Thought-provoking comments from the blog of literary agent Rachelle Gardner:
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There has been a controversy brewing underground for awhile now, ever since publishers started promoting books by offering a limited-time free download. Many of the Christian publishers have done these promotions, but whenever Christian novels are promoted on Amazon as free downloads, many people download them without realizing they’re Christian.
They start reading and when they realize it’s “Christian” they become enraged. They feel like they were hoodwinked somehow. And then they leave 1-star, angry reviews on Amazon. Here are some Amazon comments on a recent Christian novel that was free for a limited time:
“When you read the review for this book, no mention is made of the Christian nature of the book. This is misleading.”
“I resent the absence of the Christian fiction label. ”
“This book is not a [genre]. It is a Christian morality tale.”
“Why is it that authors of Christian fiction often hide that fact in the descriptions? I am simply irritated when I buy a book based on a secular description only to find that the predominant thread throughout the book is Christian proselytizing.”
“It is an excuse to promote a Christian agenda. When a book is Christian Fiction it should be promoted as such.”
These responses are leading people to ask whether Christian fiction needs to be clearly labeled as such, maybe in the “Book Description” on the Amazon page.
I know a lot of Christians think it’s a real shame that people are responding this way. But I have to say, I’m not surprised. To understand what I mean, just imagine if the tables were turned. You are a Christian and you download a free book (or worse, pay good money for a book), which you then discover contains a storyline that strongly promotes the Muslim faith, clearly saying Islam is the one true faith and without it, you’re doomed. I imagine you’d be upset. You’d feel disrespected as a reader. You’d feel tricked into buying something that goes against what you believe; you may even worry that simply reading it was dangerous for you.
I think this is a classic “Do unto others…” moment. I see no reason to disrespect people of other faiths (or no faith) by refusing to label Christian fiction as “Christian.”
In fact, I’d go so far as to recommend that if you write Christian fiction and your publisher is about to do an Amazon “free” promotion, you make sure somebody contacts Amazon to edit the book description so that it makes clear it’s Christian. If you do this, you can probably avoid most of those angry 1-star reviews.
What do you think? Should Christian fiction be clearly described as such in the book description? Why or why not?
Monday, January 30, 2012
WJI Features Conference at Bryan
CALLING ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH A PASSION FOR WRITING!
Dayton, Tenn.--If you are a Christian student journalist in Eastern Tennessee or Northern Georgia with a passion for writing, circle March 27, on your calendar.
World Journalism Institute, in conjunction with WORLD on Campus, will be conducting a series of free journalism seminars at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., for Christian college journalists in the area who want to develop their skills as journalists.
The half day conference, entitled "The Skills and Worldview of the Christian Journalist,"is designed to help students improve the skills necessary to integrate a passion for Christ with a passion for great journalism.
The seminar leaders will be Warren Cole Smith, associate publisher of WORLD magazine; Leigh Jones, editor of WORLDonCampus.com; and Rob Patete, WORLD magazine's associate art director.
Seminar sessions will cover topics such as the basics of news writing, including story structure; common mistakes made by beginning journalists, and how to avoid them; basic interviewing skills, including a few tricks of the trade; how to integrate a Christian worldview into the practice of journalism; and how to write for WORLDonCampus.com
Between the seminar sessions there will be a free pizza lunch for all participants.
The World Journalism Institute (www.worldji.com) is a division of the World New Group with the mission to recruit, equip, place and encourage Christian journalists in the newsrooms of America and the world. WORLD on Campus is a news website for college students looking for news from a perspective that will help them develop a Christian worldview. The World News Group also includes WORLD magazine and World Radio.
To register for the Bryan journalism conference, go to worldji.com and select "Programs." Scroll down to "Bryan College Conference."
Dayton, Tenn.--If you are a Christian student journalist in Eastern Tennessee or Northern Georgia with a passion for writing, circle March 27, on your calendar.
World Journalism Institute, in conjunction with WORLD on Campus, will be conducting a series of free journalism seminars at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., for Christian college journalists in the area who want to develop their skills as journalists.
The half day conference, entitled "The Skills and Worldview of the Christian Journalist,"is designed to help students improve the skills necessary to integrate a passion for Christ with a passion for great journalism.
The seminar leaders will be Warren Cole Smith, associate publisher of WORLD magazine; Leigh Jones, editor of WORLDonCampus.com; and Rob Patete, WORLD magazine's associate art director.
Seminar sessions will cover topics such as the basics of news writing, including story structure; common mistakes made by beginning journalists, and how to avoid them; basic interviewing skills, including a few tricks of the trade; how to integrate a Christian worldview into the practice of journalism; and how to write for WORLDonCampus.com
Between the seminar sessions there will be a free pizza lunch for all participants.
The World Journalism Institute (www.worldji.com) is a division of the World New Group with the mission to recruit, equip, place and encourage Christian journalists in the newsrooms of America and the world. WORLD on Campus is a news website for college students looking for news from a perspective that will help them develop a Christian worldview. The World News Group also includes WORLD magazine and World Radio.
To register for the Bryan journalism conference, go to worldji.com and select "Programs." Scroll down to "Bryan College Conference."
Friday, January 27, 2012
Building a Body of Work
Some inspirational words from an old pro in the freelance writing business:
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Build A Body of Work
I want to return to a basic of writing—any type of writing. Whatever you write, are you writing consistently? Are you continuing to work at building relationships with the gatekeepers (magazine editors, online editors, book editors, literary agents and other professional writers). I know it is basic but consistent writing and working at this business is critical. It rarely comes easy or quickly to any of us. In fact, we often fight the discipline and consistency of writing.
Occasionally someone will look at the volume of my own writing and exclaim, “How do you do it?” It’s just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. As writers, we write one sentence then one page at a time. Over seven years ago, we moved to Arizona and I sorted through a lot of materials in this process and threw away unnecessary papers. I kept my magazine clips—and there are literally boxes of them. Some days I’m amazed that I’ve written over 60 books and the first one. When I Grow Up was published in 1992. In these years, I’ve been able to build a body of work. The concept of consistency and building a body of work may be new to you.
Years ago on the way to a writer’s conference, I chatted with a literary agent. I was just beginning my writing work and he encouraged me to continue building a body of work. It’s not a single book or a single magazine article but the sum of your work in publishing that eventually makes an impact. What are you doing to build a body of work? Are you writing consistently? Are you growing in your understanding of the publishing business? I confess that I learn new terms and new aspects constantly.
Some days I don’t feel like cranking out some words but I do it. As I’ve traveled the country and worked with different writers. I know some writers are inspirational writers. They only write when they feel the story in their fingers and put it on paper. Others are journeymen and professional writers. They pound the keys day in and day out—whether they feel like it or not. I fall into that latter category (most of the time). It’s helped my consistent writing.
