In one's relationship with dogs and with a newsroom, a generous amount of praise and encouragement goes much better than criticism.

One night she slipped a note in my hotel mailbox. It was a small essay of encouragement and praise from out of the blue.

You know, a dog can snap you out of any kind of bad mood that you're in faster than you can think of.

there are floods of praise coming in as well as criticism.

When considering praise or criticism first consider the source.

You can verify that in news meetings I sometimes say, 'This is skewed too far to the left,' or 'The mix of stories seems overweeningly appealing to a reader with a certain set of sensibilities, and it shouldn't.'