Careers.2

(This is the second in a series. Read Part One.)

I left CIR in 1989 to resume my career as a magazine editor, becoming bureau chief for California magazine. We did some big stories there, too, but our Australian owner shut us down without warning one day; and two days later I was named Investigative Editor at Mother Jones. We did a lot of good stories over the next two years there, but it came time for me to leave, even though I wasn't sure where I would go next.

My old friend Raul Ramirez was leaving his post at KQED-FM for six months to go to Harvard as a Nieman Fellow, and asked me if I would fill in for him. This was my first taste of public radio news, one of the best venues a journalist could find, and I truly loved it there.

When Raul came back, I was ready to jump to the newspaper business, but the president of KQED made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I moved "upstairs," bought some suits, and became an instant executive. Another half-year and I was named Executive Vice President for KQED Inc. 

I enjoyed this new work, including an extremely long, slow negotiation with the union representing the station's technical workforce. It was both the details and the big picture of helping run a company important in our community that attracted me at that point in my life.

That job came to a sudden end due to internal politics and external economics, however -- so it was a transition I didn't see coming. The media world was undergoing an historic transformation and I would change with it.

(Part Three tomorrow.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump Trial Live Updates: Hope Hicks Delivers Emotionally Gripping Testimony Before Trial Adjourns for Weekend (NYT)

• Hope Hicks, ex-Trump adviser, recounts political firestorm in 2016 over ‘Access Hollywood’ tape (AP)

• NYPD takes dozens more into custody as police continue facing off with protesters nationally (WP)

• US anti-war student protests and police raids shake up schools’ graduation plans (Reuters)

• Sudden surge in sea level rise threatens the American South (WP)

• Orangutan in the wild applied medicinal plant to heal its own injury, biologists say (NPR)

• U.S. Accuses Russia of Using Chemical Weapons in Ukraine (NYT)

• China launches moon probe as space race with US heats up (CNN)

• Call the campus protests what they are (WP)

• “Mrs. Doubtfire” Child Stars Reunite Over 30 Years After Movie's Release: 'Still Feels Like Family' (People)

• It looks like OpenAI is about to make Google’s worst nightmare come true (BGR)

• Rabbit vs. Meta Glasses vs. Humane: Finding a Usable AI Gadget (WSJ)

• Stanford AI leader Fei-Fei Li building 'spatial intelligence' startup (Reuters)

• Everyone On Camping Trip Just Gets Out Of Way While Friend Who Knows What He’s Doing Takes Care Of Everything (The Onion)

 

Careers: Early Years

 One October day in 1971, I drove an old Chevy van up Fell Street to the Fillmore in San Francisco, on the final leg of a cross-county trek, and started my post-college journalism career after a two year hiatus in the Peace Corps. 

A small group of us started a magazine called SunDance at 1913 Fillmore Street. It was a large-format magazine, with big graphics and long articles on the intersection of post-Sixties politics and culture.

Actually, it was pure-Sixties in its sensibility; we just didn't know yet that that era was finished. SunDance had an eclectic list of writers and artists, none more famous than John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who also gave us some money. When they came to visit the office and share stimulants with us, we knew we'd been blessed by the gods. 

Alas, none of us knew what a business plan was, and SunDance lasted all of three issues, though glorious issues they were. 

A few years later, I landed across town at Rolling Stone, at 625 Third Street, where celebrities of every stripe poured through the office, and the stimulation never ended. Not being a music writer, I rarely hung out with musicians, but a small group of us formed an ad-hoc investigative unit on staff there, and we did some good work until the founder, Jann Wenner, decided to move the operation to New York.

Some of us left behind then started a non-profit, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and our first real office was in the Broadway Building in downtown Oakland. Financing ourselves by a combination of foundation grants and contracts with media outlets, we produced newspaper series, magazine articles, books, television and radio documentaries and eventually, long after I left, articles on the web.

(This is an excerpt from a much longer piece I first published in 2006. I may continue with other parts in the coming days.)

