Farewell slated for MacKay, Bakst + Co.

The parting salute to Scott MacKay, Charlie Bakst, Mark Arsenault, and others leaving due to the ProJo buyout has been scheduled for post-work this Thursday, September 11, at Local 121.

The Providence Newspaper Guild will host a reception for Journal workers a day later at its office, 270 Westminster St., from 4-8 PM.

Between MacKay, Bakst, and Arsenault, more than 80 years of political reporting experience will be leaving the ProJo.

Bob Kerr had a good column yesterday about Bakst:

A newspaper column can be just an empty word game without a strong, underlying sense of personal honesty. And Charlie has brought that to the paper three times a week. He’s one of the old guys, with old standards that endure. Swear at him or praise him, you know where he stands.

“Sometimes, when you take on prominent people or take up an unpopular cause, you get a lot of negative feedback from those people and from readers,” he says. “For instance, when I write about discrimination against gays or immigrants, the nasty e-mail tells me I’ve struck a nerve and should keep on writing.”

Indeed. And while Bakst's critics tend to rap him for his liberal views, his steady efforts in going behind the headlines -- as with this column on Council 94's Dennis Grill, for example -- represented instructive reading for anyone with an interest in politics.