Southern Bookman

Trump, Musk’s silencing of Voice of America an outrage

The Voice of America no longer gives hope to oppressed people around the world.

For 83 years, beginning in World War II’s darkest days, the Voice of America broadcast messages of freedom to those ruled by authoritarian regimes.

Accomplishing what Hitler, Kruschev and Mao never did, Trump and Musk killed the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Africa and Radio Free Asia.

The U.S. agencies delivered truthful information to millions across the globe, broadcasting in 63 languages. 

Fellow dictators Xi, Putin and Iran’s Khamenei toasted Musk and Trump’s destruction of the trusted news source.

The Voice of America expressed American values of freedom and democracy, helping to win World War II and the Cold War.

In recent years, the VOA countered Chinese and Russian propaganda and Islamic terrorism.

Now those anti-democratic forces boast over the odious silencing of the Voice of America.

 

 

 

Kite flying with my father

These windy March days stir childhood memories of happy Sunday mornings with my father.

My father loved to fly kites. On bright, breezy mornings in early spring, he’d drive to the Southdowns 7-11, which kept kite kits in a barrel.

Allowed to skip church, I accompanied him. He’d choose a kite from the barrel, then head to a vacant lot or field behind a school.

Soon the wind-tossed kite, decorated like a bird or a Chinese dragon, swooped and plunged beneath a brilliant blue sky.

After a while, he’d hand  me the string, and I piloted the flying marvel of paper and a delicate wooden frame. The kite almost seemed alive.

That was one of the happiest moments I spent with my difficult, depressed father.

 

 

New York Times writer Michael Kimmelman welcomes Frick reopening

Renowned New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in a review Monday acclaimed the Frick Collection’s $220 million renovation.

Industrialist Henry Clay Frick’s expanded and refurbished Beaux-Arts mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City reopens next month, again home to his exquisite masterpieces.

 

The old masters and other art treasures were housed at Marcel Breuer’s former Whitney Museum during the upgrading of Frick’s mansion, completed in 1914. 

Allaying fears that the work would ruin the architectural landmark, Kimmelman assured Frick lovers that “the expansion is about as sensitive and deft as one could hope for.” 

Kimmelman praised architect Annabelle Selldorf’s addition of a new staircase and auditorium and renewal of the garden.

 

Although Kimmelman lamented the removal of the Frick’s 149-seat Music Room, he thought the loss was justified by the addition of three new galleries, the 218-seat auditorium and a new lobby that will improve museum entry.

The Frick’s reopening in mid-April brings back a welcome cultural haven in a time of turmoil.

John Feinstein set standard for sportswriting

Like millions of other readers, I thought of John Feinstein as a trusted friend.

Feinstein, who shockingly died Thursday at his brother’s home in McClean, Va., wrote about the full gamut of American sports with a constant conversational voice.

In a series of best-selling books, Feinstein gave fans an inside view of major stars and those on the margins of college basketball, college and pro football, hockey, golf, baseball and tennis.

A writer of astonishing productivity, Feinstein published more than 40 books, bringing a signature style to a range of subjects.

Incisive reporting and diligent observation gave his writing immediacy and a sense of presence. He captured the essence of personality whether writing about famed Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight or obscure minor league baseball players.

After making his name as a brash young sportswriter for The Washington Post, Feinstein gained widespread fame for his 1986 blockbuster “A Season on the Brink.”

Taking a leave of absence from the Post, Feinstein spent a season with Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers, receiving broad access to the team from the fiery coach.

The book with its inside portrait of Knight and his players set a standard for sportswriting, inspiring a series of similar books.

Along with continuing to write for the Post, Feinstein produced one or two books a year, including the heralded account of pro golf, “A Good Walk Spoiled” and a history of the Army-Navy football rivalry.

Beginning with “A Season on the Brink,” he was perhaps best known as a chronicler of college basketball.

In recent years, he returned to The Washington Post, writing columns periodically.

His latest Post column, on acclaimed Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, was published on the day of Feinstein’s death.

Feinstein, who might have suffered a heart attack, had been planning to cover the A10 Conference basketball tournament in Washington.

In addition to his books for adult fans, Feinstein wrote a series of popular novels for young readers. Boys especially discovered the joy of reading through his mysteries.

While he excelled as a TV and radio commentator, Feinstein will be best remembered as the writer of books.

