Why to not be a journalist
The laughing stock of the world is not George W. Bush. It is American journalism.
Historically, America has produced some of the smartest, bravest and most thorough journalists. Men like Edward R. Murrow have been made into folk heroes. Americans broke the dirtiest stories and the hardest truths throughout the first World War on up through Viet Nam.
Somehow between then and now the "just the facts" attitude of the hard boiled American journalist has subsided to euphimism, generalization and pandering to political and social trends.
Today we are confronted with a mainstream newsfeed that is so odius in presence that it turns most of us into uncaring and intentionally uninformed world citizens.
Who are these people being slaughtered in other countries? Why are they bothering us? Why are we bothering with them - can't we just go shopping in peace for god's sake?
The pundits continue to plug us with false statistics, obscure polls and abstractly bland glimpses of the world outside of the US that is becoming more and more a victim of the leviathan every day.
After a long history of injustice, treachery, concealment and censorship, the American journalists who would have believed it was their duty to watch the watchmen have folded their hand and resigned themselves to an ultimate state of mediocrity.
The content is now no more enlightening than the headlines.
Fortunately, journalism is a resilient creature like a cockroach or a phoenix. It has transmogrified and taken on the form of what is known in present day as "alternative journalism". Hopefully - and I do believe that hope is eternal - it will someday be known as mainstream journalism.
There are tens of thousands of journalists posting blogs rife with information, experience and good old fashioned facts. Praise be to the men and women contributing to online publishers such as Information Clearing House and Indymedia. Sometimes these sites get a little muddled by their own intentions, I'll admit, but they're forgiven. At least they can name a few names and report on injustices throughout the world based on real reporting instead of "embedded" and filtered views coming from second hand information. Most of these hotel hacks stationed on the front probably get more information from their bellhop than they do from going out on their balconies.
I am not a journalist. I have never even set foot in a journalism school and my experience with it doesn't go much beyond learning the basic rules of the Associated Press.
Which I completely ignore.
No, I'm not much more than a pissed off leftist with the foresight to realize it's going to take a lot more than preaching rhetoric to the choir to change the world for the better. I write because I have to. I think and need to get things off my chest. Maybe you do the same.
My friend "Scottish" Aaron once said to me, while we were shooting the shit in a bar, that the revolution was commencing right then and there. People talking to eachother. The proliferation of new ideas and new answers to old problems. The gathering of hope.
These are the fundamental tools the next generation needs to enlighten themselves.
I have the ability to read, understand and write and thus believe it is somewhat of a responsibility to get the information I obtain out. I'm also making atonement for about five years of previous inactivity and laziness.
Sorry.
I have no more desire to be a journalist than I do to lead Cindy Sheehan's crew in a chorus of "Koom-Bi-Ya". I know that realistically, you have no reason to listen to me or read a single word I write. Maybe that's what is necessary these days - to hear the story from the "average guy" who has nothing to gain from throwing down some knowledge. I hope though, that at least one person - preferably someone who does need a little convincing - gets hit by something I write, just once. It's the difference between a journalist and a writer. One has a job to do and one makes a job for themselves based on a compulsory need to be heard or read.
I welcome the challenge of getting things right, but acknowledge that we all filter the truth to a degree. No, I'm not a journalist, but I see the common mistakes they make over and over again. This is information community service and with so many of us out there, I would be surprised if nothing ever got done. At the very least, I would like to be able to say I saved at least one more witch from being burned in my time.
- d-l.c.
Historically, America has produced some of the smartest, bravest and most thorough journalists. Men like Edward R. Murrow have been made into folk heroes. Americans broke the dirtiest stories and the hardest truths throughout the first World War on up through Viet Nam.
Somehow between then and now the "just the facts" attitude of the hard boiled American journalist has subsided to euphimism, generalization and pandering to political and social trends.
Today we are confronted with a mainstream newsfeed that is so odius in presence that it turns most of us into uncaring and intentionally uninformed world citizens.
Who are these people being slaughtered in other countries? Why are they bothering us? Why are we bothering with them - can't we just go shopping in peace for god's sake?
The pundits continue to plug us with false statistics, obscure polls and abstractly bland glimpses of the world outside of the US that is becoming more and more a victim of the leviathan every day.
After a long history of injustice, treachery, concealment and censorship, the American journalists who would have believed it was their duty to watch the watchmen have folded their hand and resigned themselves to an ultimate state of mediocrity.
The content is now no more enlightening than the headlines.
Fortunately, journalism is a resilient creature like a cockroach or a phoenix. It has transmogrified and taken on the form of what is known in present day as "alternative journalism". Hopefully - and I do believe that hope is eternal - it will someday be known as mainstream journalism.
There are tens of thousands of journalists posting blogs rife with information, experience and good old fashioned facts. Praise be to the men and women contributing to online publishers such as Information Clearing House and Indymedia. Sometimes these sites get a little muddled by their own intentions, I'll admit, but they're forgiven. At least they can name a few names and report on injustices throughout the world based on real reporting instead of "embedded" and filtered views coming from second hand information. Most of these hotel hacks stationed on the front probably get more information from their bellhop than they do from going out on their balconies.
I am not a journalist. I have never even set foot in a journalism school and my experience with it doesn't go much beyond learning the basic rules of the Associated Press.
Which I completely ignore.
No, I'm not much more than a pissed off leftist with the foresight to realize it's going to take a lot more than preaching rhetoric to the choir to change the world for the better. I write because I have to. I think and need to get things off my chest. Maybe you do the same.
My friend "Scottish" Aaron once said to me, while we were shooting the shit in a bar, that the revolution was commencing right then and there. People talking to eachother. The proliferation of new ideas and new answers to old problems. The gathering of hope.
These are the fundamental tools the next generation needs to enlighten themselves.
I have the ability to read, understand and write and thus believe it is somewhat of a responsibility to get the information I obtain out. I'm also making atonement for about five years of previous inactivity and laziness.
Sorry.
I have no more desire to be a journalist than I do to lead Cindy Sheehan's crew in a chorus of "Koom-Bi-Ya". I know that realistically, you have no reason to listen to me or read a single word I write. Maybe that's what is necessary these days - to hear the story from the "average guy" who has nothing to gain from throwing down some knowledge. I hope though, that at least one person - preferably someone who does need a little convincing - gets hit by something I write, just once. It's the difference between a journalist and a writer. One has a job to do and one makes a job for themselves based on a compulsory need to be heard or read.
I welcome the challenge of getting things right, but acknowledge that we all filter the truth to a degree. No, I'm not a journalist, but I see the common mistakes they make over and over again. This is information community service and with so many of us out there, I would be surprised if nothing ever got done. At the very least, I would like to be able to say I saved at least one more witch from being burned in my time.
- d-l.c.
posted by dave-leon czolgosz at 12:12 PM
1 Comments:
Your blog rocks, Dave--you're probably the only person I know of who can post a 6+ paragraph entry without pasting anything from Google News.
Rock!
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