Robert E. L. Taylor, who once published the Philadelphia Bulletin during those long, great years when Philly was weird as hell and had lots to show for it and it was a Great Thing, this newspaper business, died last week at the ripe old age of 96. And his Times obit could not put into higher relief the stakes for newspapers then, and newspapers now. Consider:

In 1963, when Mr. Taylor was The Bulletin’s president, he and the paper’s city editor, Earl Selby, refused to testify before a grand jury about the sources for articles on municipal corruption or to allow their reporters to testify. They were found in contempt of court and jailed until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that they were within their rights under the state’s shield law.

And:

The Bulletin had a restrained tone and eschewed scandal-mongering, reflecting Mr. McLean’s philosophy that it should behave as a respectful guest in reader’s homes, yet it was able to claim in its well-known cartoon advertising campaign that “In Philadelphia, nearly everybody reads The Bulletin.”

Balls. Class. Consider this, versus what we have now. (And yes, in case you’re wondering, we’re still boycotting, although now it’s more like “ignoring” and will soon be “forgetting it’s there,” just like everyone else.) Robert Taylor, we liked the cut of your jib. We would have loved to have seen you mix it up with these fools online-style.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 11:44 am.