Q: David Halberstam: Journalist...OR WAS HE!?

A: That's just what the Germans want you to believe!

INSIDEBAYAREA.COM: Reputed Journalist Killed in Crash

Okay, let's do our friends over at insidebayarea.com a favor and brush up on some vocab.

Reputed: putative: commonly put forth or accepted as true on inconclusive grounds; "the foundling's putative father"; "the reputed (or purported) author of the book"; "the supposed date of birth".

Saying David Halberstam was a "reputed journalist" suggests that his status as a journalist is in question. It's like saying, "Alleged Former President of Russia Dies of Heart Failure". It only makes sense if InsideBayArea hates David Halberstam.

(Which would be unthinkable, since Halberstam was one of the great truth-tellers in an age of "inoperative" statements, and a superlative chronicler of sports in an age of dumb white guys who don't know a goddamned thing about sports. His sudden accidental death is unquestionably tragic.)

Reputed journalist David Halberstam, left, allegedly wore glasses while reporting from what he claimed was the Mekong Delta.

A certain unnamed sexy teenage friend of mine suggests that the copy editor here meant to use the adjective "reputed" as a form of the noun "repute," "the state of being held in high esteem and honor." But you can't just go around turning nouns into adjectives! IT WOULD BE MASS CHAOS!!!

---

KNBC: Police Kill Reputed Gang Member in Shootout

Alas, he was among our most esteemed Crips.

---

MORE ON DAVID HALBERSTAM:

• A Skeptical Vietnam Voice Still Echoes in the Fog of Iraq [NYT]
• The Salon Interview: David Halberstam
• Halberstam on Journalism [NYT]
• Halberstam talks to Steve Inskeep about the parallels between today and the Vietnam era [NPR]
• Interview: Halberstam's Hit Streak Continues [Powells]
• The Best and the Brightest and other books by David Halberstam [Amazon]