ONE OF MY FAVORITE SOURCES of risk-related information, Advisen FPN, ran a teaser about “cyber attack on Tribune newspapers.”
ACCORDING TO THE Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/y8eq4u2d) — I couldn’t read the LA Times article about its parent company as it requires a subscription — News operations are returning to normal for the Los Angeles Times and outlets owned by Tribune Publishing, but significant questions remain about a cyberattack that disrupted computer systems for a host of publications around the country and hampered newspaper deliveries over the weekend.
When the U.S. Air Force and I parted company c 1962, I found a job with the Orlando (FL) Sentinel-Star. At the time, the Sentinel was a 7-day morning paper and the Star was a 6-day evening paper.
My first job at the S-S was as a “bank boy,” pulling galley proofs from lead (led) type from Linotype™ typesetting machines.
I graduated rather quickly from the “bank” to making up pages as a “stoneman.” I also set big headlines with a Ludlow machine, pulling characters from a California job case (even though the newspaper as in central Florida).
About the only “technology” at the S-S at the time was the wire machines — AP, UP, INS. (United Press [UP] and International News Service [INS] joined forces to become UPI.)
I confess I enjoyed the work, but I also felt frustrated; I thought I could write better than the guys in editorial (the newsroom). Never mind that I can’t spelcq.
Down on the composing room floor, the main concern was water backing up from the storm sewer system when a heavy rain soaked the city. We had a table saw sitting much to close to a drain which worked in reverse when the streets flooded. (Fortunately there were more saws.)
I HAD TO LAUGH
I was amused by the Tribune Publishing’s woes. It never could have happened back when I worked in Orlando and later for Gannett’s first Today newspaper in Cocoa FL.
Cold type, a/k/a off-set printing, was making inroads into the newspaper publishing business, but large circulation papers depended on hot type (literally; 475oF) and Letter press with 50-pound plates.
What happened to the Tribune Publishing’s publications simply was not possible when I carried a pica stick.
The most sophisticated device was the wire service machine that provided both punched tape (to be fed into a “Lino”) as well has a readable hard copy.
If the phone lines got messed up, that was a problem, but it was a rare problem that resulted in garbled text.
Local reporters wrote their copy using typewriters. (I had an old stand-up Underwood in Ely NV. Wonderful machine.)
By the way, I finally got my chance to see if I could write. I guess I did OK as I worked in editorial — as a reporter, reporter-photographer, and editor) for several newspapers around the country before becoming a technical writer (who still couldn’t spell) and later, by way of tech writing, business continuity and risk management.
In the latter role I could have warned the Tribune Publishing that dependence on technology was a risk than needed to be mitigated.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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