My fifteen minutes in Denver

I wrote the following letter that appeared in the Denver Post. I was a little bit annoyed (moi?) that they were all over JD Salinger’s death, giving him front page and a big story inside, but only gave Howard Zinn brief mention on page 11. They did take the trouble to note in the headline that Zinn’s book was “leftist.”

Re: “Author Salinger a legend, recluse,” and “Author Zinn wrote leftist ‘A People’s History,’ ” Jan. 29 obituaries.

Two authors of note passed on last week: J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn.

Holden Caulfield, Salinger’s creation in “The Catcher in the Rye,” is a bright but misdirected young man, searching, confused and in clueless rebellion. People often use Caulfield as an archetype to reflect on their own youthful years before responsibilities took over. Salinger’s passing ignited widespread fits of self-indulgence.

Zinn was given brief note on page 11 of The Post, and dutifully identified as a “leftist.” (Just curious: On passing, were Milton Freidman or Ronald Reagan identified as a “right wingers” for Post readers?) Zinn was a fighter pilot in World War II, among the first to use napalm. Then he did the unusual: he self-reflected and changed course, thereafter leading an uncompromised life.

What ever happened to young Holden Caulfield? Did he choose the road not taken? Salinger never let on.

Mark Tokarski, Boulder

The sentence in boldface was deleted by the Post, but heck, it’s a big deal to me to have a letter published in a big city newspaper, and they improved it a bit, as the comment was off-track.

Newspaper editors unconsciously reveal their bias in the headlines they tag on stories, as in compulsively labeling Zinn a “leftist.” Those who write the stories do the same as they hang tags on the people they write about. Generally I see a tendency to follow official state propaganda – so and so is a “terrorist” while someone else is a “strongman” or “warlord,” those terms reserved for official enemies. People on ‘our’ side who engage in the same behaviors (Israelis savaging Palestinians or Americans launching drone attacks on Afghan weddings) are not given such labels. (Has any newspaper ever referred to American attackers as “militants”?)

In politics, it is rare to see someone labeled as a “right winger”, even as so many in the news are just that. But it is not unusual to label people leftists or terrorists for benefit of the readers. It helps us think for ourselves.

And I say “unconsciously” as I know that to maintain sanity in this crazy world, we all have to buy in to what we are doing. We cannot live comfortably doing things we do not believe in. It helps to buy in, so those of us who work for others subconsciously adopt the mindsets of those who control our work behaviors. Newspaper editors will indignantly tell us that no one ever tells them what to write. But if they were not housebroken, they would not be editors.