As a young journalist training in news editorial, one summer, I interned on the Peru Tribune, a small town newspaper in Peru, Indiana. I’m fairly certain anyone I knew isn’t at the newspaper any longer. We had no computers and the typesetting was done with a Linotype machine in the back of the building. We had our story meetings at 7:30 a.m where the managing editor talked with the reporters about the stories to be written that day. In that short meeting we received our particular assigned stories, then hit it with the full knowledge of our 11 a.m. copy deadline. Our stories went quickly through the editor and appeared in the printed afternoon paper at 3 p.m. We had no time to sharpen our pencils or hem and haw about writer’s block. We had a deadline to meet—which we met day after day.
I’m committed to writing consistently. I want to keep my fingers on the keyboard and keep them moving to write articles, chapters for books and book proposals. I’m committed to building a body of work. It might not pay off immediately but in the long run, I know consistency counts.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Build A Body of Work
I want to return to a basic of writing—any type of writing. Whatever you write, are you writing consistently? Are you continuing to work at building relationships with the gatekeepers (magazine editors, online editors, book editors, literary agents and other professional writers). I know it is basic but consistent writing and working at this business is critical. It rarely comes easy or quickly to any of us. In fact, we often fight the discipline and consistency of writing.
Occasionally someone will look at the volume of my own writing and exclaim, “How do you do it?” It’s just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. As writers, we write one sentence then one page at a time. Over seven years ago, we moved to Arizona and I sorted through a lot of materials in this process and threw away unnecessary papers. I kept my magazine clips—and there are literally boxes of them. Some days I’m amazed that I’ve written over 60 books and the first one. When I Grow Up was published in 1992. In these years, I’ve been able to build a body of work. The concept of consistency and building a body of work may be new to you.
Years ago on the way to a writer’s conference, I chatted with a literary agent. I was just beginning my writing work and he encouraged me to continue building a body of work. It’s not a single book or a single magazine article but the sum of your work in publishing that eventually makes an impact. What are you doing to build a body of work? Are you writing consistently? Are you growing in your understanding of the publishing business? I confess that I learn new terms and new aspects constantly.
Some days I don’t feel like cranking out some words but I do it. As I’ve traveled the country and worked with different writers. I know some writers are inspirational writers. They only write when they feel the story in their fingers and put it on paper. Others are journeymen and professional writers. They pound the keys day in and day out—whether they feel like it or not. I fall into that latter category (most of the time). It’s helped my consistent writing.
As a young journalist training in news editorial, one summer, I interned on the Peru Tribune, a small town newspaper in Peru, Indiana. I’m fairly certain anyone I knew isn’t at the newspaper any longer. We had no computers and the typesetting was done with a Linotype machine in the back of the building. We had our story meetings at 7:30 a.m where the managing editor talked with the reporters about the stories to be written that day. In that short meeting we received our particular assigned stories, then hit it with the full knowledge of our 11 a.m. copy deadline. Our stories went quickly through the editor and appeared in the printed afternoon paper at 3 p.m. We had no time to sharpen our pencils or hem and haw about writer’s block. We had a deadline to meet—which we met day after day.
I’m committed to writing consistently. I want to keep my fingers on the keyboard and keep them moving to write articles, chapters for books and book proposals. I’m committed to building a body of work. It might not pay off immediately but in the long run, I know consistency counts.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Espresso Book Machine Going Into Powell's
Powell's Books to Install Espresso Book Machine
January 19, 2012
(Press Release) January 18, 2012 (Portland, OR and NEW YORK, NY) – In the early Spring 2012, Powell’s Books, one of the country’s largest and most successful retailers of new and used books, will launch its Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at its legendary City of Books flagship store location.
The EBM brings a revolutionary book-publishing technology to one of the most respected independent booksellers in the world.
The EBM is the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. Within minutes, the EBM produces a bookstore quality paperback with color cover, in any standard trim size, at point of sale. The content is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of over seven million titles.
Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language sources (including public domain sources, traditional publishers, and self-published authors). Through the SelfEspress software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their book for printing into a physical book and inclusion on the EBM catalog; it also can convert the print file to epub format suitable for e-readers.
The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, thus significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. Also, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. EBM improves efficiency and sustainability by eliminating shipping, returns, and pulping of unwanted books.
"We are excited to offer this service to our customers, expanding our vast inventory at the City of Books location from one million volumes to nearly limitless volumes," says Miriam Sontz , Chief Operating Officer for Powell's Books. "It is yet another way we can be valuable and relevant to readers and authors as the distribution channels for books continue to evolve. We are thrilled by this opportunity to work with On Demand Books as our business partner in this venture."
“We couldn’t be more pleased to be partnering with one of the truly greatbookstores in the country,” said Dane Neller , CEO of On Demand Books. “To have our Espresso Book Machine in Powell’s is a dream come true. We look forward to working with the folks there to drive actively sales of publisher content.”
January 19, 2012
(Press Release) January 18, 2012 (Portland, OR and NEW YORK, NY) – In the early Spring 2012, Powell’s Books, one of the country’s largest and most successful retailers of new and used books, will launch its Espresso Book Machine (EBM) at its legendary City of Books flagship store location.
The EBM brings a revolutionary book-publishing technology to one of the most respected independent booksellers in the world.
The EBM is the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. Within minutes, the EBM produces a bookstore quality paperback with color cover, in any standard trim size, at point of sale. The content is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of over seven million titles.
Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language sources (including public domain sources, traditional publishers, and self-published authors). Through the SelfEspress software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their book for printing into a physical book and inclusion on the EBM catalog; it also can convert the print file to epub format suitable for e-readers.
The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, thus significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. Also, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. EBM improves efficiency and sustainability by eliminating shipping, returns, and pulping of unwanted books.
"We are excited to offer this service to our customers, expanding our vast inventory at the City of Books location from one million volumes to nearly limitless volumes," says Miriam Sontz , Chief Operating Officer for Powell's Books. "It is yet another way we can be valuable and relevant to readers and authors as the distribution channels for books continue to evolve. We are thrilled by this opportunity to work with On Demand Books as our business partner in this venture."
“We couldn’t be more pleased to be partnering with one of the truly greatbookstores in the country,” said Dane Neller , CEO of On Demand Books. “To have our Espresso Book Machine in Powell’s is a dream come true. We look forward to working with the folks there to drive actively sales of publisher content.”
Monday, January 9, 2012
Readers, Not Editors, to Help Choose Content
Here is a fascinating paradigm shift by a major periodical. This is an excerpt--to read the entire article, click here.
Ladies' Home Journal Lets Readers Write the Magazine
Venerable Publication's Bid to Attract Younger Audience May Cause Ripple Effect Among Mass Titles
By: Nat Ives Published: January 09, 2012
Crowdsourcing has been common in advertising for some time, but in a highly unusual move, it's now vaulting the wall at the venerable Ladies' Home Journal, which is planning to turn over many of the pages in its 128-year-old publication to work written by readers.