Feinstein took his readers inside locker rooms and practices and on long bus trips. He showed athletes average and great as regular human beings living day by day.

Writing with an insider’s knowledge, Feinstein never lost the wonder of a fan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruth Marcus exit latest blow for Washington Post

Columnist Ruth Marcus’ resignation from The Washington Post pushes the critically wounded newspaper into code-blue danger.

Ending a 40-year career at The Post, Marcus resigned after Publisher Will Lewis pulled her column opposing owner Jeff Bezos’ restrictions on op-ed articles.

Bezos recently ordered that The Post’s opinions page only publish viewpoints supporting “personal liberties and free markets.”

Any positions opposing these “pillars” were banned.

Marcus’ column, which ran on The New Yorker’s web site Wednesday along with an essay explaining her decision to leave, pointed to the vagueness of Bezos’ edict.

Citing the newspaper’s tradition of publishing opinions from across the spectrum, Marcus said that what’s accepted will be subjected to Bezos’s subjective whims.

She wondered if “personal liberties” will include a woman’s rights to an abortion.

As for “free markets,” Bezos as the owner of Amazon has sought monopolistic power, she observed.

Marcus said she’s never had a column canceled and that the newspaper’s columnists have always been given freedom of expression.

Bezos, who supported the newspaper’s criticism of Donald Trump during his first administration, now seeks to curry favor with Trump as he devastates government departments and ravages the U.S. economy with his erratic tariffs policies.

After Bezos ordered the removal of an editorial endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, The Post lost thousands of subscribers.

Bezos’ handcuffing of The Post op-ed page has cost the paper even more readers.

Marcus’ farewell is the most prominent loss of the hemorrhaging of Post journalists during Lewis’ tenure.

Along with a steady wave of reporters leaving, editorial page editor David Shipley resigned after refusing to carry out Bezos’ Draconian ban on diverse opinions.

Cartoonist Ann Toles left when Shipley pulled a cartoon lampooning Bezos and other billionaires for paying fealty to Trump.

Acclaimed columnists David Ignatias and Eugene Robinson remain, but their free expression appears endangered.

Bezos after purchasing the Post drew praise for his motto for the newspaper “democracy dies in darkness.”

That no longer runs. Darkness grows at the Post and for American democracy.

Hank Williams Jr. still a road warrior

I’m pleased to discover that Hank Williams Jr. will tour this summer at age 75.

Most of the tour stops are medium-sized Southern cities, appealing to his MAGA-leaning fan base.

Williams won’t appear in Atlanta but performs in Macon July 25.

I haven’t followed his career in years, but I loved his music when he began following in his famous father’s footsteps. As a Hank Sr. acolyte since childhood, I was always fond of Hank Jr.

One of my most beloved photos shows the infant Hank Jr. - Bocephus to his Dad - standing besides his father, who sits on a couch dressed in one of his elegant Nudie cowboy suits.

Returning to my country roots from psychedelic rock, I was enthralled by Hank Jr.’s early albums haunted by Hank Sr.’s legacy.

Hank Jr.’s sentimental masterpiece “I Was With Red Foley the Night He Passed Away” is one of my favorite hardcore country songs.

In the tradition of Hank Sr.’s alter ego Luke the Drifter, Hank Jr. elicits the fullest pathos from speaking some of the lines.

I’ll always remember seeing the very young Hank Jr. perform at the Baton Rouge State Fair with his father’s band, the Drifting Cowboys.

A year younger than Hank Jr., I’m tempted to close the circle by seeing him in Macon.

Hank Jr. almost died young like his dad. Wonderful that after all these years, he’s still Living Proof.

Steve Oney’s “On Air” gives vibrant history of National Public Radio

Author Steve Oney is receiving acclaim for his “On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR,” published Tuesday.

The comprehensive, behind-the-scenes history of National Public Radio profiles legendary broadcasters like Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Ira Glass and Nina Totenberg, examines the rise and fall of executives, and captures the drama of NPR’s coverage of major news events like the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Oney’s 14 years of research uncovered groundbreaking details on the development of innovative shows such as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” the firing of Juan Williams and messy dismissal of Edwards, financial crises and the $230 million donation from Joan B. Kroc, the widow of the founder of McDonald’s.

Vanity Fair recently published an excerpt from the book on its web site, and Oney appeared Tuesday on the NPR show 1A for an in-depth interview with host Jenn White.

