Character Counts

Journalism is sometimes the story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

I found myself getting choked up the other day when Richard Phillips was thanking people in Vermont after being saved from the pirate thugs. Here was a salt-of-the-earth guy who kept insisting he's not a hero, deflecting all praise to the military that rescued him, when of course he showed unbelievable bravery in risking his life to save his crew.

He just seemed to embody the American values we love, a tough and dedicated seaman who loves his family and sees what he did, battling pirates on the high seas, as just part of the job, another day at the office.

Maybe, in an age of preening politicians and self-important journalists, at a time when images are manufactured and massaged and marketed, the genuine article shines all the brighter. The captain was clearly a guy who never expected to be standing before the television cameras, but fate had placed him there, and his self-effacement did not seem the slightest bit artificial.

That, of course, reminded me of another captain, another heroic figure, Sully Sullenberger. A very different fate had left him with the lives of 155 passengers and crew in his able hands. Not only did he pull off that miraculous water landing, he tried to stay out of the limelight. Again, a career guy just doing his job. Even when Sully finally sat down with Katie Couric, he told the story matter-of-factly, without a hint of ego. He, like Phillips, does not see himself as a hero.

I think these stories touch a deep chord because at a time of punishing bad news, they give us faith in the power of the individual. And on a much different level, that's why the YouTube saga of Susan Boyle has touched so many hearts. The sight of a dowdy and unfashionable woman who had the courage to step onto the stage of a British talent competition, being laughed at by judges and audience members alike, and then revealing a magnificent voice is, in its own way, a triumph. So many women have said or written that they cried as they watched, and the performance has now been downloaded 30 million times . The back story -- the Scottish woman who lives with her cat and has no job or boyfriend -- would seem hackneyed as a Hollywood script, but resonates in real life. Now, of course, the American media can't get enough.

After writing the above words, I happened upon this Tina Brown essay that also ties the Boyle saga to the two captains -- with a middle-aged woman's unmistakable perspective:

"Captain Richard Phillips of the good ship Maersk Alabama -- and Sully Sullenberger splashing down his crippled airliner in the Hudson River -- broke through the poisonous smog of economic depression and Wall Street skullduggery with a reminder that pure individual heroism is a daily occurrence if we know where to look for it. Susan Boyle is another avatar of global yearning . . .

"The surge for Boyle reinforces the point again: we're all getting sick of being bullied by bad values. Sick of disappearing everyone who's plain or strange or not one of the cool crowd. This hero was no captain courageous. She just had to fight against being plain and a bit odd from mild early brain damage . . .

"Among the many underdog groups Boyle scored with was that universally dismissed demographic -- Invisible Women: The unbeautiful 47 year-olds who don't rate a second look and never get a chance to make their point in the meeting. There are so many aging women who feel dissed by popular culture and employers alike. Much of Hillary Clinton's strength in the 2008 campaign was built on this overlooked demographic. Unwanted by TV shows, advertisers, movies, and corporate recruiters, Invisible Women feel that their experience -- often holding families together while doing the work that puts bigger egos in the corner office -- goes not just unrewarded but unrecognized."

Pulitzer News

My report on the prizes here: five for the NYT, two for the St. Pete Times, one for Gene Robinson. But no award for coverage of the financial meltdown, although Paul Krugman and WP editorial writer Chuck Lane were finalists. Says Josh Marshall: "It feels a little like 1942 and the committee didn't really think World War II was that big a deal."

Tea Tasting

Rasmussen says 51 percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of last week's tea party tax protests, 33 percent have an unfavorable opinion and 15 percent no opinion.