Pushing.

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When I was in my 20s, many years ago, I was a reporter for The Washington Post, a newsroom

on the size of a football field, phones ringing, keyboards clattering, the glory days of print

journalism.

I want you to describe what is the status and position of a Washington Post reporter

in Washington DC in 1989?

Well, in general, Godlike, because the whole city ran on politics and news and there weren't

many organizations that produced it excellently and the post was sort of the place that everyone

cared about.

That's my friend Michael Specter.

He and I were both on the health and science beat for the post.

If somebody cured something, discovered something, solved something, or screwed something up,

we were on it.

In those days, it seemed like everyone read everything we wrote.

...