A former Harvard Nieman fellow and graduate from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism, Oney wrote “And the Dead Shall Rise,” the definitive account of the Leo Frank lynching case.

The Atlanta native began his career as a writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Sunday magazine.

He then received praise as an award-winning writer for Los Angeles Magazine. An accomplished magazine journalist, Oney has published articles in a variety of national publications.

Mercer University Press in 2019 published his “A Man’s World, A Gallery of Fighters, Creatives, Actors and Desperados,” a collection of his profiles of male celebrities.

Oney’s “On Air” displays the irreplaceable value of NPR to American culture as the Trump administration threatens its existence.

 

Caravaggio exhibit in Rome gathers paintings from around globe

Caravaggio paintings from around the world have come home to Rome.

The 24 works in the Caravaggio 2025 exhibit at Rome’s National Gallery of Ancient Art at Palazzo Barberini include nine from foreign lenders, five from American museums.

New York Times reporter Elisabetta Povoledo in a feature on the blockbuster exhibition noted that it brings back to the palazzo for the first time in centuries Caravaggio’s “The Cardsharps,” owned by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, “Concert” from the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and “St. Catherine of Alexandria” from the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid.

More than 60,000 tickets have been sold to the exhibition, which runs through June 6, she reported.

The show also features two works recently attributed to Caravaggio, “Ecce Homo” and a portrait of Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII.

Exiled from Rome after committing a murder, Caravaggio died in 1610 at age 38, possibly killed. After leaving Rome, he traveled between Naples, Sicily and Malta, hoping for a papal pardon.

The artist whose mastery of light and shadow made him a major influence on Baroque artists, fascinates art lovers with his violent personality contrasting with his aesthetic sensibility.

Some 430 years after the Lombardi artist arrived in Rome for a successful career destroyed by violence, many of his most striking paintings are reunited in the ancient city.

 

 

Lucian K. Truscott IV launches brave opposition to Trump, Musk

Legendary journalist Lucian K. Truscott IV keeps shouting “J’accuse” as Donald Trump and Elon Musk ravage American democracy.

In his Substack newsletter, Truscott exhaustively chronicles Trump and Musk’s unconstitutional assaults against federal departments essential to Americans.

A West Point graduate whose grandfather was a commanding general in World War II and whose father was an Army colonel, Truscott writes with a deep understanding of American history. He’s a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson.

Truscott, 77, vows to keep indicting Trump and Musk’s dismantling of Social Security, healthcare, foreign aid, education, environmental programs, national parks and forests, art and culture, weather forecasting, and scientific research.

The MAGA regime threatens civilization’s gains that began in the 14th century.

In his latest warning, Truscott castigates Republican senators for capitulating to Musk, concluding that he and Trump have already completed a coup.

As they carry out their totalitarian takeover, opposition has collapsed, especially from the devastated Democratic Party.

Truscott’s clarion calls should be heeded.

 

 

 

 

ESPN cancels “Around the Horn”

ESPN’s “Around the Horn” will sound its last buzzer on May 23.

The sports chat show’s cancellation after 23 years comes as the network shifts to streaming from its declining cable model.

ESPN said that the show’s “competitive banter” format has grown stale and that the new direction requires fresher content.

Although “Around the Horn’s” audience has fallen in recent years, longtime host Tony Reali said at the end of the broadcast Wednesday that he’d received thousands of emails decrying the move.

The show’s panel increasingly serves as a showcase for rising ESPN personalities, reflecting the decline of newspapers.

When the show began, newspaper columnists made up the panels.

Along with ESPN stars like Mina Kimes, grizzled newspaper writers Tim Cowlishaw, Woody Paige, Bill Plaschke and Bob Ryan still regularly appear.

Attempts to freshen the show with sound and visual effects and panelists from the hip-hop generation failed to boost the show’s ratings.

“Around the Horn’s” end follows ESPN’s exit from broadcasting major league baseball games.

Until a new show arrives, a 30-minute version of Sports Center will replace “Around the Horn.”

The last call of “Around the Horn” raises questions about the future of its network “happy hour” sibling, “Pardon the Interruption.”

PTI hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon in the last several weeks have regularly appeared on the show, no longer taking frequent absences.

Although they often make baby boomer references and issue curmudgeonly pronouncements, PTI’s ratings remain strong, even among younger viewers.

Yet Kornheiser often refers to his age and hints at retirement.

For now, PTI’s buddy act will continue.