No, this article isn’t about the Civil War. Hang in there. The purpose of this photo specifically for this article will become clearer if you read more than the first three grafs. Photo by Scott Umstattd on Unsplash

MEDIUM IS NOT A NEWSPAPER

In response to: This untitled piece by

QUOTE: During the past 30 minutes, I’ve stopped reading several articles within two paragraphs. Let me tell you why. It’s because they are written in a creative non-fiction style, and if there is anything that irritates the hell out of me, it’s a piece with an intriguing headline that doesn’t capture what is written about in the first paragraph.

— Tessa Schleshinger

Say what?

Who told you that Medium is ONLY supposed to be about “news”?

And in particular, that it’s only supposed to be “facts.” No emotion. No lyrical quotes, no reflection on “the facts,” no spillage of human emotions whatsoever.

If I want news I’ll go to the publications where the reporters have actually been TRAINED as journalists.

Me, I want to read a story that ISN’T written in inverted pyramid style. I know how to do it — I freaking TAUGHT it for many years. It has a purpose.

But personally, I HATE IT.

I mean, of course it’s great for finding what happened today that is noteworthy. But it pretty much misses everything that matters to me. In particular, it skips over all that mushy stuff about human beings that are the…