A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

One day in 1943 TIME Managing Editor T.S. Matthews inspected the young fellow - from Seattle who had just been hired as a writer. "Oh, you're a Tom?" he said, catching the man's name on the application form. "Sorry, I'm Tom around here. You're Griff."

So Griff it has been for much of Thomas Griffith's 45 years in the corridors of Time Inc. For the past twelve years he has been turning out TIME's Newswatch column. Readers who have come to know and respect the column's level-headed analyses of the press and its foibles will not be surprised to learn that the reader comes first in Griffith's mind. "I never considered it my role to defend the press," he says. "I start with the reader's curiosity and concern about the information he's getting. Sometimes this means explaining what the press does, sometimes deploring it."

In the decades between his initial job writing about politics and his assignment as chief press critic, Griffith held virtually every editing position at TIME, earning praise as a friendly, unflappable manager at each turn. He also served as the editor of LIFE, a contributing writer for FORTUNE and the senior staff editor of all Time Inc. magazines. Along the way he took time to write two books, The Waist-High Culture (1959) and How True: A Skeptic's Guide to Believing the News (1974).

This week's Newswatch column will be the last. At 72, Griff thinks he has had his say about the press. Though the column will retire with him, readers need not despair. Griffith promises to deliver occasional essays to our doorstep, a form at which he has excelled, and he is already hard at work on a book that deals with inequality in America. Any parting words of wisdom after a dozen years as TIME media watcher? "Oh," says Griff, characteristically, "I don't think that way."

In this issue is the second appearance of a new department, Critics' Choice, which will offer brief reviews of outstanding books, movies, records, concerts and plays, as well as a short list of notable television programs. The section, which will appear on alternate weeks, is written by and reflects the collective intelligence of TIME's cultural critics. In an age cluttered with entertainment options, Critics' Choice aims to help readers choose their diversions wisely.