversation with the world around him—and of someone hungry for the next story. In a December 1987 column occasioned by his 70th birthday, Kempton offered this reflection on his career: I have seen Robert Kennedy with his children and John Kennedy with the nuns whose fidelity to their eternal wedlock to Christ he strained as no other mortal man could. I have been lied to by Joe McCarthy and heard Roy Cohn lie to himself and watched a narcotics hit man weep when the jury pronounced Nicky Barnes guilty. Dwight D. Eisenhower once bawled me out by the numbers, and Richard Nixon once did the unmerited kindness of thanking me for being so old and valued an adviser. . . . Most of life's epiphanies arise from its accidents, and it is never so much fun as when it conscripts us as prisoners to the luck of the day. Some of life's epiphanies arise from your inbox. (They do if you're a Bulwark subscriber, at least.) Join us: IN ADDITION TO KEMPTON'S OWN WRITING, little snippets of others' writing about him have been dropped in throughout the book. One excerpt comes from his FBI file; others have been clipped from profiles written about him. One that this collection's editor, Andrew Holter, passed over, but which gets at the matter directly, comes from Garry Wills 1994 review of Kempton's book Rebellions, Perversities, and Main Events: 'I go away from most Kempton pieces feeling that no one has better caught his subject.' Reading through this collection, I felt I understood just what Wills meant. Kempton's skill as a journalist was, in a way, self-effacing. In his best and most mature work, he doesn't make much of his vocabulary or regale his readers with complex, long-winded sentences. His real gift comes out in the way he is able to penetrate and see into his subjects. Among the pieces collected in Going Around, the one that offers the best example of this talent in action is Kempton's 1967 profile of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, written for Esquire. He explains how Eisenhower hid a formidable intelligence behind a mask of innocence and charm, one that he refined through years of practice. 'It was the purpose of his existence,' writes Kempton, 'never to be seen in what he did. When he fired Sherman Adams, his chief of staff, as a political liability in 1958, Adams thought it was Nixon's doing. While he was coldly measuring the gain or loss from dropping Nixon as his 1952 vice-presidential candidate, Nixon thought it was Thomas E. Dewey's doing.' A few pages later he gets to how and why Eisenhower got this way: 'He learned to play bridge well because his pay did not cover losing money to civilians. He is equipped to respond to any challenge which seems to him sensible.' By the end of the piece, Kempton has used Eisenhower's skill at cards to throw light from new angles on the man's political repertoire: The president was a knack for clever bluffs, the ability to say one thing while meaning another, and a strong awareness of when to show emotion for maximum advantage (and just how much to show, too). In only a few pages, Kempton offers you as good a picture of the president's mind as you might get from a much longer biography. Share Kempton's skills extend beyond his ability to get an inside view of his subjects. He writing is alive with witty asides and clever one-offs. About Nixon's attempts to secure an apartment at the fancy 61 East 72nd Street building, Kempton wrote: 'He dared to bargain with Brezhnev and Mao, but he knew better than to try to bargain with an East Side co-op.' On Trump: 'We are assured that God does not make trash, which thought disposes of the impression that Donald Trump is not altogether a self-made man.' And my favorite Kempton mot, on former New York City mayor Ed Koch: 'New York is a city of beggars, separated into the two classes of those who are capable of shame and those who aren't; the Koch who scorns abject beggars smears his mouth with the shoe polish in his dealings with arrogant ones.' Going Around covers a very long period. The selection includes pieces ranging across six decades, from an early item originally published in 1936 to an article Kempton wrote shortly before he died in 1997. As a result, this is a long book that also feels incomplete. For every column and feature story that Holter chose to include, you feel the ghostly presence of another that is missing. The sort of ephemera beloved by completionists—a piece on the New York Mets' first season at the Polo Grounds, scripts from his stint at CBS Radio in the 1970s, excerpts from an unfinished memoir—are here, but some heftier items, including his essay on Machiavelli, his coverage of the 1976 Republican National Convention, and a long profile of Paul Robeson, aren't. Neither are any excerpts from those well-regarded books: Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties and The Briar Patch. It's a shame to miss them here, sure, but that's simply to be expected with any collection that presumes to gather a representative body of work from a writing career as long and varied as his. (Thankfully, too, those three essays, at least, are available in an earlier Kempton anthology.) Share The Bulwark Ultimately, though, the collection left me with a rueful impression. That's because it prompted me to wonder: Whatever happened to this kind of reporter? When I was growing up in the Toronto area, we had newspaper columnists of our own who'd been cast in the Kempton mold: Joey Slinger and Joe Fiorito are two such figures who wrote about the city with verve while covering anything and everything. But the conditions that allowed for their careers—and those of others like them, like legendary New Yorker reporter Joe Mitchell—have disappeared. With the consolidation of print media ownership and the collapse of print advertising revenue, newspapers have repeatedly slashed budgets and, as a result, their coverage. There is no Murray Kempton–style reporter working at the Toronto Star or the New York Times anymore, although we do have writers like Luke O'Neil and Rosie DiManno who cover similar ground. And that makes Going Around all the more important for readers. We used to have journalists whose beat was the life of their community, who took their bikes around the city to report on what was happening and wore out the soles of their shoes chasing stories. And if we had that once, we can have it again, even if it must come back to us in some new form. Let Kempton show us how it was once done. Share this review with someone who still reads their local paper. Share
