D Earl Stephens

I’m an award-winning journalist who traveled the semi-free world using another name on my passport. I broke stories and they broke me. Guess I pretty much stayed broke. Made it 29 years on the print side, where I worked at newspapers up and down the East Coast and in Europe, before stubbornly finishing up as a managing editor at a notoriously good newspaper. I saw the editorial end of the newspaper business from all sides. I met fascinating people all the way up to Muhammad Ali, and even swerved into hosting a weekly TV show, which as it turns out, had nothing to do with good journalism. That gig did prevent me from ever having to buy a drink, so there was some good in it after all. There was a time when print was king. I suppose that ended when print guys like me started getting TV shows. I’m pretty sure the decline in newspapers has had a direct impact on the increasing ignorance in America. I’ve been wildly fortunate to live in a lot of places around this big, beautiful, confused world — Africa, Europe, Asia. These days I’m back in the U.S.A, which lately seems to pride itself in going backwards. I don’t like what I’m seeing or hearing, so I am trying my best to attack it with my only weapon — satire. Please stand up for yourselves, brothers and sisters. You are most likely worth it.