Starting with the March issue, LHJ editors will cull much of the magazine's material from posts on DivineCaroline.com, a sibling at Meredith Corp. that lets consumers upload their own stories, as well as from the magazine's website, its Facebook page and other digital channels.
The magazine will still use fact-checkers and include experts in fields such as medicine and beauty, but it will start with consumers where it can. "We really flipped this model," said Editor-in-Chief Sally Lee. "Usually content creation begins with an editor. We have content creation that begins with a reader."
While other publishers have dabbled in the practice, its adoption by Ladies' Home Journal, a title that guarantees advertisers an average paid circulation of 3.2 million, is significant since it is the largest traditional media brand to commit to so much user-generated content on an ongoing basis. If it's successful, other mass-circulation titles may follow. "I've been asked a lot about whether we foresee this becoming a model that other magazines will start to implement," said Diane Malloy, publisher of Ladies' Home Journal. "My answer is, 'Gosh, yes, I think everyone is going to sit up and take notice.'"
The magazine says the changes were driven by research revealing that readers wanted a greater role in filling its pages. But the move could also help LHJ, which competes in the very mature category of women's service, improve its traction with advertisers.
An accompanying revamp by design firm Pentagram will signal the shift and include a new Ladies' Home Journal logo that shrinks "Home" to small type and overwhelmingly emphasizes "Journal."
Unlike the Huffington Post, where many bloggers post without pay, Ladies' Home Journal won't tell its amateur writers to settle for the exposure. "We are going to pay them our professional rates," Ms. Lee said.
The magazine wants to build a community of readers engaging with one another and with editors, but the idea predates the current notions of user-generated content and constant conversations with consumers.
Friday, January 6, 2012
If a Taylor Student Can Win . . . !!!
BP journalism competition winners named
Posted on Jan 6, 2012 | by Staff
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Nick Dean and Daniel Cernero have been named first-place winners in the 2011 Baptist Press Excellence in Journalism Competition for collegiate communications students.
Dean, a senior at Baylor University and last year's editor-in-chief of The Baylor Lariat student newspaper, won the competition's print/web category.
Cernero, a December 2010 Baylor graduate who was photo editor of the university's Round Up yearbook, won the visual/multimedia category.
Second-place winners are Julia Berger, a senior at Taylor University and co-editor of The Echo student newspaper, in print-web and Makenzie Mason, a Baylor senior and photo editor of the Round Up, in visual/multimedia.
Judging for the competition was provided by members of the Baptist Communicators Association (www.baptistcommunicators.org), a professional organization for individuals who serve in editorial, public relations, electronic media, photography, management, marketing and graphic design positions principally within Baptist entities and institutions. Among its ongoing initiatives, BCA awards annual scholarships to graduate, undergraduate and minority/ethnic/international students planning to pursue a career in Baptist communications.
Each entrant in the BP-sponsored journalism competition submitted a 500-word essay about their journalism career goals and how faith plays a role in those goals. Entrants in the print/web side of the competition could submit up to six news or feature stories; photography, up to 24 images; video, up to 20 minutes of video.
Dean and Cernero will receive $1,000 awards for first place in their respective categories; Berger and Mason will receive $500 awards for second place.
Dean, in his 500-word essay, wrote, "My academic career has been an attempt to define journalism and to discover if I could mix my passion for helping people -- a passion developed through my faith in Christ -- with my love of writing. Fortunately, I've found that to be possible and plan to become a political reporter in Austin covering state politics after graduation."
Cernero, in his essay, wrote that his faith should show through "all aspects of my work in journalism. Especially when it comes to photography, I feel that the photographs are a reflection of the photographer -- it's the world as I see it. Also, even when not actively taking photos, I believe my faith is on display to all I come across in the professional field, be it the person of interest for a particular story or my coworkers."
Cernero currently works at the Fort Hood Sentinel as sports editor and a photographer.
Among the judges' comments of Dean's entries, one judge took note of an article Dean had written on an Iraqi student newspaper at the University of Iraq-Sulaimani. "I found it interesting that a Baylor newspaper would do an article on another college newspaper that didn't have a direct connection with Baylor," the judge wrote. "That was unexpected. But, wow! What a good article for people to read. It is good for them to see a side of Iraq/Kurdistan that relates to their peers."
Among comments on Cernero's entries, one judge wrote, "Daniel seems to include a piece of himself in his work and this is a critical ingredient for making good photographers into great ones. His style, while still in the early stages, shows a strength and determination to capture the essence of the moment. His images evoke a reaction."
Baptist Press editor Art Toalston noted, "Baptists have a long heritage of Christian journalism, dating back more than 175 years. We hope that the Excellence in Journalism Competition serves as both a reminder of our heritage and a point of encouragement to Baptist journalism students. They, too, can strive to be first-rate journalists in our 21st-century context, whether in the Southern Baptist Convention or in the nation's news media."
BCA's president, Julie McGowan, news & media relations director at Oklahoma Baptist University, said in a statement to Baptist Press, "Baptist Communicators Association congratulates the winners of the Excellence in Journalism Competition. We were thrilled to participate in judging the best work of the next generation of Baptist communicators. We hope to see the entrants involved for many years in telling the stories -- through all kinds of media -- of how God is at work around the world."
Posted on Jan 6, 2012 | by Staff
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Nick Dean and Daniel Cernero have been named first-place winners in the 2011 Baptist Press Excellence in Journalism Competition for collegiate communications students.
Dean, a senior at Baylor University and last year's editor-in-chief of The Baylor Lariat student newspaper, won the competition's print/web category.
Cernero, a December 2010 Baylor graduate who was photo editor of the university's Round Up yearbook, won the visual/multimedia category.
Second-place winners are Julia Berger, a senior at Taylor University and co-editor of The Echo student newspaper, in print-web and Makenzie Mason, a Baylor senior and photo editor of the Round Up, in visual/multimedia.
Judging for the competition was provided by members of the Baptist Communicators Association (www.baptistcommunicators.org), a professional organization for individuals who serve in editorial, public relations, electronic media, photography, management, marketing and graphic design positions principally within Baptist entities and institutions. Among its ongoing initiatives, BCA awards annual scholarships to graduate, undergraduate and minority/ethnic/international students planning to pursue a career in Baptist communications.
Each entrant in the BP-sponsored journalism competition submitted a 500-word essay about their journalism career goals and how faith plays a role in those goals. Entrants in the print/web side of the competition could submit up to six news or feature stories; photography, up to 24 images; video, up to 20 minutes of video.
Dean and Cernero will receive $1,000 awards for first place in their respective categories; Berger and Mason will receive $500 awards for second place.
Dean, in his 500-word essay, wrote, "My academic career has been an attempt to define journalism and to discover if I could mix my passion for helping people -- a passion developed through my faith in Christ -- with my love of writing. Fortunately, I've found that to be possible and plan to become a political reporter in Austin covering state politics after graduation."
