23 June 2015 — Coldtype
Topic of Cancer: FREE To Our Readers
Download – free of charge – at http://coldtype.net
TOPIC OF CANCER – 212 PAGES
When he was diagnosed with cancer late last year, Danny Schechter, the News Dissector, started a diary of his Medical Mystery Tour – telling of his fight against the disease, his treatment and his feelings. This diary, with a moving final chapter by his daughter Sarah Debs Schechter, is now published as a 212-page ebook to commemorate his birthday on June 27, exclusively for readers of ColdType.
Download your FREE copy at
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I’ll let “lizzie’s” vicious attack be, and leave her the comfort of having had the last word, my brother not really being in a position to respond. I am glad that Inl says she personally liked him, got along with him well, and feels she wasn’t treated shabbily by him. Danny actually had a lot of women friends. I know this not only because they came to (and spoke at) his funeral and posted on FB, but because they wrote to me. That does’t mean he was easy to work with or for, whether for male or female co-workers. He drove himself hard and drove others hard too. No doubt too hard. I don’t think anyone can say, though, that he was boss who sat back, put his feet up, and let others do the work. Many out there know how tough it is being a journalist and film-maker, forever hustling for news, for access, for funding. Nothing got easier when he left ABC and tried to build his own business. He had a nice set up at the network, and he gave it up for political reasons. Danny was brilliant and he also had the gift of making lots of people laugh. He could be a lot of fun. A chameleon? I’d have to disagree. But he wasn’t easy or uncomplicated. Not only would I give you that, but I think he would too. Danny showed a lot of courage in his life, in the choices he made, the commitments he kept, and the path he took. He also died with a lot of courage. OK, that’s enough from me. Bill
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My brother was a complex person–aren’t we all?–whose political commitments go back to the early 60s. He took stands when it wasn’t popular to do so and put himself at risk more than once. The 500 or so people who attended his funeral I guess felt differently about how he touched their lives. His life requires no defense from me nor do I intend to offer one. But I do want to say this: the two people who commented above, and who referred not at all to the book, give some indication of the kind of people they are through the tone and language they use to describe, dismiss, and dump a human being, now deceased. They clearly were hurt by my brother, and he was also hurt by people in his life. But he never felt it was necessary to place on the Internet this kind of personal attack. I really feel bad for these commenters. I am glad in a way they had just enough shame about what they were doing not to use their names. Bill Schechter
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Frankly, I think the way Danny affected people depended on their gender. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Danny and by and large we got on well but then I’m not a woman, who generally got treated rather shabbily by him. As I said below, he was a great producer but he used people.
Danny was a bit of a chameleon, maybe it was his journalism education that made him that way. It explains why different people viewed him in such different ways.
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he was an abusive person, par excellence, and a fraudster on a myriad of levels. schechter, whom really should be called “shyster,” is another topic. his last book, alone, ‘topic of cancer’is a title that was used in 2010 by christoher hitchens: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/09/hitchens-201009
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Yes, he was that too but that doesn’t detract from the book, even if he did steal the title from Hitchens. Fraudster? Not in my experience. Hustler? Oh, for sure but isn’t that the American way? I worked for him twice, once on ‘South Africa Now’, and then later for Globalvision as his so-called assistant. It didn’t last long. I found him especially abusive of women, at least in the workplace, that’s why stopped working for him. A contradictory character. A bit of an opportunist but still, he made great videos.
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