Author Archives: Greg Hitchcock

We are all spinners of truth. We should tell it like it is, but we are all spinners of truth. In my newspaper, the editors all insisted on sensationalizing the headlines. Their reasoning is that the public would be interested in buying. There is no harm in making headlines larger than they seem. They serveContinue reading “Sensational Headlines, Accurate Reporting”

Ernie Pyle’s writings from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific in World War Two earned him accolades from the American people. President Harry Truman told of Pyle that “No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told. He deserves theContinue reading “Reviewing Associated Press”

Newspapers were the Facebook and Twitter of the past. They could act as sources of evil, propaganda, and manipulation or as conduits of hope, spreading joy across the nation. When the Nazis took power, the Minister of Propaganda Josef Goebbels took over the radio, newspapers, and movies across Germany that infected millions with diabolical slanderContinue reading “Spreading Christmas Cheer in 19th century America”

Steven Spielberg’s rendition of Robert Wise’s 1961 film West Side Story still strikes many chords in America today as it did in 1960s. Other countries have immigration issues that remain divisive. From a flood of Turks in Germany, Algerians in France, to Mexicans and Haitians in the United States, these immigrants seem to rankle theContinue reading “Reviewing West Side Story”

There are several styles of writing: styles for journalists and public relations professionals, styles for students and scholars, and your own writing tone and style. Whereas, developing your own unique style takes time, there are tried, and true methods of writing based on the subject at hand. Having spent two decades as a journalist inContinue reading “Reviewing Chicago Manual of Style”

“Just the facts, ma’am,” Police Sergeant Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, said on the television show Dragnet. When I was younger than I am today, I remember the time when I got confused. After sitting in on a small government meeting, I reported that the board would remove trees. I thought the trees mentionedContinue reading “Fact Checking is Key to a Clear Story”

Did you ever see the episode of The Twilight Zone Time Enough at Last? Originally airing on CBS on Nov. 20, 1959, the main character Henry Bemis, played by Burgess Meredith, has little time to read heckled by his wife and his boss for foolishly spending time reading. However, he survives Doomsday and has allContinue reading “Making the Best Use of Deadlines”

How to Specialize in a World of Indifference When news reporters first walk in a newsroom, they know instinctively what they will be covering that day – unless a breaking story comes in. Called ‘walking the beat’, reporters are assigned by their editors certain territories be it geographic, let’s say City of Gloversville or TownContinue reading “Walking the Beat”