Epoch Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
John Robson: Why Are So Many Non-Catholics Fascinated With the Catholic Church
Commentary Pope Francis is dead. May he rest in peace. But his Church lives on, as does a strange fascination with it on the part of people who are not Roman Catholics or remotely sympathetic. Thus, the New York Sun emailed, 'Why So Many Non-Catholics Will Be Watching This Conclave.' So what is it about the successors to Saint Peter that so fascinates the successors to Pontius Pilate? Francis's election caused excitement partly because he was the first pontiff from Latin America and partly because he seemed to be completing a trifecta of outstanding popes by It was predictable that The Canadian Press Thus, that CP piece began, 'Pope Francis will be remembered by Canadian Catholics as a progressive leader' as though it were incontrovertibly high praise. Heatmap emailed, 'The Death of the 'Climate Pope.'' GZero The Japan Times went with, 'he sought to overhaul the hidebound institution.' And a New York Times Related Stories 4/18/2025 4/15/2025 The author quoted Francis as saying that, 'We are often chained like Peter in the prison of habit. Scared by change and tied to the chain of our customs.' And, the author gushed, 'He was unafraid of change.' But as Thomas Sowell once snapped: 'Is there anything more mindless than the endless repetition of the word 'change'? Does it make any sense for grown men and women to be either for or against 'change' in the abstract? The word covers everything from Hitler to the Second Coming.' Speaking of Hitler, Francis resolutely opposed anti-Semitism despite wobbling on the Middle East. But speaking of the Second Coming, the key thing about the Pope is that he's head of the Roman Catholic Church and the key thing about that Church is that it is among those institutions that insist that the pivot of history, and of every human life, is that Christ really did rise from the dead. You don't have to believe he was true god from true god, of course. Nor are you compelled to join the Church and pretend to, as was once scandalously true in many countries. But if you don't believe it, why claim to be Catholic or care what some guy in a funny hat says about a person you don't think was the Messiah? It seems to be precisely because the Catholic Church so resolutely insists that if Christ is not risen, our faith and preaching are in vain. The 'chain' of its 'customs' is what holds it together, unlike other churches, free to shrug off Christ's divinity and many of his core teachings. Progressives especially thought Francis would fold on gender, a recurring obsession they will return to with the next pope. But Catholics are unbendingly pro-life. OK, not all. And frankly, I'd like to see some self-declared Catholic politicians excommunicated over it. There are plenty of churches they could join that take liberal stands on 'social issues.' But why they even want to be in a Church that doesn't I do not understand. Or do I? I sympathize with the Wall Street Journal 'Go Woke, Go Broke' works for churches, too, and Francis didn't convert many people, including liberal journalists. So why do they care? Because in a very real and important way, the Catholic Church is the last significant bastion of tradition in the Western world. So progressives need it to fold, to say they were right after all. But it won't. Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Guardian
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Manic screwball energy': why The Paper is my feelgood movie
I can't claim to like many Ron Howard films. And probably few of his devoted fans count The Paper, the director's 1994 comedy-drama about a day in the life of a New York tabloid, among their favourites. It is, at best, a three-star film, which received mixed reviews and has faded from memory – but it's also a perfect mid-range movie featuring adults. The much-lamented genre of not very serious but not stupid, well-crafted films in the non-spandex-or-franchise cinematic universe. This, to me, is the essence of a feelgood film: it's a crisp 112 minutes, it doesn't strain for awards or grandeur, it has drama and humour, and fine actors you recognise. Perhaps previously it would have simply been called middlebrow. Sometimes that's just what you need. Granted, its inciting incident involves a double-murder mafia hit that gets pinned on two Black teenagers: this doesn't scream feelgood. There is a serious version that could be made in the vein of Spotlight or Zodiac. Or more likely now, an excessively drawn-out prestige-ish streaming series. In Howard's hands it has a manic screwball energy, recalling classics of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, as journalists at an embattled, loss-making tabloid chase down the truth of a story that they sense stinks. Michael Keaton leads a great cast as the harried metro editor of the New York Sun. He is sore about missing the overnight murders and is determined to get the real day-two story. He's also parrying the pleas of his heavily pregnant wife to take a job at the New York Sentinel (an obvious Times stand-in), where he has an interview later – monologist Spalding Gray hams it up as an editor at the august paper. Marisa Tomei plays Keaton's wife, a reporter whose instincts kick in while on maternity leave. Glenn Close is the tortured villain as the Sun's managing editor, naturally, for valuing the purse strings over news value. There are nice turns for Robert Duvall, Catherine O'Hara and Jason Alexander, while Randy Quaid brings a suitably wild-but-weary energy to a gun-carrying columnist – modelled on the likes of Mike McAlary and Jimmy Breslin. A small role for Jason Robards as the paper's proprietor is a neat nod to the celebrated journalism film All the President's Men. There are