Recently, while speaking to a group of incoming interns at a local media company, I found myself trying to make the point that the particulars of their individual lives will matter, sometimes a lot, during their upcoming careers as journalists.
To illustrate my point, for some reason I compared them to snowflakes.
It was an odd moment, admittedly, but hear me out.
Each winter, even though about one septillion (or a trillion trillion) such snow crystals fall from the sky, the scientific consensus is that the odds that any two of them are identical is effectively zero.
There are far fewer of us people, I reasoned, trying to suggest that the interns were at least as unique as snowflakes and that that singular fact should inform the development of their journalistic voices going forward.
For almost the entirety of my 57 years in journalism, I’ve been trying to help guide younger, aspiring journalists. My inclination to do so has followed me job to job, company to company, over the decades.
And even now into retirement.
So for better or worse, by now there are at least hundreds of people out there practicing the craft who were at least marginally exposed to my ideas (and bad analogies) as to how to balance objectivity, fairness, persistence, commitment, thoroughness and pattern recognition in the gathering of facts and the telling of stories.
Heaven knows they are going to need all the help they can get. When it comes to trying to be an honest journalist in America, they will need to overcome the powerful headwind of the relentless conspiracy theories that drive suspicion, ignorance and extremism.
And there is nothing beautiful or unique about that.
LINKS:
Garland appoints special counsel to take over Biden classified documents investigation (CNN)
Discovery of More Classified Records Raises Questions Over Biden’s Handling of Documents (NYT)
Biden’s classified documents, explained: What to know about the investigation (WP)
Politics or by-the-book? Investigating Biden’s classified documents (The Hill)
Special counsel subpoenas, grand jury appearances mount for Trump allies (ABC)
Trump campaign officials got subpoena asking new questions about Jan. 6 (WP)
Ro Khanna says he’s looking at the Senate. His allies are talking about the White House. (Politico)
Neighbor of Bryan Kohberger says suspect talked about Idaho student murders (CBS)
Inflation slowed further in December for the sixth month in a row (WP)
US inflation falls to lowest level in more than a year (Financial Times)
Taliban ban on women workers hits vital aid for Afghans (AP)
Ukraine said its troops were still holding out despite heavy fighting on a battlefield covered with bodies in a salt mining town in eastern Ukraine, where Russian mercenaries have claimed Moscow's first significant gain in half a year. (Reuters)
Russia Replaces Commander for Ukraine War, as Signs of Dissension Grow (NYT)
Putin made a big bet that energy sales would fund his war in Ukraine. A new report shows that he was very wrong (Fortune)
Brazilian federal prosecutors requested the investigation of three congressional allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly inciting the worst attack on the country's democratic institutions in decades. (Reuters)
Climate change progress hinges on massive changes in behavior from both public and private sectors (The Hill)
Breakaway iceberg raises concerns over Antarctica’s 'doomsday glacier' (New Scientist)
The seventh consecutive atmospheric river since Christmas dumped more rain on Northern California, offering little relief for a state already battered by floods, gale force winds, power outages and evacuations of entire towns. (Reuters)
What California’s excessive snow means for spring and the megadrought (Fox)
Planetary defense and science to advance with new radar on a powerful telescope (Phys.org)
Maryland girl finds ancient tooth from a 50-foot-long megalodon in the Chesapeake Bay (NPR)
See the Largest Flower Ever Found Encased in Amber (Scientific American)
The plight of the Japanese giant salamander: ‘23m years of DNA might die out’ (Guardian)
Omicron XBB.1.5 does not have mutations known to make people sicker, WHO says (CNBC)
What the ‘shower effect’ reveals about creativity and the power of a wandering mind (WP)
Sherlock Holmes Enters Public Domain (The Onion)
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