It’s National Columnists’ Day
Romenesko reader Bob Patterson has been reminding me about National Columnists’ Day for nearly a decade now. He did it again last night and sent me his link to this year’s NCD column.
It is about a rascal who was raised in Berkeley and became a columnist who was a friend and arch rival of Herb Caen. He lived in Berkeley about a hundred years ago. He is a name sake because he was named Bob Patterson.
Of course, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists takes note of this day, too.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s Robert Kirby tells his readers how reporters differ from columnists:
Reporters are hard-working news professionals with a keen interest in keeping the public informed.
Columnists are different. We’re more like Hollywood actors or circus freaks, meaning that someone found a way to profit from whatever is seriously wrong with us. Depending on the columnist, it could be (and often is) a lot.
> “whatever is seriously wrong with us.”
That’s like high-schoolers who guffaw “Man, we’re so crazy!” when they do some predictable thing.
I’ve written a newspaper column for more than 20 years, been a reporter and/or copy editor the whole time, and know lots of folks in all these roles. In my experience, at least, columnists cover the same spectrum of personality, skills and approach to work as reporters.
We don’t become interestingly quirky just because we get to use first-person pronouns in the newspaper. (Alas!)