"They know that the column resonates in the community. They know that people like it, and yet they don't have room for one column once week that consistently got it right"
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A newsroom fight is hiding inside that mild phrase "don't have room". Scheer frames the decision as less a matter of taste than of institutional bad faith: they know the column matters, they know it lands with readers, they know it has a track record of being "right" - and they cut it anyway. The repetition of "They know" is a drumbeat meant to foreclose the usual excuses (budgets, page counts, shifting priorities) and replace them with a darker diagnosis: editorial gatekeeping that treats public resonance as an inconvenience.
The line also smuggles in a theory of power. "Resonates in the community" isn't just a compliment; it's a claim about journalism's proper constituency. Scheer is invoking a model where legitimacy flows upward from readers, not downward from owners, advertisers, or prestige-seeking editors. By emphasizing "once week" and "one column", he makes the sacrifice sound comically small, which sharpens the implied indictment: if they can't tolerate even that sliver of dissent, the problem isn't space - it's control.
"Consistently got it right" does double duty. It's self-defense against the easy smear that columnists are provocateurs, and it's an accusation that the institution prefers being safe, aligned, or access-friendly over being accurate. The likely context is a familiar American media moment: consolidation, shrinking newsrooms, and the quiet sanitizing of voices that organize a community rather than flatter an elite consensus. The sentence is built to sting because it turns a bureaucratic rationale into an ethical failure.
The line also smuggles in a theory of power. "Resonates in the community" isn't just a compliment; it's a claim about journalism's proper constituency. Scheer is invoking a model where legitimacy flows upward from readers, not downward from owners, advertisers, or prestige-seeking editors. By emphasizing "once week" and "one column", he makes the sacrifice sound comically small, which sharpens the implied indictment: if they can't tolerate even that sliver of dissent, the problem isn't space - it's control.
"Consistently got it right" does double duty. It's self-defense against the easy smear that columnists are provocateurs, and it's an accusation that the institution prefers being safe, aligned, or access-friendly over being accurate. The likely context is a familiar American media moment: consolidation, shrinking newsrooms, and the quiet sanitizing of voices that organize a community rather than flatter an elite consensus. The sentence is built to sting because it turns a bureaucratic rationale into an ethical failure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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