"My mother, at least twice, cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on, because she was so mad about its treatment of my father"
About this Quote
The specific intent is disarmingly comic: he’s telling on himself, and on his paper, through the most old-fashioned metric of public outrage imaginable - a cancelled subscription. But the humor isn’t just cute; it’s pointed. His mother isn’t protesting journalism in the abstract. She’s protesting what feels like a breach of decency toward someone she loves. That “at least twice” does extra work: it signals a recurring wound, the paper’s persistence, and her willingness to act on indignation rather than merely stew in it.
The subtext is a quiet indictment of newsroom distance. Kuralt is admitting that the people you cover are not theoretical “subjects” to everyone. They are fathers. The line also flips the usual power dynamic: the journalist thinks he’s inside the institution, but the institution’s authority is surprisingly fragile when it collides with loyalty and anger at the kitchen table.
Context matters: Kuralt made a career out of human-scale storytelling, and this confession fits his larger sensibility. It’s a reminder that media trust isn’t built in editorials; it’s negotiated in households, one small act of withdrawal at a time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mother |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Kuralt, Charles. (2026, January 15). My mother, at least twice, cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on, because she was so mad about its treatment of my father. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-at-least-twice-cancelled-our-familys-141654/
Chicago Style
Kuralt, Charles. "My mother, at least twice, cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on, because she was so mad about its treatment of my father." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-at-least-twice-cancelled-our-familys-141654/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My mother, at least twice, cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on, because she was so mad about its treatment of my father." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-at-least-twice-cancelled-our-familys-141654/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
