More on Halberstam

Tributes to David Halberstam continue to be published. In today's New York Times, a long piece putting his ground-breaking Vietnam work into context, and then bringing the experiences forward to today and Iraq:

"I just never thought it was going to work at all,” Mr. Halberstam said of Iraq during a public appearance in New York in January. “I thought that in both Vietnam and Iraq, we were going against history. My view — and I think it was because of Vietnam — was that the forces against us were going to be hostile, that we would not be viewed as liberators. We were going to punch our fist into the largest hornets’ nest in the world."

Update: In an interesting tribute in the Washington Post, Henry Allen closes with:

For those who remember journalism back in a 1970s heyday they can't explain to to the young, Halberstam's death was not just the death of a hero, it was like the death of the great Hollywood stars -- Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable. Who would replace them? No one has. Maybe no one ever does.

Who is Manny?

Despite dozens of beat reporters covering the Red Sox every day, the essence of Manny Ramirez does not seem to warrant much coverage. A few years ago, Kevin Millar popularized the slugger's loopiness as "Manny-being-Manny" and that, it seemed, settled it. (The "Manny-being-Manny" is itself a reference to the post-1962 Richard M. Nixon, a "New Nixon" who would throw aside his handlers and "let Nixon be Nixon," all as documented by Joe McGinniss.)

Manny was the topic of a lengthy profile in last week's New Yorker. Among the never-before-heard anecdotes: like George Foreman, he has named his first two sons "Manny Jr."; he didn't keep track of balls or strikes (until he had two strikes) when in the batter's box; and:

A running joke in Boston has it that none of Ramirez’s coaches know when he gets to the ballpark in the morning, because he’s always there (if sometimes napping) when they arrive.

Why haven't we heard that before? Perhaps because the fact that Manny-is-the-first-to-arrive at the ballpark every day does not really fit with the Manny-being-Manny meme that otherwise drives the coverage.

David Halbertsam, RIP

There are tributes and memorials to David Halbertsam (who died in a traffic accident last night in Northern California) all over the web this morning.

In looking back at his career, what stands out are the number of phrases or concepts - Vietnam (in 1965, well before Tet) as a 'quagmire', the 'best and brighest', the 'powers that be' - that he either invented or popularized.

In recent years, his sports books have seemed to have a Boston-bias, from the Ted Williams' Teammates to the profile of Bill Belichick.

He will be missed.

Obama/Agent Zero 2008?

From Deadspin.

The Golden Age of Newspapers?

Conventional wisdom says that the newspaper business is dead or dying. Yet Boston now has three daily papers (the Globe, the Herald, and the free Metro); this morning, 'vendors' were also distributing a new freebie: Vol 1, Issue 2 of "BostonNOW."

(Once upon a time, Boston was the home of multiple papers, a few of which are listed here.)

Unlike Metro, which generally relies on AP and wire reports with a few local columnists, NOW appears to have local correspondents as well and (perhaps) intends to break news. Today's cover story in NOW is a by-lined piece on "Crime on the T", although NOW also has items from, among other the Christian Science Monitor, State House News Service, and some articles that are uncredited. The NOW website also appears to be part of an on-line/off-line 'synergy' strategy.

While I wouldn't (and don't) bet against Warren Buffett's view of the newspaper business, somebody out there thinks that there's money to be made in ol' fish wrap, yet.