As I am sometimes prone to laboriously point out, I worked at the TIME Magazine News Desk for over a decade (read my weepy goodbye to same on this old post, complete with broken image). By this point, it was a damn long time ago, but I still feel I learned more at that single job than I did in any school I attended. I probably stuck around longer than I should’ve, but I loved the people, the place, the mission -– and it felt, for a long, long while, like my home.
In any case, since my days at TIME, a lot has changed. My life and circumstances have taken a few twists and turns, as have the fortunes of TIME Magazine itself. Many of my former colleagues from same have spun off -- voluntarily or otherwise -- from the mothership and landed at other outlets or, in cases like mine, other fields entirely. But more so than with any other place I’ve been employed, I still consider the folks I was lucky enough to work alongside from TIME almost as close as family.
It’s for this reason that I take such pride when I see a fellow TIME alum fighting the good fight and getting the tough questions asked (if not always answered). Prior to manning the circadian-rhythmn-shredding shifts at the magazine's News Desk, my first real gig at TIME was basically that of an editorial gopher for the New York bureau, a small cabal of reporters and correspondents devoted to the New York beat. A lot of talent passed through this particular bureau that – if I’m being honest – I only really contributed administrative assistance to. That said, I was never treated with anything other than respect and camraderie by all parties concerned. One such member of the New York bureau was a gent named John Dickerson, who logged a year or two in New York before returning to the greener pastures of the Washington bureau, where he eventually became a White House correspondent.
Years later, John is now the host of CBS' “Face the Nation,” and rightfully considered an insightful and incisive interviewer, able to deliver the tough questions without having to resort to purple-faced polemics or histrionic grandstanding. Put simply, John asks what needs to be asked and can smell abject, talking-point bullshit from a mile away.
A prime example of this happened just this past week, when John was able to fire some pertinent queries past Donald Trump. There was a lot to chew on in the wake of this, but below is my favorite passage.
Let’s go there now, shall we?
This isn't duplicitous, so-called "gotcha" journalism, this isn't "fake news," this isn't a biased media sabotage, these are straight-forward questions that address the man's own words, respectfully-but-firmly expressed in a thoughtful, responsible and reasoned manner, and it totally deflates and flummoxes our so-called "commander in chief."
This is what real journalism looks like, and –- in my own language -- this is some Motorhead-level rocking on John's part.
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