A newly uploaded issue of a Los Angeles radio mag at American Radio Library contains a feature on Frank Edwards, the archetype of GENUINE independence and empathy.
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Four or five hours a day, news analyst Frank Edwards is spending his time deliberately provoking conversations with total strangers. Sometimes he gets pleasant chit-chat, sometimes an argument. Whatever it is, the results are likely to wind up on Edwards’s Mutual news program.
Busses, restaurants, railroad terminals, hotel lobbies are fertile grounds for finding out what the man on the street thinks of current happenings at home and abroad.
Edwards is systematic about his probing. He visits every hotel lobby in Washington, D. C., the Union Station, the bus terminals and taxi stands. He always rides busses back and forth between home and the office. Each day he lunches in a different restaurant and always by himself. During the noon rush, waiters seat him with other people, paving the way for interesting conversations. At least half an hour a day he loiters in hotel lobbies, striking up chatter with vacationists and tourists. At least once a week, he mingles with the passengers at Union Station, ostensibly the average man in a crowd.
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Contrast this with the modern “reporter” who spends all day reading what other “reporters” think on Twitter.
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