Every work of narrative builds on those that preceded it.
One of them is David McCulloughsThe Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914.
McCulloughs tale is about great American projects and how Americans do things, Oney told Deadline in an interview.
Steve Oney, ‘On Air’Casey Nelson
Early in the 14-year period of reporting and writing, Oney said he wrestled with how to structure it.
I wound up thinking, What if I did it as a quilt?’
I looked for the big set pieces that I could really develop.
Like a lot of NPR listeners, he developed an attachment to it while driving in his car.
NPR, he said, is fairly ubiquitous.
A former editor of his suggested that the origin story of NPR had the makings of a book.
AsOn Airdocuments in detail, however, NPR has always been risk-averse.
The task facing all legacy news outlets is daunting, Oney conceded.
Newspapers, television and radio news once had cachet, he noted.
They were not the embattled, forlorn precincts they are today.
… Everyones feeling the same pain.
The idea that an organization can be the clearinghouse of information that idea is now on the wane.
Even so, NPR remains a noble and valuable enterprise, Oney said.
Without it we become a sort of Tower of Babel speaking in different languages …
I still believe in the mission.