Cernero, in his essay, wrote that his faith should show through "all aspects of my work in journalism. Especially when it comes to photography, I feel that the photographs are a reflection of the photographer -- it's the world as I see it. Also, even when not actively taking photos, I believe my faith is on display to all I come across in the professional field, be it the person of interest for a particular story or my coworkers."
Cernero currently works at the Fort Hood Sentinel as sports editor and a photographer.
Among the judges' comments of Dean's entries, one judge took note of an article Dean had written on an Iraqi student newspaper at the University of Iraq-Sulaimani. "I found it interesting that a Baylor newspaper would do an article on another college newspaper that didn't have a direct connection with Baylor," the judge wrote. "That was unexpected. But, wow! What a good article for people to read. It is good for them to see a side of Iraq/Kurdistan that relates to their peers."
Among comments on Cernero's entries, one judge wrote, "Daniel seems to include a piece of himself in his work and this is a critical ingredient for making good photographers into great ones. His style, while still in the early stages, shows a strength and determination to capture the essence of the moment. His images evoke a reaction."
Baptist Press editor Art Toalston noted, "Baptists have a long heritage of Christian journalism, dating back more than 175 years. We hope that the Excellence in Journalism Competition serves as both a reminder of our heritage and a point of encouragement to Baptist journalism students. They, too, can strive to be first-rate journalists in our 21st-century context, whether in the Southern Baptist Convention or in the nation's news media."
BCA's president, Julie McGowan, news & media relations director at Oklahoma Baptist University, said in a statement to Baptist Press, "Baptist Communicators Association congratulates the winners of the Excellence in Journalism Competition. We were thrilled to participate in judging the best work of the next generation of Baptist communicators. We hope to see the entrants involved for many years in telling the stories -- through all kinds of media -- of how God is at work around the world."
A Great Opportunity . . . .
Olasky to Head Teaching Staff for New York Journalism Boot Camp
New York, N.Y., January 9, 2012-Marvin Olasky, journalist, author and educator will lead the World Journalism Institute's team of instructors for its 2012 New York City journalism course.
Dr. Olasky has degrees from Yale University and University of Michigan. He is the editor-in-chief of WORLD magazine. In 1992 he wrote The Tragedy of American Compassion which Speaker Newt Gingrich famously gave to every Republican in the House of Representatives. President George W. Bush called Olasky "compassionate conservatism's leading thinker" as a result of The Tragedy.
The eight-week New York course in May and June of 2012, is comprised of a three-week residency in New York City followed by a summer reporting component in students' hometowns. The course will help students gain or hone the skills needed to be reporters with newspapers, websites, radio, or the World News Group.
The course will have a strong emphasis on reporting and writing, along with training in radio, photography, and video. The most promising students will receive an internship stipend for use in the World News Group or with other media organizations.
The instructors for 2012 will include Russell Pulliam (Indianapolis Star), Clayton Sizemore (CNN), Les Sillars (Patrick Henry College), Alicia Hansen (NYC Salt), and Mindy Belz and Lee Pitts from WORLD. The course costs $500, with scholarships available for those with demonstrated needs. The residency component will be on the campus of The King's College, located in the Empire State Building.
The World Journalism Institute is a division of the World New Group with the mission to recruit, equip, place and encourage Christian journalists in the newsrooms of America and the world. The World News Group also includes WORLD magazine, World Radio, five news websites, and six news magazines for children from pre-K to high school.
To apply for the course, go to www.worldji.com, and complete the online application.
New York, N.Y., January 9, 2012-Marvin Olasky, journalist, author and educator will lead the World Journalism Institute's team of instructors for its 2012 New York City journalism course.
Dr. Olasky has degrees from Yale University and University of Michigan. He is the editor-in-chief of WORLD magazine. In 1992 he wrote The Tragedy of American Compassion which Speaker Newt Gingrich famously gave to every Republican in the House of Representatives. President George W. Bush called Olasky "compassionate conservatism's leading thinker" as a result of The Tragedy.
The eight-week New York course in May and June of 2012, is comprised of a three-week residency in New York City followed by a summer reporting component in students' hometowns. The course will help students gain or hone the skills needed to be reporters with newspapers, websites, radio, or the World News Group.
The course will have a strong emphasis on reporting and writing, along with training in radio, photography, and video. The most promising students will receive an internship stipend for use in the World News Group or with other media organizations.
The instructors for 2012 will include Russell Pulliam (Indianapolis Star), Clayton Sizemore (CNN), Les Sillars (Patrick Henry College), Alicia Hansen (NYC Salt), and Mindy Belz and Lee Pitts from WORLD. The course costs $500, with scholarships available for those with demonstrated needs. The residency component will be on the campus of The King's College, located in the Empire State Building.
The World Journalism Institute is a division of the World New Group with the mission to recruit, equip, place and encourage Christian journalists in the newsrooms of America and the world. The World News Group also includes WORLD magazine, World Radio, five news websites, and six news magazines for children from pre-K to high school.
To apply for the course, go to www.worldji.com, and complete the online application.
Don't Use These Words!
Read the Lake Superior State University 2012 List of Banished Words here
(CNN) -- If you're thinking of setting up an amazing man cave or showing off a ginormous baby bump next year, think again.
A northern Michigan school on Friday released its 37th annual list of words and phrases that it believes should be "banished" from the English language, and it suggests that some classic -- and perhaps hackneyed -- should get the ax.
Lake Superior State University once again solicited people online to nominate terms they consider tired, overused or simply annoying. Based on those submissions, the arbiters at the school decided to put the following on this year's chopping block: "amazing," "baby bump," "shared sacrifice," "occupy," "blowback," "man cave," "ginormous" and "the new normal."
"Pet parent," "win the future," "trickeration" and "thank you in advance" also have been unofficially sentenced to linguistic exile for the crimes of excessive and inappropriate usage, according to the university in Sault Sainte Marie on the Canadian border.
"Worn-out words and phrases are the new normal this year, but with some shared sacrifice, we can clean up the language and win the future," a school representative said in a written statement. "With the addition of this year's nominations, the list of words and phrases banished over the years has become ginormous."
"Amazing" -- arguably one of the most overused adjectives in the English language -- topped this year's list of submissions, according to the university.
"Banish it for blatant overuse and incorrect use ... to stop my head from exploding," begged Paul Crutchfield from Great Britain, according to the press release.
"Anderson Cooper used it three times recently in the opening 45 seconds of his program," said Sarah Howley, a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan, referring to the CNN anchor. "My teeth grate, my hackles rise, and even my dog is getting annoyed at this senseless overuse.
"I don't even like 'Amazing Grace' anymore," she complained.
David Hollis from Hubbardsville, New York, insisted that not all men are enamored with the concept of the traditional man cave.
