Ponder: "trusting his audience back"

"The scorebook will close on a cultural icon who earned trust in a way that is hardly seen anymore--not just through longevity, but through trusting his audience back.

[Vin Scully] did not question plays or players just to gin up a reaction.  He didn't utter undeserved accolades or excuses for the home team just because he was its employee.  He didn't engage in hype or hopped-up controversy.  He trusted that his audience would appreciate an intelligent, measured account of the game, laced with knowledgeable analysis and a never-saccharine icing of erudition...He belongs to a category that includes Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, Barbara Walters and the pre-scandal Bill Cosby--avuncular, wise truth-tellers who entertain, accompany, and win our trust because they believe they can connect without hype, hysteria or superheated energy.  The key ingredient here is grace, an element that's so sorely missing from our politicians who--especially this year--try too hard or hide too much, relying on artifice and exaggeration because they refuse to believe that we might respond well to something genuine, honest, imperfect."

Marc Fisher, "Vin Scully Called it Right."  The Washington Post, 2 Sep. 2016, B1,4.