Average journalism major starting salary is...

I completely agree with your last point. And I don't know what the answer is either. An informed and engaged citizenry would see this as a big problem. But we don't have an informed and engaged citizenry and I don't know tht we ever will.

 

Couple questions I think are relevant here:

DD: Did you get that job via an internship? I think that's where budding careers fall apart, honestly. In college, when would-be journalists are not aggressive about internship or stringing possibilities.

People don't intern or make connections during college. I spent too much time on the college paper, at a small school I shouldn't have attended. And I spent a wasted summer selling fireworks instead of flooding metros with applications.

At the same time, I did write for the two biggest papers in the state, at some point, during college, in various capacities. Part-timer. Intern. Stringer. News. Sports.

 

What are money bitches? Nevermind, just bring me some.

 

Speaking of watchdog journalism: I identified a watchdog story that was ripe for investigating, and it literally was outside the door of the newspaper. Local/state government, wasted taxpayers' money, big local headache for residents and businesses, political buffoonery, follow the money and expose the waste, all that good shit.

So I took it straight to the executive editor, because it was a big paper, and I didn't want any mid-level managers fucking it up from the start. They could, and they would. The need for the watchdog story had been there for months, after all, and they didn't see it. Right outside the door, etc.

Anyway, the exec editor shook my hand and thanked me a few times and said it definitely was a story to tackle right away, and they would jump on it. After a couple of months, I gave up looking for my little watchdog blockbuster, and then all of a sudden it finally ran on A1.

But it had been given to an intern, and it had been turned into a puff piece. I shit you not. A perfect tale of waste, bureaucracy and ineptitude, and everything was spun into "Don't worry, folks, better days are ahead. Your tax dollars at work!"

I couldn't believe it. If only the readers had known what could have been reported ...

At that point, I gave up and welcomed the chance to leave newspapers behind.

 

So name them. Are the local Patch kids pulling papers on building permits? Is there a Deadspin out there of city council meetings? Point out what part of The Daily Beast I can find and read the crime blotter, please.

You like to shit on newspaper folk with smart ass sarcasm but you never have any real life solutions.

I'll cut open a vein and wait for your answers.

 

Rip, in case you think my post was in response to yours, let me be clear it was not. That post was deleted and then magically reappeared.

I suspect, because I'm on ignore for our resident professor genius, he is unlikely to respond.

 

Well, when The One No One Has Heard Of (A.K.A. "The One Even Gawker Won't Bother To Taunt") calls one out, one must respond.

So . . .

I don't "shit on newspaper folk."

I show disrespect to the rabble who continue to lament the demise of newspapers as if anyone should care other than those who work at newspapers. You all with your pretty words about how there are no "WATCHDOGS!!!!" anymore. People like you, whining about the industry's demise AFTER grabbing your escape hatch.

These mostly meaningless city council meetings now can be streamed online. Every major sporting event is on TV. The ability to find documents on the Intertubes is not limited to those who have a piece of paper that says "Bachelor of Arts in Journalism."

But people can't find these things on their own. Society isn't full of educated people. There is no one else who knows how to write besides journalists. There is no one else who can find information other than journalists. They need journalists to tell them about it. 'Cause we're trained, and stuff. And we have ethics, and AP style, and all that other stuff that makes journalists special, right?

I saw this coming when Bush was in his first term. Didn't you, from your perch on high? The "SOLUTION!!!!" was to get the hell out, and realize the train was rolling and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The "solution!" was understanding and moving forward, instead of crying.

 

Please, bitch, I got called out by Gawker last week. Keep up.

 

Oh. Well, then congratulations on finally making it. I would publicize for the denizens here your recent validation, but I don't want anyone to scurry in and scream about "outing!" someone who voluntarily outed themselves for a Dave Kindred column a year ago.

Anyway, I stand corrected. And I stand by the rest.

 

Yes, it's Validation!!!!1!!!!!!11 (isn't that how you usually write it? With a childish overemphasis on exclamation points?) that I seek here. As opposed to yourself, who keeps coming back here under various handles to make friends and get people to help you write your thesis. We both know you tried to out me long before any Kindred column appeared, so I really don't care what noble snark you believe you stand behind now.

You make several other valid points, but you're wrong wrong the idea that we don't need trained writers and cynics sifting through all the Did-Beyonce-lip-sync? speculation to find stories that have real value to communities. Give me a website that acts as a digital newspaper or government watchdog, and I'm just as happy to give them my money. And those people certainly do not have to be Bachelor of Arts J-school approved graduates to do those jobs. I've never argued they did, just that he idea of community suffers if the economic model doesn't exist for people to make middle class wages. I did my time in newspapers and would have continued to do it for many years had a better opportunity not come along. Or, had my newspaper not been run by backward assholes. And trust me, I lamented this plenty -- five years ago, ten years ago -- when I was right in the thick of it. I know it doesn't fit your narrative of me as a haughty douche, but perhaps you can take a break from masturbating in your Elektra comics and realize we generally view this the same way. I'm just less of an asshole about it.

Run along and tag in your best bro 3Octave Fart if you get weary of this. Otherwise, we can go back to ignoring one another.

 

Hey, Radd: My "escape hatch" was a straight layoff, and no buyout.

So fuck you and yours.

 

Like Double Down, I also wasn't talking to you.

Elektra comics? Never owned one, never read one. Not even sure they exist.

Never got how the "NERD!!!" card is supposed to be some kind of biting insult, but OK.

As for the rest . . . I've grown tired of the same "what will people do without newspapers?!??!" BS that has been asked here for years.

And your opening paragraph is almost completely bullcrap. Do you lie this much in your actual job? Should Gawker be alerted?