Newsroom Show Quotes

Every woman I know in the news business has at least one story to tell about another woman who helped show her the way.

The most common criticism many writers hear from editors is “show, don’t tell.” The dictum is often invoked reflexively, and it can seem opaque. But take it as a warning against frothy adjectives that fail to convey an experience to a reader. “It’s no use telling us that something was ‘mysterious’ or ‘loathsome’ or ‘awe-inspiring’ or ‘voluptuous,’ ” writes C. S. Lewis, echoing the editor’s standard lecture to the newsroom novice. “By direct description, by metaphor and simile, by secretly evoking powerful associations, by offering the right stimuli to our nerves (in the right degree and the right order), and by the very beat and vowel-melody and length and brevity of your sentences, you must bring it about that we, we readers, not you, exclaim ‘how mysterious!’ or ‘loathsome’ or whatever it is. Let me taste for myself, and you’ll have no need to tell me how I should react.

newsroom walls, as if something in the history of Marietta—the copper boom, the copper bust, the near-escape from becoming a ghost town—could help her. “If you leave a void,” Angelina continued slowly, her enunciation crisp and formal, as always, “people will inevitably fill it with gossip. Every hour you don’t show

I tend to show how I’m feeling, and that’s not a great trait in a manager,” she said. “I want to make sure that I’m communicating what I want deliberately rather than just reacting to the moment.

Why do people with children bring them to work? This isn’t a place for children. There are no toys here. There are no changing stations. The drinking fountains are all set at adult heights. This is a workplace. People come here to get away from their kids—to get away from all talk of kids. If we wanted to work with children, we would get jobs at primary schools and puppet shows. We would walk around with peppermint sticks in our pockets. This is a newsroom. Do you see any peppermint sticks?