Is there no depth to which they will not stoop?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 8:10 am

By Pam Johnson
Leadership & Management Faculty
In a recent column, I talked about how The Kansas City Starâ€™s culture is influenced by Ernest Hemingway. Though he worked there briefly and long ago, his Star connection is the kind of story that helps define an organization.

(Poynter Online)***I am reluctant to go out on a limb, but I sincerely believe that Hemingway would vomit if he saw that.***I like the way Harvardâ€™s John Kotter puts it in his new book, â€œThe Heart of Change.â€ He encourages leaders to look for â€œmoments of truthâ€ in their organizations: defining events or breakthroughs. When such a moment happens, he encourages leaders to â€œgrab it, then turn it into a story that is told vividly and dramatically, so that it will be passed along to as many people as possible.â€I think Ernest Hemingway would approve.***Memo to Pam: Please shut up.***[ December 03, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

SusanV · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 1:18 pm

Man, I knew there was a reason I'd stopped trying to catch up here while eating lunch! OY.

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 4:09 pm

Why would any news organization be proud to claim as a lingering influence a man who came to fame on bad writing and a predilection for pestering large animals?

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 6:34 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
Why would any news organization be proud to claim as a lingering influence a man who came to fame on bad writing and a predilection for pestering large animals?<hr></blockquote>"In Our Time" -- his first collection of stories -- is good writing, in my opinion.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 8:22 pm

Leave it to a copy editor to piss on Hemingway.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:12 pm

May I suggest that we examine the Kansas City Star rather than debate the virtues of Hemingway. I'm fairly confident that even his most virulent critic would agree that there is no trace of him in that newspaper. The "rules" Hemingway is said to have praised are ignored at the Star, as they are at every other newspaper.That said, I am a fan of the Star's Hemingway pages, even though they are a sad attempt to claim some significant connection to the writer. I especially like Hemingway's story "At the End of the Ambulance Run," [here]. I like to think that none of it is made up.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:15 pm

Years later scholars would come to Kansas City to investigate Hemingway's tenure at The Star, which lasted from October 1917 to April 1918. This period fascinated Hemingway students because his lean, spare writing style, basically ``Star Style,'' led him to become one of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th century, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature and a legend as a man, warrior, womanizer and drinker. (KCStar.com)***That's one powerful "Style."***[ December 03, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Dec 04, 2002 12:04 am

I worked on the desk at the now-defunct Milwaukee Sentinel. Carl Sandburg had worked there for about 46 minutes, which was deemed reason enough to create -- no shit -- an "inspirational" exhibit upon which you could gaze on your way in to the newsroom.Enough of this crap of papers puffing themselves up over the fact that a great writer worked there many years ago. BFD. What have you done for me lately?

Testy Copy Editors

Is there no depth to which they will not stoop?

Who is online

What They're Saying

Useful Links