"It is not just overused, it is offensive to we males who do not wish to hunker (another awful word, often misused) down in a room filled with stuffed animal heads, an unnecessarily large flat-screen TV and Hooters memorabilia," he said. "Not every man wants a recliner the size of a 1941 Packard that has a cooler in each arm and a holster for the remote. So please, assign 'man cave' to the lexicographic scrap heap where it so rightly belongs."
Jim Eisenmann from Madison, Wisconsin, had some free advice for politicians hitting the campaign trail in 2012: dump "win the future" or you may not win the race.
"On its very face, it's an empty, meaningless phrase," he explained. "It basically says that anyone who opposes anything meant to 'win the future' must want to 'lose the future,' which is highly unlikely."
"Ginormous" seemed particularly irritating this time around, with contributors complaining that its usage shows a lack of proper education.
"This combination of gigantic and enormous makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I hear it," said Gina Bua of Vancouver, Washington. "Each utterance reminds me of the high school drop-out that first used this offensive word in my presence."
"This word is just a made-up combination of two words," adds an Andover, Maine, resident named Jason, who refused to offer his last name. "Either word is sufficient, but the combination just sounds ridiculous."
As for "baby bump" -- a term used to describe a pregnant woman's rounded belly -- this "is a phrase we finally need to give birth to, then send on its way," declared Mary Sturgeon from Vancouver, British Columbia.
"I'm tired of a pregnancy being reduced to a celebrity accessory. Or worse, when less-than-six-pack abs are suspected of being one," said Afton, a respondent from Portland, Oregon.
Lake Superior State University's annual "word banishment" list was first created at a New Year's Eve party in 1975. The school now claims to receive tens of thousands of nominations every year.
(CNN) -- If you're thinking of setting up an amazing man cave or showing off a ginormous baby bump next year, think again.
A northern Michigan school on Friday released its 37th annual list of words and phrases that it believes should be "banished" from the English language, and it suggests that some classic -- and perhaps hackneyed -- should get the ax.
Lake Superior State University once again solicited people online to nominate terms they consider tired, overused or simply annoying. Based on those submissions, the arbiters at the school decided to put the following on this year's chopping block: "amazing," "baby bump," "shared sacrifice," "occupy," "blowback," "man cave," "ginormous" and "the new normal."
"Pet parent," "win the future," "trickeration" and "thank you in advance" also have been unofficially sentenced to linguistic exile for the crimes of excessive and inappropriate usage, according to the university in Sault Sainte Marie on the Canadian border.
"Worn-out words and phrases are the new normal this year, but with some shared sacrifice, we can clean up the language and win the future," a school representative said in a written statement. "With the addition of this year's nominations, the list of words and phrases banished over the years has become ginormous."
"Amazing" -- arguably one of the most overused adjectives in the English language -- topped this year's list of submissions, according to the university.
"Banish it for blatant overuse and incorrect use ... to stop my head from exploding," begged Paul Crutchfield from Great Britain, according to the press release.
"Anderson Cooper used it three times recently in the opening 45 seconds of his program," said Sarah Howley, a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan, referring to the CNN anchor. "My teeth grate, my hackles rise, and even my dog is getting annoyed at this senseless overuse.
"I don't even like 'Amazing Grace' anymore," she complained.
David Hollis from Hubbardsville, New York, insisted that not all men are enamored with the concept of the traditional man cave.
"It is not just overused, it is offensive to we males who do not wish to hunker (another awful word, often misused) down in a room filled with stuffed animal heads, an unnecessarily large flat-screen TV and Hooters memorabilia," he said. "Not every man wants a recliner the size of a 1941 Packard that has a cooler in each arm and a holster for the remote. So please, assign 'man cave' to the lexicographic scrap heap where it so rightly belongs."
Jim Eisenmann from Madison, Wisconsin, had some free advice for politicians hitting the campaign trail in 2012: dump "win the future" or you may not win the race.
"On its very face, it's an empty, meaningless phrase," he explained. "It basically says that anyone who opposes anything meant to 'win the future' must want to 'lose the future,' which is highly unlikely."
"Ginormous" seemed particularly irritating this time around, with contributors complaining that its usage shows a lack of proper education.
"This combination of gigantic and enormous makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I hear it," said Gina Bua of Vancouver, Washington. "Each utterance reminds me of the high school drop-out that first used this offensive word in my presence."
"This word is just a made-up combination of two words," adds an Andover, Maine, resident named Jason, who refused to offer his last name. "Either word is sufficient, but the combination just sounds ridiculous."
As for "baby bump" -- a term used to describe a pregnant woman's rounded belly -- this "is a phrase we finally need to give birth to, then send on its way," declared Mary Sturgeon from Vancouver, British Columbia.
"I'm tired of a pregnancy being reduced to a celebrity accessory. Or worse, when less-than-six-pack abs are suspected of being one," said Afton, a respondent from Portland, Oregon.
Lake Superior State University's annual "word banishment" list was first created at a New Year's Eve party in 1975. The school now claims to receive tens of thousands of nominations every year.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Definition of 'Book' is Changing
Apps take e-books beyond mere reading
Article by: LAURIE HERTZEL , Star Tribune
Updated: January 2, 2012 - 7:55 PM
For good and for bad, apps and enhanced e-books -- loaded with audio, video and games -- are changing the definition of what a book is.
You can buy the Kevin Kling-Chris Monroe picture book, "Big Little Brother," for $17.95 and read it to your child. Or you can buy the iPad app of "Big Little Brother" for $7.99 and hear Kling read it himself -- and also watch the characters move and hear the toys talk.
Book apps for tablets and smartphones and enhanced e-books for e-readers are going far beyond the transfer of book text to Kindle screen. By bringing audio, video, animation and games to what was once the simple printed page, apps are beginning to fundamentally change our understanding of what makes a book a book.
So far, the trend has been cautious, but publishers predict enhancements will be common within two years. "It's clearly a market waiting to be fed," said Corinne Helman, vice president of digital publishing and business development for Harper Collins children's books. "This is still very, very early days."
"I think this is going to be a huge deal," said Dan Leary, design and production manager for the Minnesota Historical Society Press. "It's really changing what a book is."
Book apps can be as modest as "Big Little Brother," with just a little animation and audio. Or they can be as elaborate as "Fancy Nancy Dress Up," which allows children to design outfits, dress Fancy Nancy and drop her into the story.
Enhanced e-books include all kinds of supplemental material: travel books are embedded with film clips, language books with audio, cookbooks with step-by-step videos.
There are even book apps that have never been printed books, such as David Sedaris' "David's Diary," six animated videos inspired by his diary entries.
Image-heavy books, such as picture books and photo books, lend themselves well to apps. "The iPad does images better than you can print them," Leary said. "The quality is like a transparency in a lightbox."
Made for images
Minnesota photographer Jim Brandenburg turned his award-winning 1998 book, "Chased by the Light," into an app. It contains the original images of northern Minnesota, additional photos from the revised softcover edition, "After the Storm," and 17 video clips from the documentary about the book.