also numerous recognisable 'that guy' actors, and fleeting cameos for noted writers and journalists from the city including Pete Hamill, Richard Price and Graydon Carter. It's no match for The Sweet Smell of Success but it captures the idealised energy of tabloid newspapers: all sweaty offices and acerbic wit. There are lots of cigarettes, unkempt journalists and desks overflowing with detritus. It offers a vision of grimy New York just before the Giuliani-era cleanup kicked in. Keen observers will note the opening scene at a diner by the Williamsburg bridge – back when people went there to die not to dine. In real life, this location would later be transformed into Diner, the restaurant at the centre of 2000s Brooklyn gentrification. I love seeing various 90s versions of New York on screen (Party Girl, The Daytrippers, City Hall, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Hal Hartley's Amateur are among my favourites) as it is somewhat less documented and romanticised than the darker 70s and 80s iterations. There's a similar feeling watching early seasons of Law & Order. As a teenager in Dublin, with a burgeoning interest in pop culture and the media, I was inevitably (and unoriginally) drawn towards New York. At some point in the mid-90s I remember hearing the Irish journalist Fintan O'Toole on the radio: he had taken on a role as a theatre critic for the New York Daily News and was talking about US events and giving a flavour of life at the tabloid. It didn't seem glamorous, exactly, but it all felt exciting and dramatic. A bigger, noisier, oddly aspirational world. It was around this time that I first rented The Paper on VHS. I knew then, as I know now, that it is an average three-star film that I absolutely love. Numerous viewings have followed. Perhaps it's all just borrowed nostalgia for the half-remembered 90s, to remix James Murphy's lyric. But I see it as a feelgood film that makes you feel good because it never shouts about it; there's no need to force joy, it's just there in all that messy exuberance. The maddening life happening relentlessly, the people at work in the loud city, the thrill of chasing down a story – this is what is actually joyful. Of course, amid some acid there is sweetness in The Paper, and a happy ending too. After a long hot day of literal blood, sweat and tears (the film strains credulity – it's a three star-er afterall), the journalists get the right scoop by the skin of their teeth. The paper goes to press. The innocent teens are cleared. The sun rises and New York awakes again. We start all over with an empty front page to fill. The Paper is available to rent digitally in the US and UK
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sam Bankman-Fried cozies up to Trump and Elon Musk as FTX cofounder reportedly looks for pardon: ‘I don't think anyone was guilty'
Another crypto convict is trying to curry favor from President Donald Trump. Over a series of interviews with the New York Sun, Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO and cofounder of the failed crypto exchange FTX, signaled shifting sympathies to the GOP. 'I became really frustrated and disappointed with what I saw of Biden's administration of the Democratic Party,' the onetime crypto billionaire said on a phone call from a Brooklyn prison. The former crypto mogul also indicated support for Elon Musk's efforts to gut the federal government and praised what he called the Tesla CEO's 'chainsaw approach' to bureaucracy. 'Some things actually do need more than a 10% cut,' he said. 'They need a 30, 50, 70% [cut], but of course they need to be rebuilt in the right way.' Bankman-Fried, whose startup was once valued at $32 billion, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty in October 2023 of fraud and the misappropriation of $8 billion in customer funds from his crypto exchange. Before FTX's collapse in November 2022, Bankman-Fried was a prolific Democratic donor. But his Trump-ward shift in rhetoric isn't necessarily a surprise. The parents of the FTX cofounder are angling for a presidential pardon, reported Bloomberg in January. 'I don't think anyone was guilty,' Bankman-Fried told the New York Sun, in reference to his guilty verdict and the guilty pleas from his other FTX coconspirators. If Bankman-Fried were pardoned, it wouldn't be the first time Trump has looked kindly on a crypto criminal. Shortly after his inauguration, the 47th president pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder and operator of Silk Road, once one of the world's largest dark web marketplaces. Ulbricht was a martyr for many in crypto for his role in catapulting Bitcoin into mainstream relevance. Silk Road users paid in the cryptocurrency to buy illegal drugs, among other illicit products. And Bankman-Fried isn't even the first FTX executive to angle for help from Trump. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX's Bahamas subsidiary, claimed he was the victim of political persecution from Biden's Department of Justice. A staunch Republican, Salame told Bloomberg shortly before he reported for a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence in October that he was hoping the next president, who turned out to be Trump, would look favorably on his case. Bankman-Fried echoed other Trump talking points in his interview with the New York Sun. Like Salame, he decried 'the politicization of the DOJ over the last decades,' which he said was 'speeding up recently.' Before Trump won a second term in 2024, federal prosecutors came after the current president for allegedly mishandling classified documents as well as working to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly said that former President Joe Biden weaponized and politicized the DOJ. Federal prosecutors dropped the two cases against Trump after his election. Bankman-Fried highlighted that Lewis Kaplan, the judge who presided over his trial, also presided over a civil case against Trump, in which a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. 'I know President Trump had a lot of frustrations with Judge Kaplan,' said Bankman-Fried. 'I certainly did as well.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