HEADLINES:

• Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses (AP)

• U.C.L.A. Tries to Reconcile a Week of Turbulent Events (NYT)

• After weeks of college protests, police responses ramp up (WP)

• A Campus in Crisis (New Yorker)

• How Columbia University became the driving force behind protests over the war in Gaza (AP)

• Escalating campus protests across the country are forcing President Joe Biden to walk a careful line. (Reuters)

• Biden says ‘order must prevail’ during campus protests over the war in Gaza (AP)

• ‘No surprise’: US students slam Biden’s comments on Gaza encampments (Al Jazeera)

• U.S. and Israel Struggle With Clashing Visions on Ending Gaza War (NYT)

• Campus calls to divest from Israel hinge on a tough question: Where’s the money exactly? (NBC)

• The "Access Hollywood" tape that almost derailed Donald Trump's bid for the presidency in 2016 is the key to understanding his criminal hush money trial.[HuffPost]

• Trump’s coup plan: Bombshell Time interview exposes drive ‘to destroy system for his own purposes’ (NBC)

• One thing is already clear at Trump’s N.Y. trial: Nobody liked Michael Cohen (WP)

• Trump’s Contempt for His Court Is So Pervasive It Has Become Routine (NYT)

• Biden calls Japan and India xenophobic: ‘They don’t want immigrants’ (Guardian)

• Here's why Americans having fewer kids won't doom the economy (Business Insider)

• The Battle for Attention (New Yorker)

• How disinformation works—and how to counter it (Economist)

• The AI arms race may soon center on a competition for ‘expert’ data (Fast Company)

• The AI-Generated Population Is Here, and They’re Ready to Work (WSJ)

• Congress Passes Opioid Crisis Legislation After Addict Cousin Steals Their Xbox (The Onion)

Not Taking Sides

 It’s at times like these, when passions are running high on the issues of the day, that everybody feels pressured to take sides. But what if you don’t want to, or due to circumstances, cannot?

That is the reality for student journalists covering the protests that are sweeping campuses across the country. They have to try and remain objective about the events they are witnessing close at hand.

Their dilemma is made especially difficult because they probably know many of the protesters personally — on all sides of the issues. In fact, their nascent career demands that they seek out voices on all sides of any issue they cover.

Furthermore, by today’s journalistic standards, they should never participate in a demonstration themselves if they want to be able to cover it as a journalist in the future. And, of course, the “future” could be five minutes from now.

In addition, they are expected to suspend and suppress any feelings or experiences they or their family or friends have had personally that informs their thinking on an issue.

And in an era when so much emphasis has been placed on one’s identity — whether by race or gender or national origin or sexual orientation or religion or the color of one’s skin — they are expected to put all that aside too.

When you think about it, all of these demands make being a student journalist pretty unattractive. So what advice, if any, do I, as a former professor, have for these young reporters?

Welcome to journalism! We need you more than ever.

HEADLINES:

• CJS Student Journalists Reporting on the 2024 Campus Protests (Columbia)

• Tension between protesters, police continues on campuses across U.S. (WP)

• Police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators clash in tense scene at UCLA encampment (AP)

• Hundreds of Protesters Arrested as Universities Blame Outsiders for Escalating Violence (WSJ)

• College protest live updates: Nearly 300 arrested at Columbia and CUNY, UCLA cancels classes, as campus demonstrations intensify (Yahoo)

• Colombia will break relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza, Petro says (NPR)

• Biden left without an easy solution as campus protests heat up (CNN)

• A Bystander to ’60s Protests, Biden Now Becomes a Target (NYT)

• House Republicans launch an investigation into federal funding for universities amid campus protests (AP)

• Marjorie Taylor Greene to force vote on ousting Mike Johnson as speaker (Guardian)

• United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy (AP)

• Arizona Legislature repeals 1864 abortion ban after two GOP senators rebel (The Hill)

• Christian conservatives wrestle with shifting GOP stance on Arizona abortion ban (NPR)

• WGA Strike: One Year Later, Writers Face a Different Sort of Crisis (Variety)

• How AI is testing the boundaries of human intelligence (BBC)

• AI video throwdown: OpenAI’s Sora vs. Runway and Pika (Ars Technica)

• Microsoft taps Sanctuary AI for general-purpose robot research (TechCrunch)

• National Park Visitors Treated To Majestic Sight Of Crow Eating Napkin (The Onion)

The Protest Voice

New York City Police arrested more than 100 protestors occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia in what appears to have been a non-violent operation. The university has requested that NYPD maintain a presence on campus for the next few weeks.

The high-profile protests right in the middle of the country’s largest media market has led to intensive coverage, which may have the affect of distorting the popular impression of the anti-war movement overall.

At the vast majority of colleges across the nation, protests have been entirely peaceful, with no arrests and no need for a law enforcement presence. At several major colleges, leaders of the protests have negotiated with administrators to avoid conflicts.