"Each of the video clips are positioned right on that image," said Heidi Brandenburg, the photographer's daughter and manager. "So as you look at it, Jim is talking about why he chose that subject and what he was thinking."
You can also toggle from an original image to a photo of the same place, taken since the BWCA blowdown. "This is our very first app, but it won't be our last," Brandenburg said. "For photography, it's just unbelievable. It gives a whole new life to the images."
Move over, mom and dad
Apps of children's books are particularly attractive to busy parents, Helman said. "How often do you whip out a phone and say, 'I'll buy myself 20 minutes of silence?' I think parents feel good about book apps because it's still a book and the child is still learning."
If parents are too busy to read to the child -- or have already read the book aloud 50 times -- the app can take over. "It means, in some respect, that the kid is now spending more time with books because it doesn't require the parent to be there," Helman said.
This gives Phyllis Root pause. "If it gets children interested in books, it's good," said Root, the Minneapolis author of more than 40 books for children and an instructor in Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children. "But the most important thing about a picture book is that you sit down and read it with a kid."
A parent can point to a picture and say, "What sound does a frog make?" Root said. "And the child might make the sound. But if every time you come to that page you can push the frog and it makes a noise, you've handed over some of the interactiveness of the picture book to this prepackaged shape."
Lori Helman, associate professor of literacy education at the University of Minnesota and co-director of the Minnesota Center for Reading Research (and no relation to Harper Collins' Corinne Helman), said human relations are crucial to child development.
"We need a lot of opportunities for face-to-face interaction so children can learn what it means to be human," she said. "A developing person, whether they're 2 or 7, needs to be able to ask questions and check out their understanding. And no app can be responsive to all the questions and thoughts and wonderings that a young person needs. You need people."
That said, Helman added, apps and e-books can give kids more access to books and put libraries at their fingertips.
"If we're using these things as little babysitters, I think kids will get tired of them," she said. "But if we use them to enhance our interaction, imagine the great conversation that could spark."
Slow growing for now
While technology is fueling this trend, it is also slowng it down.
Apps must be written one way for Apple products, another way for Droids. App stores don't have a separate category for book apps, making them hard to find. And devices are changing so fast that no one dares invest too heavily in any one direction.
"It's been a sort of three steps forward, three steps back," said Terry Adams, who heads e-book and digital publishing for the Hachette Book Group, which includes Little, Brown. "It is the wild, wild West in this marketplace."
All that additional content requires negotiation and money. "If our agreement with an author is a basic book agreement, there are rights related to images and sound and whatever that are not part of that," Adams said. "So that material has to be provided and paid for. It's very expensive."
Still, Harper Collins' Helman said she thinks these are temporary obstacles. "The publishing industry is trying to get together to figure this out," she said. "There's no doubt in my mind that the standard will be achieved. This is just momentary noise."
The biggest concern, Leary says, is permanence.
"The best long-term storage of anything is the book," he said. "It's still the most future-proof thing in this office. The book version of the Kling-Monroe project will still be functional in 50 years. The iPad version of the book -- I will be surprised if anyone has a device that will still be functional in 10 years.
"These things will have a two-year life span, and then you develop for the next piece of technology."
Article by: LAURIE HERTZEL , Star Tribune
Updated: January 2, 2012 - 7:55 PM
For good and for bad, apps and enhanced e-books -- loaded with audio, video and games -- are changing the definition of what a book is.
You can buy the Kevin Kling-Chris Monroe picture book, "Big Little Brother," for $17.95 and read it to your child. Or you can buy the iPad app of "Big Little Brother" for $7.99 and hear Kling read it himself -- and also watch the characters move and hear the toys talk.
Book apps for tablets and smartphones and enhanced e-books for e-readers are going far beyond the transfer of book text to Kindle screen. By bringing audio, video, animation and games to what was once the simple printed page, apps are beginning to fundamentally change our understanding of what makes a book a book.
So far, the trend has been cautious, but publishers predict enhancements will be common within two years. "It's clearly a market waiting to be fed," said Corinne Helman, vice president of digital publishing and business development for Harper Collins children's books. "This is still very, very early days."
"I think this is going to be a huge deal," said Dan Leary, design and production manager for the Minnesota Historical Society Press. "It's really changing what a book is."
Book apps can be as modest as "Big Little Brother," with just a little animation and audio. Or they can be as elaborate as "Fancy Nancy Dress Up," which allows children to design outfits, dress Fancy Nancy and drop her into the story.
Enhanced e-books include all kinds of supplemental material: travel books are embedded with film clips, language books with audio, cookbooks with step-by-step videos.
There are even book apps that have never been printed books, such as David Sedaris' "David's Diary," six animated videos inspired by his diary entries.
Image-heavy books, such as picture books and photo books, lend themselves well to apps. "The iPad does images better than you can print them," Leary said. "The quality is like a transparency in a lightbox."
Made for images
Minnesota photographer Jim Brandenburg turned his award-winning 1998 book, "Chased by the Light," into an app. It contains the original images of northern Minnesota, additional photos from the revised softcover edition, "After the Storm," and 17 video clips from the documentary about the book.
"Each of the video clips are positioned right on that image," said Heidi Brandenburg, the photographer's daughter and manager. "So as you look at it, Jim is talking about why he chose that subject and what he was thinking."
You can also toggle from an original image to a photo of the same place, taken since the BWCA blowdown. "This is our very first app, but it won't be our last," Brandenburg said. "For photography, it's just unbelievable. It gives a whole new life to the images."
Move over, mom and dad
Apps of children's books are particularly attractive to busy parents, Helman said. "How often do you whip out a phone and say, 'I'll buy myself 20 minutes of silence?' I think parents feel good about book apps because it's still a book and the child is still learning."
If parents are too busy to read to the child -- or have already read the book aloud 50 times -- the app can take over. "It means, in some respect, that the kid is now spending more time with books because it doesn't require the parent to be there," Helman said.
This gives Phyllis Root pause. "If it gets children interested in books, it's good," said Root, the Minneapolis author of more than 40 books for children and an instructor in Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children. "But the most important thing about a picture book is that you sit down and read it with a kid."
A parent can point to a picture and say, "What sound does a frog make?" Root said. "And the child might make the sound. But if every time you come to that page you can push the frog and it makes a noise, you've handed over some of the interactiveness of the picture book to this prepackaged shape."
Lori Helman, associate professor of literacy education at the University of Minnesota and co-director of the Minnesota Center for Reading Research (and no relation to Harper Collins' Corinne Helman), said human relations are crucial to child development.
"We need a lot of opportunities for face-to-face interaction so children can learn what it means to be human," she said. "A developing person, whether they're 2 or 7, needs to be able to ask questions and check out their understanding. And no app can be responsive to all the questions and thoughts and wonderings that a young person needs. You need people."
