The Press: Dewatermelonization

With new money in the bank to finance ambitious plans for a “new” paper (TIME, Sept. 23), the New York Herald Tribune suggested on its editorial page last week what an editorial page should be about. “Reading most newspaper editorials these days,” wrote the new chief of the Trib’s editorial page, ex-TIME-and-LiIFE Staffer William J. Miller, “is like eating boiled watermelon. They are dull, even worse, they are bland. Our whole society has become bland. The old-fashioned American capacity for outrage or indignation is so often absent as to seem almost archaic. We intend to restore it.”

Whether the page would live up to its encouraging prospectus was for time to tell, but it got off to a brisk, bright start. Sharpened and punctuated with illustrations. Herald Tribune editorials subpoenaed the ghost of Joe McCarthy for a satiric soliloquy, thrice peppered Jimmy (“Public Enemy No. 1”) Hoffa, cudgeled Yugoslavia’s Tito and the New York City board of education, ranged more or less merrily from the World Series to San Marino to Jayne Mansfield’s bedipitus. Other dewatermelonization steps: ¶ reprint of a radio essay by CBS Commentator Eric Sevareid reflecting on the recent sad decline of quality in the Herald Tribune, and his hopes for a return to its “old heritage.” ¶ A well-pruned letters column in a freshened format that substitutes breeze for wind. ¶ “They Say” an occasional skimming of notable quotes in the news. ¶ “Curmudgeon’s Corner” a space to be periodically opened to outraged or outrageous comment.