Director, McGillicuddy Humanities Center
Communication & Journalism, University of Maine
2019 Fulbright Scholar, University of Canberra
Tweets=my own opinions
Dec 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I'd like to note something about the wonderful success of @HC_Richardson on Substack: It's not luck & it's not overnight. She works tremendously hard. And she studied composition very closely to become the writer she is.
I think we're all missing those very important points(1/5)
For more than a decade (you could argue: throughout her entire career academic career) she's been almost obsessed with the craft of composition and storytelling. Just read these entries on her old Tumblr about writing (2/5)
How can we tell this @NewYorker piece on Substack is largely indistinguishable from Silicon Valley hype? (1/5)
newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…
Let's count the quotes. By my count, it relays 8 direct (promotional) quotes from people invested in the success of Substack's business model, while only 2 independent critiques by outsiders are quoted.
Bonus points for quoting "Newton, who is a friend of mine…” (2/5)
Aug 10, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A personal observation on why colleges staying remote & college football cancellations, might be important politically in the U.S.A.
This is not based on any data, or scholarship that I know of. It's just about conversations I had with my father (1/4)
My father produced "The CBS Evening News" throughout the 1960s. When it came to the anti-war movement, he told me he felt certain *everything* exploded when the deferment rules changed & middle-class college kids suddenly faced the prospect of fighting & dying in Vietnam (2/4)
Mar 26, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A thread on how anchors like @jaketapper@DavidMuir@NorahODonnell@LesterHoltNBC might revise how they're holding the White House accountable, based on the editorial independence demonstrated by their predecessors in 1979-1980 during the Iran Hostage Crisis (1/7)
They should use clear & easily understood metrics daily. Open and/or close broadcasts with these same accurate and verifiable metrics, and tie them directly to the administration's response to the pandemic. (2/7)
Mar 9, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
A thread on how television credibility is built and maintained – and why, as a nation, we’re in a far worse place without a Peter Jennings, Walter Cronkite, or Chet Huntley to inform us. (1/11)
Few realize that broadcast network TV news in 2020 reaches far more viewers than any cable channel. David Muir’s ABC World News Tonight reaches 3x more viewers every day than Fox News in primetime. (2/11)
Nov 11, 2018 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I’m going to tweet out a story from the last day of World War I that you won’t believe.
But it really did happen. (1/11)
It begins in April, 1917, when my grandfather, Mel Krulewitch, drops out of Columbia Law School to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He joined up because he saw an ad on a bus that said: “Join the Marines. First to Fight!” (2/11)