My friend and long-time colleague Doug Foster, who teaches journalism at Northwestern, reports:

“There’s less coverage of places where pro Palestinian student encampments have not been met with punitive sanctions or arrests and confrontations with police. After days of serious negotiations, talks between student organizers and administrators at Northwestern resulted in an agreement to allow the protest to continue until shortly before graduation, with concessions on both sides. If the agreement holds perhaps it’s a model for others dedicated to free speech and also committed to the long struggle against hatred directed at Jews and Muslim minorities.”

But national media coverage has disproportionately featured Columbia on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, as well as the University of Texas, UCLA,  and other places where has been some level of violence, arrests or both.

Covering a developing situation like this one is among the most daunting tasks journalists undertake. Finding representative voices who truly speak for the majority of protestors is extremely difficult.

Too often the extremist voices get exposure when they are actually only a small percentage of the whole. This factor gets exacerbated by politicians who seize on the presence of extremists to advance their own agendas.

In this way, entire social movements can be unfairly discredited in the eyes of the general population. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen in this case and that this generation of protestors get to have their authentic collective voice heard.

That is needed as part of an open, honest debate of the issues involved in U.S. support for Israel in the war in the Middle East.

HEADLINES:

• Judge in hush money trial threatens Trump with jail after holding him in contempt for violating gag order (NBC)

• NYPD officers enter building occupied by Columbia students (CNN)

• Violence stuns UCLA as counter-protesters attack pro-Palestine camp (LAT)

• Trump won't rule out election violence if he loses to Biden in November: 'It depends' (Business Insider)

• Arizona state senator indicted in fake electors scheme and expelled state legislator are tapped for RNC positions (CNN)

• Democratic leadership vows to rescue GOP Speaker Mike Johnson as intrigue grows in Capitol (WP)

• Florida Abortion Ban to Take Effect, Cutting Off Major Access Point (NYT)

• Confessions of a former NPR commentator: The network has changed (The Hill)

• Texas just took a big hit in its competition against California (SFGate)

• A Massive U.S. Nuclear Plant Is Finally Complete. It Might Be the Last of Its Kind. (WSJ)

• Stowaway Cat Gets From Utah to California in Amazon Returns Package (NYT)

• The Philippines accused China's coast guard of harassment and damaging one of its boats in a disputed area of the South China Sea and rejected Beijing's position that it had expelled two vessels from the hotly contested shoal. (Reuters)

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged his country will invade Rafah "with or without" a deal with Hamas involving the release of hostages.[AP]

• In pictures: A lookback at student protest movements in the US (CNN)

• Hope Rises for New Talks on Gaza Cease-fire as Israel Scales Back Demands (NYT)

• AI is coming for the professional class. Expect outrage — and fear. (WP)

• 8 Daily Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. (NYT)

• Coachella Organizers Announce Plans To Extend Festival To 52 Weekends A Year (The Onion)

 

Freedom's Limits

As anti-war protests spread campus-to-campus across the land, leading to the inevitable confrontations with law enforcement, it seems to people my age like we’ve seen this movie before.

Some of us had central roles in the movie, others bit parts, but we all saw it.

One of the distinct memories from the 1960s that arises for me: During a large demonstration at the University of Michigan, I decided to leave the press area to walk along the narrow line separating protestors, who were yelling and gesturing loudly, and the police, who were armed and seemingly ready for combat.

As I passed through this gauntlet, the one emotion I remember sensing on all sides was fear. Some of the protestors held bottles or rocks, others looked scared and even some of the police officers looked fearful as well.

And I certainly felt fear myself as I quickly walked to the end of the line, grateful that silence hadn’t broken out while I was in the middle of it all. Soon after the battle began, as did the injuries and arrests.

This all comes up as I watch the confrontations at colleges from New York to Texas and California. Our democracy’s sacred right to freedom of speech meets the needs of universities to maintain order.

And then there is the fear — on all sides. The difference this time around is that everyone has their own camera so there will be a million movies — every day.

These are dangerous times.

