One dinner. Four journalists. And you. Whom do you choose?

Rick Bragg. Ed Murrow. Ben Bradley. Ernest Hemingway.

 

Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Homer, Red Smith.

I'd like to have a one-on-one with HST, but I think the four-person setting may turn to chaos with him there.

 

Living: Susan Orlean, Mark Bowden, Tim Egan and Terrence Moore.
Dead: Hunter Thompson, Jack London, Nellie Bly, Ida B. Wells

Might be another thread but who are the five most influential sports writers working today? Who are the five most influential newspaper reporters working today?

 

Roger Ebert, Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut and David Sedaris.

 

Dan,

I do think that deserves its own thread. Great topic.

Also, please, please, please forgive me for not including Murray. What a tremendous oversight. Is it weird that I actually feel bad about that?
Anyway, for the record, bump Plaschke off the list, although I think he's the man, too...

Great posts so far, a little insight into some of you.

Piotr, CI: I'm interested about the Ebert selections. Was it solely based on picking his mind, or more on just the conversation he'd undoutbtedly bring to the table. While I consider him one of the foremost critics of any genre, it's still an intriguing pick IMO

Thanks

 

I'm a masochist so...

Jenn Sterger, SAS, Mike Lupica and my SE.

A Denny's....in Hell.

 

At least the hash browns might actually be cooked down there...

 

They are, but it's only because the toothless, leather-faced waitress' cigarette fell out of her mouth and onto the plate.

 

Jim Murray and three newbie reporters who would listen to all the stories he'd tell at the dinner table, pick his brain for tips on finding the story no one else can and take this knowledge and give a new generation a sense of what journalism can still be.

 

I've had the pleasure of meeting Ebert, Reilly, Murray, and both Schaaps.

If I'm sticking with sports journalists living or dead, I'll go Red Smith, Dan Jenkins, Frank DeFord and Gary Smith.

 

Grant Wahl, Steve Goff, Kevin McCarra and Sid Lowe.

Esoteric, sure, but it's my damn table.

 

If I was Selena or Lisa, I would refuse to be in the same room with those other two.