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Six-Word Journalism Mottos: The Top Entries

By Roy Peter Clark

Thanks to the hundreds of you who submitted entries to our contest. Your assignment was to create a motto for contemporary journalism in six words. Some of these bits of wisdom, it must be said, were pretty lame. But many stood out as sharp, humorous, ironic, iconoclastic, idealistic or delightfully cynical. So thank you, and cheers.

We have chosen 10 finalists for your consideration (and a longer list for honorable mentions). Based on your vote, we will select one winner and two runners-up, who will received an autographed copy of "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer." A number of you have expressed affection for one of my examples: "Feed the watchdog, euthanize the lapdog," so we've included it just for fun.

Four of you submitted another finalist: "They'll miss us when we're gone."

Vote for your favorite entry below

Some of you suggested that journalism already has a perfect six-word motto: "Afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted," but I learned years ago from the late great scholar James Carey that the author of those words, Finley Peter Dunne, used them to describe the over-reaching arrogance of the newspaper as the be-all and end-all of public life. Of course, we managed over the decades to turn his criticism into praise, which is one definition of arrogance.

Finally, it must be said that one of the best sources of six-word wisdom comes from the book "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs By Writers Famous & Obscure." The book helped inspire the Freakonomics six-word motto contest, off of which this contest was based.

So please, in this great election year, cast your ballot. We need you more than ever (he said in six words). -- Roy Peter Clark

Top Ten Picks:

• Doing more with less since 1690. Ken Fuson, Des Moines Register
• We'll always have Paris ... or Britney -- Jim McPherson, Whitworth University
• It's how I change the world. -- Nick Escobar, The Elgin (Ill.) CourierNews
• Get it right, write it tight. -- Margaret McDonald, McDonald Wordsmith Communications
• They'll miss us when we're gone. -- Scott Powers, Patrick McGeehan, Matthew Jones, John Davenport
• Feed the lapdog, euthanize the watchdog -- Roy Peter Clark
• Who, what, when, where, why, Web -- Greg Phillips, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
• Facts, schmacts ... how is my hair? -- Kathy Sweeney, anchor/investigative reporter, Heartland News
• Dirty commie latte-sipping liberal scum -- Ryan Kelly, Christopher Newport University
• Please stop griping, now start typing. -- Jeff Unger, University of Illinois

Honorable Mentions:

• We're sorry about all the trees -- Ken Fuson
• We checked: Our mother still loves us -- Ken Fuson
• Stop the presses! Oh, you did. -- Jim McPherson
• Information you can trust until tomorrow -- Jim McPherson
• No news is not good news -- J. David Knepper and Leah Etling
• Black and white, but not green enough -- Robert Timmons
• How many inches is the truth? -- Casey Bartels
• Got stry will txt u asap -- Lynn McMahon
• Seek the truth, not the money -- Angele' Anderfuren
• Not tonight, dear. I'm on deadline -- Christopher Ortiz
• We don't make this shit up -- Deb Sutton
• Writers' block is on Fleet Street -- Anand Raj
• Dead wood floats. So can we -- Ray Martinez
  
• A journalist's work is never done -- Randy Rogers
• If we go, who will know? -- Steve Riley
• History's first version, updated every minute -- Rebecca Jones
• Five Double You and One Age (Quinque Bi Tu Et Unum Aetas) -- Sebastian Moraga
• We break stuff. Like the news -- Ryan Kelly
• Critical thinking? We outsourced to India -- Dennis Alchemist
  
• It beats working for a living -- Jim Naughton
• Speak truth to power, or else -- Peter Gates
• Journalistic bias? Theres no stinking bias! -- Tim Owens
• Journalism lives where the truth lies -- Daneja Kirkland
• But this IS my day job! -- Mike Gruss
• We won't bore you with context -- Lois M. Collins
• News now: We'll fix it later -- Lois M. Collins
• Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy! No, seriously. Accuracy! -- Tim Schulte
• Every silver lining has a cloud -- David Vossbrink
• Must be readable on the crapper! -- Michael Sweeney
• Eye on the ball; ear on the ground -- Peter Dannenberg
• Mainstream media: Were your grandfathers blog -- Jim McPherson
• Filling the space between the ads -- Jim McPherson
• Write the truth between the lines -- Lynn McMahon
• Ding dong, the print is dead -- Russel Nichols
• There's a period key. Use it. -- Dan Close
• Journalism: Sizing down, so bottom's up! -- Matthew Cate
• Pyramids to blogosphere, and everywhere in between -- Bill West

Note:If you're receiving this via e-mail newsletter and do not see a poll above this note, please go to the Writing Tools blog to vote.

Full post as published by Writing Tools on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).