'The saviour Himself did not please everybody'
Blasts from the past
“One of the first things an editor learns is that he can’t please everybody. The ones who haven’t learned this are too dumb to run a newspaper. Human nature is so constituted that some of our readers would like to have us tell the unvarnished truth about them, while others would try and jail us if we did. It is a comforting thought to the editor to know that the saviour Himself did not please everybody while he was on earth. There is one thing that we are never going to forget: that is that an editor can’t please everybody and isn’t going to try. If he could, he would be wearing wings on his shoulders in another world, instead of patches on his pants in this one.
— The Twillingate Sun, Feb. 28th, 1925
The above may be a comforting quote for Russell Wangersky and the editorial page crew at The Telegram who have taken considerable heat (including from one of their own) for the Wednesday (Feb. 24th) editorial, “Matter of choice.” The editorial dealt with Premier Danny Williams decision to have his heart operation carried out in the U.S.
Editors aren’t alone in taking a pounding; new-age bloggers take their lumps, I can tell you.
The safest course is to keep opinions to yourself, keep your head down and nod agreement with the majority.
Shag that …
— Father Aidan Devine, parish priest of Immaculate Conception Parish in Deer Lake, March 2007.
The above quote from Father Devine was contained in a March 2007 letter he wrote to then-federal Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon, with a copy forwarded to The Independent newspaper.
Father Devine was reacting to a Marine Atlantic decision to increases fares for ferries traveling between Port aux Basques and North Sydney.
Here’s another quote from Father Devine’s letter, one that struck me even more than the one above: “I am a Catholic priest and what I am seeing is the slow death of a beautiful province.”
Are we still dying, do you think?
Or have we turned the corner on recovery?
“One of the first things an editor learns is that he can’t please everybody. The ones who haven’t learned this are too dumb to run a newspaper. Human nature is so constituted that some of our readers would like to have us tell the unvarnished truth about them, while others would try and jail us if we did. It is a comforting thought to the editor to know that the saviour Himself did not please everybody while he was on earth. There is one thing that we are never going to forget: that is that an editor can’t please everybody and isn’t going to try. If he could, he would be wearing wings on his shoulders in another world, instead of patches on his pants in this one.
— The Twillingate Sun, Feb. 28th, 1925
The above may be a comforting quote for Russell Wangersky and the editorial page crew at The Telegram who have taken considerable heat (including from one of their own) for the Wednesday (Feb. 24th) editorial, “Matter of choice.” The editorial dealt with Premier Danny Williams decision to have his heart operation carried out in the U.S.
Editors aren’t alone in taking a pounding; new-age bloggers take their lumps, I can tell you.
The safest course is to keep opinions to yourself, keep your head down and nod agreement with the majority.
Shag that …
•••
“The people of my province have been lied to so often by those in politics that it really does not matter who we elect.”— Father Aidan Devine, parish priest of Immaculate Conception Parish in Deer Lake, March 2007.
The above quote from Father Devine was contained in a March 2007 letter he wrote to then-federal Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon, with a copy forwarded to The Independent newspaper.
Father Devine was reacting to a Marine Atlantic decision to increases fares for ferries traveling between Port aux Basques and North Sydney.
Here’s another quote from Father Devine’s letter, one that struck me even more than the one above: “I am a Catholic priest and what I am seeing is the slow death of a beautiful province.”
Are we still dying, do you think?
Or have we turned the corner on recovery?
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