HEADLINES:

• Pro-Palestinian protests disrupt colleges across the US (CNN)

• Protesters take over Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in escalation of anti-war demonstrations (AP)

• What do student protesters at US universities want? (BBC)

• How Columbia University's complex history with the student protest movement echoes into today (AP)

• Academic Freedom Under Fire (New Yorker)

• Protests on college campuses nationwide over Israel's war in Gaza continued to pick up steam as administrators with graduation ceremonies next month tried to deal with the tension. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said calling the National Guard to contain students was a "very, very bad idea." HuffPost's Shruti Rajkumar shares a breakdown of what the pro-Palestine protesters want to see from their colleges. [HuffPost]

• College Protests Over Gaza Deepen Democratic Rifts (NYT)

• Parties see hope for a Gaza cease-fire: ‘Maybe this time it will work’ (WP)

• US, UK urge Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal in war on Gaza (Al Jazeera)

• Google Fired Us for Protesting Its Complicity in the War on Gaza. But We Won’t Be Silenced. (The Nation)

• Trump, GOP seize on campus protests to depict chaos under Biden (WP)

• Ukraine's top commander said Kyiv's outnumbered troops had fallen back to new positions west of three villages on the eastern front where Russia has concentrated significant forces in several locations. (Reuters)

• Though some in the GOP may blame House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) for their failure to impeach President Joe Biden, the real reason is simple: Republicans were working with claims that'd been debunked repeatedly — and even certified as Russian propaganda by Donald Trump's administration in 2020, HuffPost's Arthur Delaney explains. [HuffPost]

• GOP House hard-liners won’t compromise. They’re losing key fights because of it. (WP)

• Johnson’s speakership hangs in the balance as ouster threat looms (CNN)

• Latino voters are coveted by both major parties. They also are a target for election misinformation (AP)

• America’s reproductive rights nightmare is entering a crucial week (The Hill)

• Earthly Delights — Unpublished oral histories tell us what life was like at San Simeon for William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and their many, many guests. (New Yorker)

• Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race (NYT)

• 711,700 Titles From Japan's Biggest Light Novel Publishing Site Get Scraped by AI Developer (CBR)

• The 4 Types Of Generative AI Transforming Our World (Forbes)

• Biden Sets Aside Land West Of Mississippi As Gluten-Free Zone (The Onion)

 

A Little Help

“You don’t need drugs when you have a kid. You’re awake and paranoid anyway. Who needs anything else?” -- Robin Williams

***

I miss Robin Williams being in the world with us. An interview with him that first appeared in Interview (the magazine co-founded by Andy Warhol) in 1986 resurfaced this week, and it is packed with his unique brand of wisdom.

One of my favorites is this monologue on relationships : “[Women are] wonderful—they’re amazing creatures. You can never learn enough! They’re addicting in the most amazing sense. They have so many levels. There’s the physical level, which is a lot of fun. 

"There’s this emotional level, which is extremely mercurial. Every 28 days you have that massive mood swing, where nature’s going, 'Check, please.' It turns your body into an Etch-a-Sketch, and then you start over. 

"Men may have wars, but women have their period. Men go off and kill each other, but women say nasty things, which is even better. Women are incredibly intuitive. If anybody on the planet is going to evolve to the next level, that telekinetic thing, women will.”

***

Women might be surprised that when men talk among themselves about women how much of the conversation is not complaining, or 'locker room jokes' or anything of that nature.

No, a lot of times it's sharing sense of powerlessness at dealing with creatures who have more empathy and intuition than us, plus the emotional roller-coaster our relationships seem to become. Many of the men I know tell me they feel they can't compete on these levels, and they find that disorienting.

These conversations are most intense when the men are either just getting involved with a woman or just breaking up. I've had exchanges recently with men in both stages and the content was remarkably similar.

In a way they both were asking for advice and mine not especially profound — to not try and control the situation, as that can't be done. You cannot control who you are attracted to and you cannot control what happens when a woman wants you out of her life.

Either time, you're essentially powerless over the outcome, but there is one thing you can do and that is work on yourself. Honestly, the therapy business should give me a plaque for how many men I've encouraged to seek out counselors.

And some men find that women counselors are best for them, I suppose for obvious reasons. One guy told me recently that he insisted his health insurance let him return to a therapist he had seen before, because "she understands me best."

Another told me he had recently called his therapist from a previous stage when he was deeply depressed just because he wanted her to know he was doing better now.

I suppose all of this is coming up because there have been so many articles about depression, anxiety, and mental health problems during the pandemic. As we've gone over many times in these pages, isolation is flat-out bad for all human beings, regardless of gender.

We need each other, but finding one another and staying together is difficult and everyone can use just a little bit of help along the way.

(I first published this three years ago in 2021.)