That said, Helman added, apps and e-books can give kids more access to books and put libraries at their fingertips.
"If we're using these things as little babysitters, I think kids will get tired of them," she said. "But if we use them to enhance our interaction, imagine the great conversation that could spark."
Slow growing for now
While technology is fueling this trend, it is also slowng it down.
Apps must be written one way for Apple products, another way for Droids. App stores don't have a separate category for book apps, making them hard to find. And devices are changing so fast that no one dares invest too heavily in any one direction.
"It's been a sort of three steps forward, three steps back," said Terry Adams, who heads e-book and digital publishing for the Hachette Book Group, which includes Little, Brown. "It is the wild, wild West in this marketplace."
All that additional content requires negotiation and money. "If our agreement with an author is a basic book agreement, there are rights related to images and sound and whatever that are not part of that," Adams said. "So that material has to be provided and paid for. It's very expensive."
Still, Harper Collins' Helman said she thinks these are temporary obstacles. "The publishing industry is trying to get together to figure this out," she said. "There's no doubt in my mind that the standard will be achieved. This is just momentary noise."
The biggest concern, Leary says, is permanence.
"The best long-term storage of anything is the book," he said. "It's still the most future-proof thing in this office. The book version of the Kling-Monroe project will still be functional in 50 years. The iPad version of the book -- I will be surprised if anyone has a device that will still be functional in 10 years.
"These things will have a two-year life span, and then you develop for the next piece of technology."
New York Times Has 'Big Oops'
Does Anyone in the Media Ever Read the Bible?
By Eric Metaxas
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/23/does-anyone-in-media-ever-read-bible/?cmpid=cmty_email_Gigya_Does_Anyone_in_the_Media_Ever_Read_the_Bible?
Published December 26, 2011
It happened again just the other day. I was reading the New York Times and I came across something so hilarious that for a moment it seemed to be some kind of joke. But this was in an obituary.
The obit was about one George Whitman, the proprietor of the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, who had just died at the hoary old age of 98. Before I mention the joke, I should say that I first got a mild chuckle when I read how George nurtured aspiring writers:
"For decades Mr. Whitman provided food and makeshift beds to young aspiring novelists or writing nomads, often letting them spend a night, a week, or even months living among the crowded shelves and alcoves." It made me wonder: was George the true founder of OWS?
But this was nothing compared with the hilarity to follow. What hilarity, you ask? It would come in the next two sentences. Here they are:
"[George] welcomed visitors with large-print messages on the walls. 'Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,' was one, quoting Yeats."
Yeats!? Did you catch that? I choked on my toast. Did the Times actually just say that "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise" was from Yeats? Unless I had fallen down a rabbit hole, that quote was from the Bible. It's from Hebrews 13:2 and it's quite famous. If you didn't catch it, don't feel too badly, because you are probably not The New York Times. You are probably not America's "paper of record", proud owner of 106 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism -- more than any other newspaper. You probably don't have squadrons of fact-checkers on your payroll.
I still couldn't believe what I'd just read, so I kept reading, looking for some explanation. There was none. I then shook the paper to make sure I was reading an actual newspaper, and not, say, an email forward from an aged friend. Nope. This really was the New York Times, the Old Grey Lady, whose motto was "All the News that's Fit to Print." And let's face it, if W.B. Yeats was the real author of the Bible's "Book of Hebrews," that really would be big news!
To be absolutely sure I wasn't dreaming, I read the passage to my wife. She screamed. I wasn't dreaming. The New York Times really had said that the poet W.B. Yeats was the author of a very famous Bible passage.
To be fair, the New York Times eventually issued a correction about the Yeats' quote. Here's what they said:
Correction: December 21, 2011
An obituary on Thursday about George Whitman, the longtime owner of the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, referred incorrectly to a quotation written on a wall of his store. The words "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise" are a variation on a passage from the Bible; although Mr. Whitman himself attributed them to the poet W.B. Yeats, they were not written by Yeats.
But believe it or not it wasn't just the Times (and the late Mr. Whitman) who got it wrong. It was also the Associated Press. NPR put up the AP version of their obituary right way. The BBC reported erroneously on the quote, too. Which leads me to two observations. First, have you ever heard the old adage, "a lie goes around the world, before the truth can get its boots on." Here's yet another example of the truth in that statement, especially in this hyper-electronic age.
Second, it's no secret that Manhattan and Hollywood cultural elites are deeply secular. There's a reason many of them consider the middle of America "fly-over country". Since at least H.L. Mencken, many secular elites think those who actually read the Bible need to be educated away from such nonsense. So the ignorance they often show about religion can be staggering. I remember two prominent instances.
The first was when I heard that patting-ourselves-on-the-back anthem "We Are the World" on FM radio 25 years ago. In his solo, Willie Nelson warbled: "As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread..." Did Willie really sing that Jesus had turned stone into bread? Yikes. Um, that's not quite what happened, Willie. What actually happened was that Jesus refused to turn stone to bread. And do you remember who tried to get him to turn stone to bread? That's right, Willie: it was um, Satan, as in Lucifer. As in it was a bad idea...
Keep in mind that this wasn't something he blurted out over the reefer-smoke at a concert. That knee-slapping lyric was written down and gone over and over. Who knows how many of those celebrities heard it and never batted an eye. That's how out of touch the vast majority of Hollywood celebrities are with basic Sunday School knowledge.
The second was when a secular Manhattan friend revealed that he didn't know who had come up with the Golden Rule. When told it was Jesus (Matthew 7:12) he didn't believe it. And this is a brilliant man, who knows just about everything there is to know. But in the world of Manhattan cultural elites, the Bible is mostly thought of as a quaint and useless artifact, like that old colonial butterchurn near the fireplace in your country home. Did it really ever make butter?
In part to remedy this inequality, I've started something called Socrates in the City [www.socratesinthecity.com] where the "big questions" are considered from a generally biblical point of view. But that's another story.
To get back to the faux-Yeats quote, remember that we are not talking about Willie Nelson or about a friend of mine. We are talking about the New York Times. Yes, they have a generally secular and liberal bias, but this was a factual error and the Times has fact-checkers. So if by some fluke the writer of the obit had been raised in Soviet Russia where no one was permitted to read or speak about the Bible, then surely one of the Times notoriously fastidious fact-checkers would have caught this tremendous goof. Besides, this obit must have been written years before, as such obits usually are, waiting quietly in the files for their elderly subjects to pass on. It would have been dusted off every few years and updated and -- presumably -- rechecked.
So when I read the Yeats supergoof, I wondered: where were the fact-checkers? Is the secular bias at the Times so pervasive that it has affected not just the writers but the fact-checkers too? Or has being out of touch with middle America so hurt the Times' subscription base that they cannot afford fact-checkers anymore?
