THIS WEEK: What is the best invention in journalism in the past
20 years? There have been many such as the laptop computer, digital
camera and cell phone that have revolutionized the profession.

Our personal favorites, though, are the telephone answering
machine and caller ID.

Only old-time reporters remember the fear of having to phone a
source of news late at night to ask a very sensitive question such
as, “How do you feel about being fired from your job?”

And, so, of course, we laud the individuals who enhanced the
telephone by allowing would-be sources to see who was calling and
also enabling them to hear that embarrassing question. That person
could choose not to answer the phone and the reporter could be sure
he or she couldn’t say, “You never called me for a comment.”

Now, that, is heaven!

Why are we mentioning this now? This is National Newspaper
Week.

TODAY’S QUOTES: Much is being made, in our Internet age, of the
uncertain future of the newspaper.

We have no doubt that the “news” end of the business will always
survive – whether it’s on “paper” or not is another matter.
Meanwhile, we still think newspapers are about the greatest
invention since sliced bread.

And so, to mark this special week we dug out some quotes about
newspapers (OK, we admit we culled them off the Internet) to give
our readers a wide view of our chosen medium:

· “A newspaper is lumber made malleable. It is ink made into
words and pictures. it is conceived, born, grows up and dies of old
age in a day,” said newspaper columnist Jim Bishop.

• “A good newspaper is never nearly good enough but a lousy
newspaper is a joy forever,” said entertainer Garrison Keillor.

• “There is nothing more immoral than a newspaperman,” said
one-time Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

• “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a
bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization,” said playwright
George Bernard Shaw.

• “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country
moves a little closer to authoritarianism,” said Richard
Kluger.

• “I am unable to understand how a man of honour could take a
newspaper in his hands without a shudder of disgust,” said poet
Charles Baudelaire.

• “Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird
cages,” said Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.