John, your mention of media-know-it-alls reminded me of
something Robert E. Lee said. Quoted on Burke Davis’ “To Appomattox,”
Lee tells a friend the South had made a huge mistake from the beginning:
Why, we appointed all our worst generals to command the armies,
and all our best generals to edit the newspapers … I found by reading
a newspaper that these editor-generals saw all the defects plainly from
the start, but they did not tell me until it was too late. … I am
willing to yield my place to these best generals, and I will do my best
for the cause by editing a newspaper.
