Jay Rosen reminds us of Norman Mailer’s pre-New Journalistic coverage of the 1960 Convention. “[T]here is another way of ‘covering’ a political convention,” Jay writes: “Send a writer and let the writer find a language adequate to the event.” A snip:

Mailer on Los Angeles, site of the 1960 Democratic convention: “one has the feeling it was built by television sets giving orders to men.”

In the comments, Seth Finkelstein writes about the Mailer:

Much shorter version: “Let in a bunch of freelance writers, maybe they’ll write something interesting”.

Hmm. Let me rephrase that: Let Norman Mailer in and maybe he’ll write something interesting.

Categories: Uncategorized dw