When I first wrote about this on my Facebook page I was excoriated by an acquaintance who writes for the Times. He thought I was simply being too harsh. Perhaps I was. After all, as Sammy Davis, Jr. once remarked, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
But to get serious, if I had one wish for American in 2012, I wish that we would get to know the Bible better. Even if you aren't a believer there are incredible stories in the "good book" that I guarantee you will keep you glued to the page. The Bible is no less a part of our cultural heritage than Shakespeare is -- and by the way, Shakespeare's plays are absolutely loaded with Biblical references.
In the meantime, the biblical author of Hebrews was on to something when he wrote about angels in disguise. So take his advice: be hospitable to all you meet. And keep your eyes open for disguised angels.
Eric Metaxas is the author of "Socrates in the City: Conversations of "Life, God, and Other Small Topics" and a New York Times bestseller, "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy."
By Eric Metaxas
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/23/does-anyone-in-media-ever-read-bible/?cmpid=cmty_email_Gigya_Does_Anyone_in_the_Media_Ever_Read_the_Bible?
Published December 26, 2011
It happened again just the other day. I was reading the New York Times and I came across something so hilarious that for a moment it seemed to be some kind of joke. But this was in an obituary.
The obit was about one George Whitman, the proprietor of the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, who had just died at the hoary old age of 98. Before I mention the joke, I should say that I first got a mild chuckle when I read how George nurtured aspiring writers:
"For decades Mr. Whitman provided food and makeshift beds to young aspiring novelists or writing nomads, often letting them spend a night, a week, or even months living among the crowded shelves and alcoves." It made me wonder: was George the true founder of OWS?
But this was nothing compared with the hilarity to follow. What hilarity, you ask? It would come in the next two sentences. Here they are:
"[George] welcomed visitors with large-print messages on the walls. 'Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,' was one, quoting Yeats."
Yeats!? Did you catch that? I choked on my toast. Did the Times actually just say that "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise" was from Yeats? Unless I had fallen down a rabbit hole, that quote was from the Bible. It's from Hebrews 13:2 and it's quite famous. If you didn't catch it, don't feel too badly, because you are probably not The New York Times. You are probably not America's "paper of record", proud owner of 106 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism -- more than any other newspaper. You probably don't have squadrons of fact-checkers on your payroll.
I still couldn't believe what I'd just read, so I kept reading, looking for some explanation. There was none. I then shook the paper to make sure I was reading an actual newspaper, and not, say, an email forward from an aged friend. Nope. This really was the New York Times, the Old Grey Lady, whose motto was "All the News that's Fit to Print." And let's face it, if W.B. Yeats was the real author of the Bible's "Book of Hebrews," that really would be big news!
To be absolutely sure I wasn't dreaming, I read the passage to my wife. She screamed. I wasn't dreaming. The New York Times really had said that the poet W.B. Yeats was the author of a very famous Bible passage.
To be fair, the New York Times eventually issued a correction about the Yeats' quote. Here's what they said:
Correction: December 21, 2011
An obituary on Thursday about George Whitman, the longtime owner of the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, referred incorrectly to a quotation written on a wall of his store. The words "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise" are a variation on a passage from the Bible; although Mr. Whitman himself attributed them to the poet W.B. Yeats, they were not written by Yeats.
But believe it or not it wasn't just the Times (and the late Mr. Whitman) who got it wrong. It was also the Associated Press. NPR put up the AP version of their obituary right way. The BBC reported erroneously on the quote, too. Which leads me to two observations. First, have you ever heard the old adage, "a lie goes around the world, before the truth can get its boots on." Here's yet another example of the truth in that statement, especially in this hyper-electronic age.
Second, it's no secret that Manhattan and Hollywood cultural elites are deeply secular. There's a reason many of them consider the middle of America "fly-over country". Since at least H.L. Mencken, many secular elites think those who actually read the Bible need to be educated away from such nonsense. So the ignorance they often show about religion can be staggering. I remember two prominent instances.
The first was when I heard that patting-ourselves-on-the-back anthem "We Are the World" on FM radio 25 years ago. In his solo, Willie Nelson warbled: "As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread..." Did Willie really sing that Jesus had turned stone into bread? Yikes. Um, that's not quite what happened, Willie. What actually happened was that Jesus refused to turn stone to bread. And do you remember who tried to get him to turn stone to bread? That's right, Willie: it was um, Satan, as in Lucifer. As in it was a bad idea...
Keep in mind that this wasn't something he blurted out over the reefer-smoke at a concert. That knee-slapping lyric was written down and gone over and over. Who knows how many of those celebrities heard it and never batted an eye. That's how out of touch the vast majority of Hollywood celebrities are with basic Sunday School knowledge.
The second was when a secular Manhattan friend revealed that he didn't know who had come up with the Golden Rule. When told it was Jesus (Matthew 7:12) he didn't believe it. And this is a brilliant man, who knows just about everything there is to know. But in the world of Manhattan cultural elites, the Bible is mostly thought of as a quaint and useless artifact, like that old colonial butterchurn near the fireplace in your country home. Did it really ever make butter?
In part to remedy this inequality, I've started something called Socrates in the City [www.socratesinthecity.com] where the "big questions" are considered from a generally biblical point of view. But that's another story.
To get back to the faux-Yeats quote, remember that we are not talking about Willie Nelson or about a friend of mine. We are talking about the New York Times. Yes, they have a generally secular and liberal bias, but this was a factual error and the Times has fact-checkers. So if by some fluke the writer of the obit had been raised in Soviet Russia where no one was permitted to read or speak about the Bible, then surely one of the Times notoriously fastidious fact-checkers would have caught this tremendous goof. Besides, this obit must have been written years before, as such obits usually are, waiting quietly in the files for their elderly subjects to pass on. It would have been dusted off every few years and updated and -- presumably -- rechecked.
So when I read the Yeats supergoof, I wondered: where were the fact-checkers? Is the secular bias at the Times so pervasive that it has affected not just the writers but the fact-checkers too? Or has being out of touch with middle America so hurt the Times' subscription base that they cannot afford fact-checkers anymore?
When I first wrote about this on my Facebook page I was excoriated by an acquaintance who writes for the Times. He thought I was simply being too harsh. Perhaps I was. After all, as Sammy Davis, Jr. once remarked, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
But to get serious, if I had one wish for American in 2012, I wish that we would get to know the Bible better. Even if you aren't a believer there are incredible stories in the "good book" that I guarantee you will keep you glued to the page. The Bible is no less a part of our cultural heritage than Shakespeare is -- and by the way, Shakespeare's plays are absolutely loaded with Biblical references.
In the meantime, the biblical author of Hebrews was on to something when he wrote about angels in disguise. So take his advice: be hospitable to all you meet. And keep your eyes open for disguised angels.
Eric Metaxas is the author of "Socrates in the City: Conversations of "Life, God, and Other Small Topics" and a New York Times bestseller, "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy."
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