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It’s painful to watch, yes. But as journalists it’s impossible to look away.
I’m talking about the latest turmoil at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where three-decade columnist (and multiple NPA award-winner) John L. Smith has resigned.
As I said this morning on Joe Schoenmann’s show on KNPR, “I’m sure they much prefer to be breaking news than making news.”
In fact, they were also making news by getting an award for courageous coverage of the sale of the newspaper. That’s what I want to hear. Happy news.
Instead, there’s more angst in the newspaper industry. I wish John the best, and I wish everybody at the RJ a productive future.
I guess I should point out here that I’m no relation to John — that I know of, anyway. You can never be sure with a surname as popular as Smith.
I do know that I’ve long admired his work and principles, and that at some point he had to make a decision. My prediction: He’ll land on his feet.
Another thing I know: In 2002, I was awarded the prize for Best Local Column from the Nevada Press Association (long before I came to work here, when I was at the Nevada Appeal.)
The first thing I did when I ran into John was tell him, “I know you’re a better columnist than I am.”
I had to get that off my chest.
However, despite the sharp tone of John’s resignation letter left around the RJ newsroom for his colleagues, it can’t match the line from my all-time favorite newspaper columnist, Mike Royko, when Royko resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times in 1984 because Rupert Murdoch had bought the paper.
“No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper,” Royko wrote.
Yes, maybe someday we can look back and laugh.
