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Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
Grasp
Fledglings
Drawn
Arcane
Readers
Columnists
Follow
Journalistic
Reader
Jargon
Taken
Spelling
Eager
Impress
Fledgling

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In dealing with Syria's dictator...only force counts. No cease-fire was attainable in Lebanon until the 16-inch guns of the battleship New Jersey started shelling Syria's proxies suddenly, sweet reason prevailed in Damascus.
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Carter is the best President the Soviet Union ever had.
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When your government, employer, landlord, merchant, banker and local sports team gang up to picture, digitize and permanently record your every activity, you are placed under unprecedented control.
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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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To 'know your place' is a good idea in politics. That is not to say 'stay in your place' or 'hang on to your place', because ambition or boredom may dictate upward or downward mobility, but a sense of place - a feel for one's own position in the control room-is useful in gauging what you should try to do.
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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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The remarkable legion of the unremarked, whose individual opinions are not colorful or different enough to make news, but whose collective opinion, when crystallized, can make history.
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I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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Have a definite opinion.
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When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.
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Give your main clause a little space. Prose is not like boxing the skilled writer deliberately telegraphs his punch, knowing that the reader wants to take the message directly on the chin.
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
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One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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