Is it just me or are today's younger journalists lazy?

and they all listen to that rock and roll devil music.

 

Don't try to throw him under the bus.

 

Damn kids!

Seriously, this is the lowdown on the business:

If you are good, you'll eventually get anything you want.

If you are decent, you might eventually get anything you want.

If you are poor, you won't get anything you want and you'll end up starting threads on message boards bitching about the people younger than you (or blacker than you, or more feminine than you) who are getting anything they want.

Are there plenty of young writers with a false sense of entitlement? Sure.

Are there plenty of old writers with a false sense of entitlement? Sure.

It ain't the age, or the color, or the gender. Although possessing any one of the three could give you a leg up in the short term, your ultimate destiny will be decided by one thing: you.

So start your thread if you'd like, and vent when you must, but while doing so, take a look in the mirror.

 

If you have to make an argument for being self-motivated, well ... somehow I don't think self-motivation's gonna be a big issue for you.

 

you're exactly right. why else would so many people be appalled by such a simple question?

 

It means that people don't necessarily understand why they want what they want or why they think what they think. Many people - even smart people - want and think in a certain way and are flabbergasted anyone else thinks differently.

 

And now for an old guy's take on this very touchy subject:

Bigugly went quite a bit off track from his orginal question to the end of his post but he's not entirely wrong here.
I don't think I'd call it lazy but I do think there is a sense of entitlement that too many of you youngsters have that people of my age did not have.
The irony in that is that people of my generation -- baby boomers, the parents of you younger writers -- are the ones who fostered this sense of entitlement in their children. So in a way, we older folks are complaining about the monster we helped create.
I'm trying not to paint with too board a brush because I know and work with a large number of very good, hard-working, ambitious young writers. But I also know quite a few who think they're god's gift to the profession and are too good to be "stuck" where they are. Most of the latter group stay "stuck" forever.
And, yes, I got a couple of very big breaks at a very young age. I never had to work at a small paper or struggle to work my way up through the ranks. But I also appreciated the fact that I got those breaks while too many youngsters today think they are entitled to those breaks.
There are lazy people and people with a sense of entitlement at all levels of all professions. My generation, for the most part, does not have quite the same work ethic my parents' generation had. Many of the 20-somethings don't have quite the same work ethic my generation has.
But to say today's young journalists are all lazy is absurd. To say more of them seem to have a sense of entitlement is probably closer to the truth.

 

Depending of course on what you want, who has what you want when you're in position to want it, how patient you are when you want it, if you're in position to get it when you want it and it becomes available, and how many other people wnat what you want.

Personally, I have exactly what I wanted. But there are plenty of quality journalists out there who never get what they want, for many reasons. Simply being good isn't enough.

And I have found that being "poor" - or okay, having to improve just to reach mediocre - is often far from the hinderance it should be.

As for today's youngsters, it's a tempting generalization to make, especially with the fact there are plenty of great columnists and beat guys who have not lost their drive after decades pounding the pavement. Then you see columnists who almost never go to the ballpark, beat guys who spend more time kissing posteriors and writing standard fare with zero creativity, and editors counting the minutes, hours and days on the clock until retirement or the end of the shift.

All veterans, all people who should know better.

Quality isn't restricted to the veterans. Mediocrity and laziness aren't restricted to the young.

Useless thread, that proceeds from a false assumption.

 

Daemon, you're right on!!!

 

spnited, good take.

 

As another Old Guy, I'm kind of down on this side of the argument.

I do know it's a different world, and some of that's probably good. Maybe it WASN'T always fair that when I started out, the young guys did the food runs for the office without question, got yelled at and took it (and hopefully learned from it), literally respected their elders.

Some of the "good old days" weren't so good, but I do think there was something to be said for paying your dues.