Stephen G. Bloom has an amusing piece today in the online magazine Inside Higher Ed discussing his efforts to bring a big-name speaker to dedicate a new building at the University of Iowa journalism school. Bloom had to work with the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature on the dedication, and when he submitted a list of possible speakers — all journalistic A-listers — one young professor from that department told him that she didn’t want Bob Woodward. “I just don’t think he’s a very good journalist,” she said. Her suggestion? “Sy Hershman.” Writes Bloom: “This cinema-and-comparative-literature professor was so chummy with the investigative reporter and New Yorker political writer Seymour Hersh, who broke the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal story, that she was comfortable enough calling him Sy, but somehow couldn’t get his last name right.”
Pretty funny stuff. Just one problem: Look closely at the names Bloom says he submitted for consideration. Here’s what he writes:
On the j-school’s list were such luminaries as Donald Bartlett, James Fellows, Donald Graham, Bill Kovach, Daniel Okrent, James Steele and Bob Woodward.
We’re not familiar with “James Fellows.” The only journalist type we ran across with that name is the president of the American Center for Children and Media, a small organization in Chicago. But based on the other names listed — with which we have immediate familiarity — we’re guessing Bloom meant James Fallows, the Atlantic correspondent. And “Donald Bartlett”? We think he meant Donald Barlett — no “t” in the middle — one-half of the acclaimed investigative team Barlett and Steele.
Take-home lesson: In a piece in which you’re mocking a colleague for getting the name of a famous journalist wrong, it’s a good idea not to get the names of two other famous journalists wrong. Get that man a copy editor — and a big helping of crow.
–Brian Montopoli
