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| Leonard Pitts, Jr., who will retired in December as a Miami Herald newspaper columnist, at the 2015 Texas Book Festival, image by Larry D. Moore from Wikimedia Commons. |
I read the news this week that Leonard Pitts, Jr., a columnist for the Miami Herald whose syndicated work appears in The Gazette, the newspaper I read, is to retire from newspaper writing this December.
Darn. Pitts has spoken several times nearby, not that long ago at Coe College. I don’t recall what was going on that I did not attend, but I regret it. He’s a sharp, smart, talented newspaper opinion writer, and a type of voice sorely needed in our public discourse. I wish I had heard him speak.
Pitts was very opinionated, and I don’t mean that as a pejorative statement. I think an opinion writer should make clear points. But I don’t think Pitts, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, was a bomb thrower.
His columns read like a smart person ruminating out loud, thinking it over. He’d begin by grabbing your attention, and then build his essay, paragraph by paragraph—often, sharp, short paragraphs. As a result, his writing had a pleasing rhythm to it.
And he was a master of the clincher, of the ending that summed it up in a crescendo. The most recent column he wrote—about his lack of surprise that the increasingly conservative Republican party is also measurably more racist than any other mainstream political group, according to a social science study of attitudes—ended in this line:
“It isn’t surprising in the least.”
Pitts will let you know where he stands. His was a voice worth listening to. Besides being a newspaper writer, he’s written several books, and according to reports, isn’t retiring from writing but devoting himself to the longer form. I’ve not read any of his books yet, but given how much I like his columns and will miss them, it’s something I should look into.
And if they turn out to be good? Well, I think a wise man summed up what I think my reaction would be: “It isn’t surprising in the least.”
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| 2017 image of Leonard Pitts by Emily Johnson/Columbia Missourian. The 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary spoke in Columbia, Missouri, as one of the Missouri Honor Medal winners awarded by the MU School of Journalism. |
