The Writer's Life: The Writer's Life 8/19

Sunday, August 19, 2018

The Writer's Life 8/19 - Survey Said

Here are interesting numbers from Michael Goodwin's op-ed piece in today's NY Post, edited slightly by yours truly: A Gallup/Knight Foundation survey of 1440 panelists earlier this year found adults estimating that “62% of the news they read in newspapers, see on television or hear on the radio is biased” and that 44% of news is inaccurate. Axios and SurveyMonkey polled nearly 4000 adults in June and found that 70% believe mainline news organizations report as news things “they know to be fake, false or purposely misleading.” Among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, an astonishing 92% harbor that distrust, as do 53% of Democrats. A Gallup survey three years ago found that only 40% trusted the media; two years ago, the meter declined by eight points to 32%... Sadly, the numbers are not at all surprising. Goodwin concludes the media has no one to blame but itself. I agree.

It was a complete luck-out today for the floating book shop. The chance of rain seemed 100%, so I resisted the anal retentive urge to set up shop at my Sunday spot on Bay Parkway, and headed for my usual nook under the scaffold on Avenue Z. Sure enough, it rained for at least an hour, although not heavily enough to send me packing. Vadim and a female companion showed. He was carrying a music-playing device a little larger than one of those old Channel Master transistor radios. I was stunned at how clear the sound was. He spotted Exchanges and seemed impressed when I said I wrote it. He asked if I thought he'd like it. I said: "I have no idea." He bought it, anyway, and his companion opted for a book in Russian. My thanks, and also to the gentleman who bought a small, illustrated version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes designed for children. It reminds me of the old Classic Comics. I chuckle whenever I recall how comic books spooked my mom. I guess they were too outrageous for her grounded sensibilities. Like many people, I rue not having saved my comics and baseball cards. I'm sure some of The Batman and Superman would have been valuable. Here's one I'm certain I bought back in the day when I was too lazy to read actual books and had no idea I would one day become a writer: