GETTING PAID | 2007-07-25
Back to Basic Lesson One:
"Why do people SAY things?"
Someone asked me a while back whether Joe Sobran's column complaining about people who quote Jesus instead of The Church was in response to me. My reply is simple, but it is not EASY to get across.
It is hard to talk to real people, in whose lives commentary on politics is a diversion or a hobby, that the world of PROFESSIONAL commentary is absolutely different. A column and a comment and an article and speech must be written every day. This is a life's WORK, not a la-de-dah hobby.
Joe and all the rest of them have to produce THOUSANDS of these. When I was at his place the steady phone calls took priority over anyone's visit. They were information GIVEN to him that constituted the stuff his LIVING was made of.
NOW let's look at ME. I am a pro, I made my living for decades producing this stuff, and now here it is free. So when I say Ann Coulter's book on liberalism as a church came from me, I am not bragging. My bosses PAID me to come up with that sort of thing. Can You imagine professional writers who know about me MISS this stuff?
They might get it second-hand, at a party or on one of Joe's calls, but they LIVE ON this stuff. So most people say I'm bragging when I point out that one of a thousand books or columns by a big name came from me.
If you know the business, it would be astonishing if they DIDN'T.