Should We Refrain From Gossip?
Sept. 12, 2024
To the Editor:
Gossip is fun if not malicious. After all, I made a career of it.
To me, the caveat is never betraying a trusted source. Since I was a Washington, D.C.-based nationally syndicated political gossip columnist for five decades beginning at Roll Call in 1969 and appearing on the air dishing regularly with Joan Rivers during the Clinton presidency, Michal Leibowitz’s gossip story sparked my interest.
I always felt the title “gossip columnist” implied negativity and/or fluff, something “less” than a serious professional journalist. I preferred to describe my gig as chronicling social history. At the time it was difficult for women to find their bylines in the news section much less on the front page. Newspapers relegated us to the women’s pages or lifestyle sections.
But skewering the pretentious boldface name or telling the same story in an amusing, chatty style à la Liz Smith, Cindy Adams or Diana McLellan (“The Ear”) was not only more acceptable, but often our items were tips for larger stories rewritten for the front page with male bylines.
In politics then, as now, much of what originates as “gossip” quickly escalates to “gospel.”
Karen Feld
Washington
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/opinion/gossip.html