Some Thoughts He Shared

W. Russell G. Byers, senior editor of the Daily News, died Saturday night. In his memory, below are a few excerpts from his column, which readers looked forward to for his unmistakable voice, his hard-hitting and uncompromising outlook and the sense that someone involved, concerned and likeable was behind the words:

Why do so many politicians gleefully attack a supremely efficient and effective monopoly, Microsoft, while giving a free pass to the stupendously dysfunctional public education monopoly?

Two stories that ran side by side on the front page of Saturday's New York Times brought that conundrum into crisp focus. One headline called Microsoft a "Market-Stifling Monopoly," while the other announced that "Most 8th Graders in New York City Fail State Tests."

Yet it is Microsoft under attack by the U.S. Justice Department and 19 state attorneys general.. . .Hate Microsoft all you want, but at least acknowledge that since its founding in the late '70s by a college dropout, its products and services have improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

- November 9, 1999

I've argued strongly against the paper ever taking and reporting on its own polls because I believe the Daily News should report the news, not make it.

We do more than merely make news whenever we break a poll story. Sometimes we also break the back of a candidate who's trying to break out of the pack. That's what happened back in the Democratic primary when a Daily News poll showed that Dwight Evans' campaign had almost fallen off the polling radar screen. From that point forward, Evans' campaign was over because his money evaporated. No money, no message, no candidacy.. . .

Minor misses by the pollster . . . can skewer the results. And even if the pollster guesses right, so what?. . . So, please, forget the polls this year . . . At best, they are nothing but good guesses.

This race is up to you.

Please vote.

-- October 26, 1999

Does anybody know who's in charge of the city anymore? If you look at how the Philadelphia Parking Authority is thumbing its nose at City Council, you would have to believe that maybe no one is in charge anymore.