Brevity and Quality

Flashy phrasing is no substitute for quality writing.

The story hasn't been written that can't be cut. 
If you can't tell it in 500 words, you can't tell it.

   That was part of the prime directive from an editor long ago. (Rule No. 1 was: Get the name right.) Opposing that concept was and remains the Great American Fallacy: Bigger Equals Better. And in writing, that is taken to mean that longer is better. The reality is that books must be longer to help justify the high sales price of a book.
   Meanwhile, in the pocket-computer world of web sites and teaser items, brevity has gone so far that quality is sacrificed. And while it remains true that any story -- especially news stories -- can be told in 500 words or less, Internet-driven devices put a limit of a sentence or so to any item. And that means readers are fed only a headline's worth of information.
   That's not enough. Information is the lifeblood of a democracy, and the more of it the public has, the better will be their reaction to what government does in their name. A corollary is that the less information the public has, the easier it is to control their behavior and their voting.

   There is, however, both hope for the future and some storm signals warning of approaching ignorance. Daily newspapers are reacting to the prevalence of pocket Internet devices by expanding the print coverage, providing more background and explanatory news. This is no surprise, since they cannot hope to compete with the immediacy of TV journalism. They can, however, supply the full background information necessary in an informed, free society.
   The bad news is that so many folks are relying almost exclusively on snippets of information provided on their mobile devices, often set up by any radical with access to a computer. Reliability is important, but you don't often get it from some of these so-called "news" sites.
   And while brevity is important, so is quality. Too many otherwise responsible news outlets, in their zeal to capture a part of the mobile market, have substituted flashy phrasing for quality writing.

   Remember the Four C's of good writing: Clear, Concise, Complete, Compelling.