Reporter Editor Mike Brown is profiled in the current issue of National Review.
National Review, headquartered in New York City, is the nation’s premier journal of conservative political, social and cultural commentary.
It was founded in 1955 by the late William F. Buckley Jr.
In addition to the article in the June 24 issue of the print magazine, Brown will also be the topic of a multi-part series on the NR website and a podcast—recorded at The Reporter by NR Senior Editor Jay Nordlinger, magazine contributor Kevin D. Williamson and Brown—will be posted later.
SPEECHLESS—“I am, for once in my life, speechless,” Brown said.
“This magazine has been a part of my life for 51 years. I guess I’ve always had a faint hope one day I’d get something I wrote published in it, but an article about me, and the series and podcast, is almost beyond belief,” he added.
How did it happen? “I’ve had an online correspondence with Jay Nordlinger for years,” Brown said. “He and I are just on the same wavelength, if I can say that without ruining his career.”
“Jay has been nice enough to share several of my posts online in the National Review Corner, possibly the most well-read part of its website,” he said.
“He even posted a photo I took of the rabbit judging from the 2014 Rockdale Fair and said some very nice things about it, something about it being so American it would make Norman Rockwell blush,” Brown added.
“He wrote I was ‘one of his favorite American writers’,” Brown said. “It took him some time to convince me he actually meant that. But he did. I was stunned then and I’m stunned now.”
‘NEW YORK’—“Earlier in the spring Jay asked me if he could come to Rock-dale and do a story about my 45 years with The Reporter, the last 21 as editor,” Brown said. “After I got up off the floor, the first thing I said was ‘yes’.”
So in April, Nordlinger and Williamson drove to Rock-dale from Dallas.
“The first thing they did was get lost and it was my fault,” Brown said. “I had given them directions to get to The Reporter from every conceivable compass point except the one from which they arrived.”
What happened? “They stopped and asked directions at a downtown business,” Brown said. “Later, we went to lunch downtown and the people they had gotten those directions from were there. Jay stopped and visited with them like they were old friends. That really made me feel good.”
Brown continued: “I asked if he had really come all the way from Dallas just to interview me. Jay said: ‘No, I came all the way from New York just to interview you’.”
Floor again.
“Now this is a very accomplished author and commentator who included an interview with me in his spring schedule along with the likes of Russian political dissident-hero Vladimir Bukovsky, National Humanities Medal-winning economist Thomas Sow-ell and columnist-commentator-broadcaster George Will,” Brown said.
Nordlinger has written books on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and the sons and daughters of infamous dictators.
“What’s he doing in my office?” Brown asked. “Besides being gracious and encouraging, I mean.”
“I soon felt right at home, which is good because I was in my own office,” Brown said. “I got along fine with Jay, even though he is from Michigan. Kevin also hails from the far north. He’s from Lubbock.”
ONE STORY—Days later, Brown looked back over his 45-year Reporter career and picked one piece to send Nordlinger.
It was from 2004 and covered the return of RHS teacher, and Army lieutenant colonel, Art Free to Fort Hood, and his family, after serving in Iraq.
“I chose that piece for two reasons,” Brown said. “It affected me. And that’s about as good as I can write.”
In NR, Nordlinger quoted from that piece and added: “It’s hard to get through this article dry-eyed (I can tell you).”
TIMES SQUARE—The article can be accessed, at least temporarily, at https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/06/24/ newspaperman/.
“I appreciate so many things about it,” Brown said. “That includes his acknowledgment to a worldwide readership that we cover hard news, along with the small-town items, and feel they are both so important.”
Brown said he will treasure many moments from the visit, one in particular.
“Jay had noted in one of his Impromptus columns that Americans in Europe tend to be more, ah, ‘free-spirited’ than Europeans and will cross the street when there’s no traffic, regardless of what’s flashing on the crosswalk signs.
“That very situation presented itself at the Main-Cameron corner as Jay, Kevin and I were walking back from lunch, but traffic was so heavy there just was no opening.
“I mentioned Jay’s comment as we stood there, pushed the buttons and watched an endless stream of 18-wheelers rumble by.
“Finally, one of my visitors turned to me and said, “I can cross Times Square easier than this’.”
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.