This morning I feel proudly Jewish. Not my usual response to the news.
But today’s Times has an unbelievable story by Alan Schwarz about dementia felling former NFL great John Mackey and many other former football players; and it puts the plight of these men and their wives on the front page. There’s a simple description of this: great journalism. At a time when TV media, pro football, and advertisers would have everyone shut up about the issue, and talk about the best hits in yesterday’s games, the Times has repeatedly gone after an important, ignored story: brain injury in football.
Why do I have an ethnic-chauvinist response? Because this is a traditional gift of my people to America, using media power to hammer away at controversial issues that can profoundly change society. Yesss!
