The Inside Dope

THE INSIDE DOPE

By Iffy the Dopester

Last week's words o' wisdom concernin' that News feller didn't set so kindly with a few folks around town who seem t' think that th' Sun's got no business snappin' back at th' "legitimate" newspapers, bein' a weekly tabloid an' comin' from th' other side o' th' tracks, so t' speak.

But it's never seemed t' me that just because a bunch o' middle-aged white fellers sit around a table every day an' choose th' news fer hundreds o' thousands o' readers in order t' make th' fat cats who own their papers some money is any reason t' call 'em "legitimate ," if y' know what I mean.

It's like a young feller known as Detroit Red used t' say, if y' don't watch out the newspapers'll have y' lovin' yer enemies an' hatin' yer best friends, just because they got th' means t' batter yer brains out with every day.

Now I used t' see it fer myself when I worked fer one o' th' local dailies years ago, but if y' saw that Watergate movie, All Th' President's Men, y' could get a good sense o' it from Lee Marvin an' the rest o' the actors playin' th' top staff o' th' Washington Post.

Sort o' reminded me of a locker room, at least th' way I remember it when I could still get around the field.

Y' might say those are the "legitimate" people in this society -- they sure feel that way -- but I can't help but think it might just be th' other way around.

It was new t' me when I came out o' retirement last year to write this column for Th' Sun every issue, seein' a bunch o' men and women, white an' black, most of 'em under 35, tryin' t' put out a newspaper that would serve all th' folks th' dailies don't think it's worth their while caterin' to.

It was weird at first too, an' it took some gettin' used to, expecially when they kept insistin' that what black folks were doin' was every bit as important an' serious an' "newsworthy" as what white folks were up to, an' that what was wrong with this city was not th' "niggers" but my ol' pals in th' world o' business an' industry whose praises I used t' sing back in th' 30's an' 40's.

It sure didn't seem right t' me, an' I used t' argue back an' forth with 'em all the time, because a newspaper is a newspaper an' I never seen one in this town where they took such positions an' tried t' get 'em out among th' average folk like th' Sun does.

Even when some paper would sprout up with those ol' left-wing propositions they would keep pretty much on th' outside o' things an' not try t' palm off their ideas as "legitimate. " In fact, most of 'em seemed pretty damn proud o' being "illegitimate," as the sayin' goes.

But I been followin' their articles in th' paper here fer a year now, an' I've smoked it over quite a bit on my own t' boot, an' it seems t' this old-timer that they've made somewhat of a case for their point o' view. They got me thinkin' that way , at least, an' like they say, it ain't so easy t' teach an old dog new tricks.