Celebrating William Safire’s Precision

As the literary world reflects on the legacy of William Safire, one LA Times reporter measured his work against the writing style of a 21st Century conservative icon–Glenn Beck.

Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was Matea Gold, the television media reporter for the LA Times. She discussed how Beck’s work lacked the same commitment to precision that made Safire’s work great.

Here’s an excerpt: “Safire had this obsession with the precision of language that I think was very admirable. I think Beck uses language more loosely. You see him throwing around a lot of words like ‘Communism’ and ‘radicalism,’ it creates a lot of fear around a subject without a precise connection to that subject.”

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