HEADLINES:

• Amid college protests and arrests over Gaza, White House says: 'We don't want to see anybody hurt' (ABC)

• Campus protests: Hundreds arrested at universities across US as Gaza demonstrations continue (BBC)

• College protesters seek amnesty to keep arrests and suspensions from trailing them (AP)

• Is there about to be a breakthrough in the Gaza ceasefire talks? (Guardian)

• Aid Flows to Gaza Are Rising, U.N. Says, but More Is Needed (NYT)

• US has long history of college protests: Here's what happened in the past (USA Today)

• With U.S. aid resumed, Ukraine will try to dig itself out of trouble (WP)

• New immigration reality: The economy needs workers (Axios)

• Haunting Sounds From The World's Largest Living Thing Recorded (ScienceAlert)

• Why the U.S. struggles to replace millions of lead pipes (WP)

• Tech brands are forcing AI into your gadgets—whether you asked for it or not (Ars Technica)

• So what if OpenAI Sora didn't create the mind-blowing Balloon Head video without assistance – I still think it's incredible (TechRadar)

• Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race Of Skeleton People (The Onion)

 

Balancing

Over the past week, I watched television coverage of the 2016 election interference trial of Donald Trump in New York for many hours. And while I get the logic of the case, it seems to me that prosecutors are asking the jury to take a pretty big leap in order to secure a conviction.

I’ll get back to that, but all of that sedentary time focusing on a deeply depressing matter was getting me a bit down myself. Normally, I try to be a cheerful person, at least outwardly, and there’s plenty to be cheerful about — my children and grandchildren, the spring-like weather, talks and outings with friends, and the start of the baseball season.

On Friday, just as the trial-watching was becoming tedious, my son Peter texted me asking if I would like to go to that night’s baseball game featuring the San Francisco Giants and the Pittsburg Pirates.

“Yes!”

The two of us share a long tradition of going to Giants’ games, stretching back well over 30 years. Once, I’d used my press credential to get his hero, Will Clark, to sign his rookie card for Peter’s 11th birthday present.

***

Besides all of the Trump-related dramas in the news, large protests against the war in Gaza have been spreading to college campuses across the country. As a former anti-war protester myself, my natural sympathy was initially with the protesters.

But not when some of them begin to celebrate Hamas and its terrorism, or when they chanted antisemitic tropes. It’s one thing to oppose the war; quite another to embrace the enemy.

That reminds me of when the antiwar movement of my youth began celebrating North Vietnam’s Communist leadership and its killing of American troops.

I was against the war but rooting for the enemy was a step too far for me. Soon after that realization, I left protesting behind and embraced journalism instead. I was 18 at the time.

***

Youthful passions are beautiful. They also can be reckless, excessive, poetic, magical, scary, difficult and inspiring. All at the same time.

One of the things young people do, generation after generation, is play sports. My oldest son, Peter, played Little League baseball, so did one of my other sons, Aidan, as do some of my grandchildren.

Long-time readers may recall my grandson Oliver who became a star on his Little League team two years ago. Well now he is 12 and an even bigger star. The other night he hit his first home run. My daughter, his Mom, sent me the video.

***

The problem with the New York trial is that it appears to be the weakest of the four criminal cases against Trump. They all relate to his efforts to subvert our democracy one way or the other, but this so-called “hush money” case is the least direct and the hardest to understand of the four.

I’m not sure the prosecution is going to prevail in this case, but at least the visual cues of Trump standing behind the low bars of the police fence at the courtroom are sending a subliminal message of where that guy belongs.

Meanwhile the war in Gaza with all its terrible toll on innocent civilians, may be one of the biggest factors in this year’s election. Biden could well lose to Trump unless he abandons his “iron-clad” support for Israel.

***
The baseball game my son and I attended turned out to be a thriller. The score remained 0-0 for inning after inning until in the bottom of the 9th, the Giants’ young catcher Patrick Bailey hit a walk-off, 3-run homer far into the night sky.

Then, on Saturday, we went down to San Jose to see Oliver play an afternoon game, As I sat in the stands rooting for him and his team, Olle put on a show. In his first at bat, he doubled in a run and later scored. In his second at bat he doubled again and later scored.

But he saved the best for last. In his final at bat, with two teammates on the bases, he smashed a long home run over the center field fence, closing out a win for his team.

***

Sometimes it seems as if all this is by some grand plan. 

Afterward, thinking about all of these things, I decided that in the end, life is a balancing act and it’s good to know how to keep it all in perspective — everything, always, no matter what.