Along with any complaints I might have about living in San Francisco, lo, these many years (37+), I have to admit that for the most part, the local press has been very kind to me.
They often write nice stories when I get jobs, and they almost always write nice stories later on when I lose those jobs.
Today, a reporter for the SF Weekly, Peter Jamison, posted a very kind and thoughtful piece about my latest transition.
When you've been around and active in the same profession for as long as I have, you've crossed roads with so many others, many briefly, perhaps only once, that even with Facebook and LinkedIn, you could never re-establish ties with all of them. But a particular concern of mine my whole adult life as been the fate of quality journalism -- and most particularly, the fate of young journalists.
My oldest child is a journalist, a very good one. But she's found it tough to make much money over the years, regardless of her skill and eloquence as a writer. Many of my former students and interns have stayed in touch over the years, and I am aware of how many struggles they have endured trying to practice this profession, which really is essential if we are to build a great democracy out of the present, most imperfect union.
I've often fantasized about being once again in the position to hire and manage a staff of journalists, because there simply are so many good, decent people who enter this battered profession for all the right reasons. Forget the screamers you witness of TV, they are not journalists, they are performers.
They pretend to report by putting on camouflage in some Third World venue or standing on a beach in fancy foul-weather gear as a tropical storm approaches. But they never stay, and only rarely do they return to cover the aftermath. There are, mind you, serious reporters on TV, (such as my former student Michell Won in NYC) but they are not the people I'm dissing here.
One name: Geraldo.
Case closed.
Nope, many of the reporters we should be worried about toil away inside the daily and weekly newspapers in our communities, the radio stations (especially NPR affiliates), or in non-profits like the Center for Investigative Reporting. You may not know these people's names but they are the vital eyes and ears of our democracy. So, here's a question: Given the dismal state of their employers, how are we going to help ensure their voices don't fall silent?
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2 comments:
I was going to be a wag and just say "pay them," but this deserves a more serious response.
So seriously, I'd say one problem might arise from focusing on only the "ink-stained wretches." Journalism is so much more than the reporter on the ground (or on the air--sorry).
It is also the editor who encourages great writing and reportage, and frightens the hell out of anyone who allows a typo to run through. It is also the publisher who has the courage to fight the powerful interests that interfere with coverage so much. Compare SS McLure with Sam Zell, for example.
20 years ago, I sat down with a producer with CNN, who said "We were supposed to be journalism's answer to corporate America. You have lawyers? We have lawyers. You can afford expensive lunches? So can we." It seems that since that time, this courage has eroded.
So the web's wide open. We need more journo-publishers!
I so agree with the above comment in that I now cringe at every occurrence of a misspelled word, incomplete sentence and so forth. Even the best of articles loose credibility when these mistakes occur and the only conclusion I can come to is there's no standards being imposed, and no one other than spell check at the helm. There used to be real teamwork in journalism and publishing, but these days it's only a Human Resources buzz phrase.
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