MMMM # 522---Jimmy and I

  

Not sure of the date, but prior to the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, and prior to my gray hair.

     I spoke with President Carter once, for about four seconds. It was my first non-tourist visit to the White House, and photos were taken with each of the regional journalists who were invited.
     I made a similar journey during the presidency of Ronald Regan, but photos were not included.
    The invites were smart PR. These were news directors like myself, working in medium markets and not likely to have had any experience covering Washington. It is difficult to describe the feeling of entering the White House as an invited guest, having lunch (guessing which of several forks to use, and realizing the bowl of clear liquid before me was not soup, but for rinsing your fingers between courses!) and meeting cabinet members AND the president.
     I don't know how many presidents since then have held similar events, but it made a big impression on me. When Talk Radio took what seems to have been a permanent sharp right turn, GOP Presidents invited them to broadcast their shows from the White House lawn.  
     You can easily criticize Carter's four year term, but even his critics have to agree nobody has done more good after serving as President than the Nobel Peace Prize wining Jimmy Carter. Still, I was proud to be there and to shake his hand. 
       Five months ago the 39th President of the U.S. underwent brain surgery, announcing in December that MRIs showed him cancer free.

###

One wish for the new year: can we eliminate the phrase "promoted stories" in online news sites? You find those words everywhere, right above stories that are clearly not stories. They are ads. Can we please call them that instead of some pro-business corporately-corrrect meaningless phrase?

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[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular, longstanding feature of www.TimLennox.com]