FOR REPORTERS, IT'S OFTEN BEEN FRIDAY, THE THIRTEENTH
or else "Don't kill the Messenger"?
According to the wikipedia
that convenient compendium of tedia,
the idea of such an attack
on news-bearers
by its new sharers
or else, it's lack ,
goes way back.
Some have traced the matter
to Shakespeare's passionate Cleopatter
or, further, staying more or less Greek , to Sophocles,
including the messenger heralds of Xerxes
as well as the marathon runner , Pheidippides
and other town or city-state criers like these,
who gave the news in its immediacy
to all, even those lacking literacy.
But caution's necessary before bringing bad news
to those in power with contrary views,
"Calling a spade a spade",
has often been a risky trade.
hzl
2/13/15
Call a spade a spade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_a_spade_a_spadeWikipediaJump to Origin - Its ultimate source is a phrase in classical Greek. Plutarch's Apophthegmata Laconica (178B) has την σκαφην σκαφην λεγοντας (ten ...
Town Criers - Brent McLaren :: Perth Ontario Town Crier
www.perthtowncrier.com/support.htmlInsights into the Ancient and Honourable Art of the Town Crier with a Focus on the ...The first mention of a Crier may in fact be found in the Bible. ... It is clear that the first full-time Town Criers were the Spartan Runners in the early Greek ... "Don't shoot the messenger" was a very real command; anything that was done to a ...
Is the origin of the statement 'don't kill the messenger' a throwback to mideval times?
i heard that riders on horseback would be sent to deliver/announce news all across Britian whenever something important happened to the royalty, but that assassins often tried to kill ...show more
Best Answer
Not quite.
DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman: "Don't shoot the messenger. Don't blame the person who brings bad news. This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in 'Henry IV, Part II' (1598) and in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-07) The word kill may be used as a substitute for 'shoot.'" Related saying: "Don't shoot the piano-player; he's doing the best he can. Don't hurt innocent people. Originated in the United States in the Wild West, around 1860. During his 1883 tour of the United States, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) saw this saying on a notice in a Leadville, Colorado, saloon. It is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, but neither Wilde nor Twain has ever claimed authority."
DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman: "Don't shoot the messenger. Don't blame the person who brings bad news. This idea was expressed by Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. and much later by Shakespeare in 'Henry IV, Part II' (1598) and in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-07) The word kill may be used as a substitute for 'shoot.'" Related saying: "Don't shoot the piano-player; he's doing the best he can. Don't hurt innocent people. Originated in the United States in the Wild West, around 1860. During his 1883 tour of the United States, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) saw this saying on a notice in a Leadville, Colorado, saloon. It is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, but neither Wilde nor Twain has ever claimed authority."
Source:
Mediation Matters
A Mediation and Negotiation Blog By Steve Mehta
By Steven G. Mehta
In some sense, mediators are simply messengers in a war of the parties. They send and interpret a message from one side to the other. And we all know sometimes what can happen to the messenger. Well I thought I might briefly look at the origin of the phrase, “Don’t shoot [or kill] the messenger.”
According to Wikipedia, “Shooting the messenger” is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of lashing out at the (blameless) bearer of bad news. It appears that the original basis for the statement may have come from a related sentiment expressed as far back as 446 B.C in Antigone by Sophocles as “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news”. Later, it was used by Shakespeare in Henry IV, part 2 (1598)[1] and in Antony and Cleopatra: when told Antony has married another, Cleopatrathreatens to treat the messenger’s eyes as balls, eliciting the response ‘gracious madam, I that do bring the news made not the match’.[2]
Going back to Greek history, I thought you might like to the see the concept in action with a slight theatrical embelishment from the movie 300.
As a side note as to why people for a long time have been worried about shooting the messenger. I think it goes back to fight or flight. When people hear a message that they don’t like, it invokes the fight or flight reaction in that person. Rather than run away from the message — and its implications — they choose to fight.
The death at 58 Thursday night of David Carr, the fine media columnist for The New York Times, comes as a total shock — and the latest tumultuous event in an astonishing week in journalism.
The story of Carr — who died after collapsing in theTimes newsroom — was extraordinary and inspirational, the saga of a man who overcame heroin addiction — and bravely and candidly wrote about it — and against all odds became a pillar at the nation's leading news organization.
Carr's commentary was must reading for anyone who cared about developments in the fast-evolving media world. And his offbeat persona worked very well in the documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times.
I loved the moment when he described his young, very young, media writing colleague Brian Stelter, now host of CNN's Reliable Sources, as a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to take his job.
With his impish manner and whatever you call the opposite of the dress for success look, not to mention his sketchy past, Carr was the antithesis of the stereotypical Timesman. But his commitment to his craft and his passion for his field were obvious — and impressive.
Carr's death comes just one day after the death of Bob Simon, an extraordinarily successful CBS correspondent, at 73. Simon, who had braved the world's danger zones for decades, died in a car accident in Manhattan.
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