New York Social Diary: Liz Smith - The Tone and The Tongues

How and When the Tone and The Tongues Changed in the World of TV’s Political Punditry … Mail!  We Get Mail! … Mike Huckabee Asks — What’s Love Got to Do With it? 

“THE ONLY pro, or crypto Nazi I can think of is yourself.”

“Now, listen you queer, quit calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

So it went between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley in 1968, on the air, over ABC-TV during the 1968  Presidential campaign.

Yes, children, a lack of civility is not a 21st century phenomenon.

Prepping for the big fight.

ON July 13th, in Manhattan, there will be a screening of the documentary, “Best of Enemies,” which focuses on the fiery clashes between Vidal and Buckley, during the incendiary political year of 1968. Directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, this pretty much puts to rest the idea that people beating each other up, on TV, is something new. The film is subtitled “2 Men. 10 Debates. Television Would Never Be The Same.” Indeed! From then on, tongues were looser, language more extreme — remember Joe Pyne, or David Susskind? (Susskind could be a nasty piece of work, but he preferred to sit back, smirk, and watch his guests go at each other.)

The screening is hosted by The Common Good.  Call 212-599-7040 for tix and location

- Liz Smith for New York Social Diary, READ MORE

Wall Street Journal: New York State Common Retirement Fund’s Return Assumption Likely to Fall

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said he expected to lower the 7.5% return assumption for the state’s retirement system, after a yearslong rally in stocks and other assets.

A five-year review of New York State Common Retirement Fund’s investment target is scheduled to be completed later this year. The last time New York State Common lowered its return assumption was September 2010 when the target dropped to 7.5% from 8%.

“There’s a good chance we’ll be below 7.5% in a couple of months when we complete that review,” Mr. DiNapoli said. He made his remarks at a Manhattan event sponsored by nonprofit The Common Good and moderated by Bank of America Merrill Lynch prime brokerage executive Omeed Malik[…]

- Rob Copeland for The Wall Street Journal, READ MORE

The Jewish Daily Forward: Jill Abramson Champions Freedom of the Press

“She was reading the New York Times before she could transfer to a bottle,”Gail Sheehy said of Jill Abramson, at the July 15 reception she hosted at her Manhattan duplex for the former executive editor of The New York Times.

Author of 16 books — including megahit “Passages,” Sheehy touted Abramson as “among the first to invade the all-male testosterone preserve at Harvard…and because of her, the New York Times has an equal number of men and women on [its] masthead.”

Sponsored by The Common Good as part of its Leadership Series, the more than 50 guests included former, still active and young wannabe journalists. Standing on a white plastic stool — so she could be seen — barefoot in-a-chic-black and white pattern sleeveless dress, Abramson declared: ”The First Amendment is first for a reason… Jefferson famously said if you had to choose between having a country with a government and no newspapers — or the opposite — he would say that having newspapers is more important than the government. The founders of this country were desperately afraid of highly centralized power and believed that a free press was necessary to hold the government accountable to the people” and that “stories from [accused] whistle-blowers — if they are indeed the sources — were very much in the spirit Jefferson envisioned.”

- Masha Leon for The Jewish Daily Forward (now Forward), READ MORE

NY Daily News: Jill Abramson Gives First Interview Since Fired From Executive Editor Job at N.Y. Times, Says She Has ‘Very Few Regrets’

Jill Abramson, former executive editor of The New York Times, has “very few regrets” about her tenure at the paper, she said Tuesday in her first broadcast interview since her public firing.

“I look back on it with a lot of pride. I had a wonderful time (at the paper), I loved being both a reporter and an editor there,” she told Pat Kiernan and Rita Cosby, co-hosts of 77WABC show “The Ride Home.”

Abramson, 60, was abruptly fired from her executive editor spot by Times' publisher Arthur Sulzberger in May — allegedly over her rough edges in the newsroom and her complaints when she discovered she was being paid less than her male predecessor.

The veteran journalist said it had been tough on her when the news broke — and she found herself the topic of the day's headlines[…]

Abramson, who was scheduled to give a speech later Tuesday for The Common Good, a nonpartisan reform coalition, loosened up when the talk turned to the state of political reporting.

She expressed concerns that social media had elevated the importance of "momentary buzz" over real, on-the-ground political reporting.

- Ginger Adams Otis for the NY Daily News, READ MORE