It is weeks such as this that gets the wheels turning in my mind. One phrase kept popping up: “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Which led to contemplations on where exactly that came from.
As I’ve aged, I seem to have developed this interest in etymology — the study of the origins of words and phrases — a word that might come in handy if you ever get on “Jeopardy!”.
Google is apparently utilizing Artificial Intelligence in its searches these days. My inquiry brought up three or four paragraphs titled “AI Overview.” Wanting some type of source at least a bit more trusted, I scrolled down. The next listing was from Wikipedia. Not sure that was much progress. Further scrolling found links to newspapers, such as a Vicksburg, Mississippi, article. Also discovered such websites as straightdope.com and grammarist.com. Isn’t it amazing — the things you can find by just hitting a few keys?
Amongst all this, we find some consistencies that raise the possibility of some degree of accuracy. Sophocles seems to get the most ancient credit — about 2,500 years ago — in his “Antigone” play: “For no man delights in the bearer of bad news.” Does that pre-date the Bible’s story that upon hearing that Saul and Jonathan were dead, David slew the messenger?
Somewhere in there, Plutarch — in one of his “Lives” series of biographies — wrote: “The first messenger that gave notice of Lucullus’ coming was so far from pleasing Tigranes that he had his head cut off for his pains; and no man dared to bring further information. Without any intelligence at all, Tigranes sat while war was already blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him.”
The moral of that story, as explained by Bruce Sanford in a book about the media in 2001, is that “‘Shooting the messenger’ may be a time-honored emotional response to unwanted news, but it is not a very effective method of remaining well-informed.”
So where am I going with this? Good question. Just musing perhaps.
I started in this business selling ads; it will, amazingly, be 50 years ago next September. But I quickly got some ink my blood as the saying goes — I enjoyed being part of something the community looked to for information, for news, and even perhaps some unsolicited opinions from time to time. About a dozen years later, I became the publisher of the Decatur newspaper at about the same time a major employer announced its closing and soon became embroiled in a controversy involving a policeman who moonlighted as a burglar and then a judge who insisted his afternoon naps not be interrupted by such petty things as search warrants.
There were certain people, including a police chief, who blamed the messenger rather than acknowledge the truth. I would credit our long-time editor there, Bob Shraluka, with the lead “messenger” moniker.
When I came to Bluffton more than 27 years ago, I joined a legacy of messengers that date back a bit. I am familiar with the names of Orin Craven and David Swaim, whose son Roger many still remember. As I understand it, Roger was the business guy, enabling the reporters to report. Such as Gene McCord and of course Jim Barbieri. While Joe Smekens’ legendary career was heavily on the sports side, he has to be mentioned with these giants upon whose shoulders I stood for a couple decades.
I would be remiss not to mention more contemporary messengers who understood their duties — Dave Schultz, Glen Werling, and Jessica Bricker. There were others. We weren’t perfect. We made mistakes. When we did, we owned them.
I guess the point of this might be that having relinquished the reins and my portion of ownership — I am just a happy part-time writer and editor these days — I am so pleased that the tradition of understanding the role of messengers continues under the behind-the-scenes leadership of George and Dianne Witwer, enabling Doug Brown and Holly Gaskill to lead the next generation of messengers. And dodge the potshots that occasionally come their way.
And this, which I am sure sounds self-serving: Look around. There are tragically fewer rural county-seat communities that still have that. Such is their loss.
miller@news-banner.com
