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James Ledbetter and Katharine Mieszkowski

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Total Eclipse of the Irish

By James Ledbetter
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1999, at 1:51 PM ET

Dear Katharine,

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I guess I'm old-fashioned on this question, but I believe just as you say: Readers don't care who broke the story. So the Post's competitors should kick themselves on Sunday morning--and then get a reporter to Paducah. There's a profound story there combining human interest with workplace safety, government policy, and even national security. A big newspaper that can't find an original angle out of that hardly deserves to publish. If the story is well done, readers will respond, and if readers respond, the business will follow--prizes be damned.

I'm off the technology thing today and immersing myself in nature. Or so I thought. I've been reading about the solar eclipse in the British press, and came across this sentence on the Guardian's Web site: "In areas outside the shadow path a partial eclipse turned the land into a twilight zone. Londoners saw 97% of the sun blotted out, while in Manchester 90% was hidden, in Leeds 89%, in Glasgow 82% and in the far north of Scotland 65%." How typically British. Even with an act of nature, the North gets the raw end, the Scots get screwed and the Irish aren't even worth mentioning.

Randomly yours,
Jim

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Total Eclipse of the Irish

By James Ledbetter
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 11, 1999, at 1:51 PM ET
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James Ledbetter is the New York bureau chief of the Industry Standard, a newsweekly covering the Internet economy. Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Fast Company magazine. Her commentaries about the Internet are heard on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
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