Not going on the road

Good God. I tend to like you, more often than not, on this site.

But go fuck yerself on this one.

Seriously. Go. Fuck. Yourself.

Tell my wife, who has now called me about four nights (or mornings, I guess) in a row ... frantic ... because our newborn daughter won't sleep. My poor wife is home alone. She's slept maybe 20 hours ... total ... since I've been gone. Tell her we're spoiled. Please do. I'd love to see her rip your fucking eyes out.

 

Yup. Taking it to the political arena ... if a "beat writer" wrote a columns saying George W. Bush (or Barack Obama) is a fucking moron ... how could you trust that guy to be objective about George W. Bush or Barack Obama again?

Reporters report. They are objective. Columnists columnize. They are opinionated.

And never the twain shall meet.

Seriously, anyone who doesn't get that ... I wonder what fuckin' journalism school you went to.

 

And I agree with you as well. If I'm going to fill 24 inches of space, I'm going to do it my adding notes, a sidebar, looking up data for a chart, whatever. There are so many other ways to provide the reader with more information, and enhancing his or her viewing experience, than to do it by saying what you think did/didn't/should have happened.

 

SF -

A beat writer produces a column that calls for a coach's firing.

How could you possibly think he could cover the beat after that?

There is a thin line between opinion and analysis. I very much think beat writers should analyze more. Don't just tell the reader what happened, but use your reporting to tell why it happened, and how it fits into the big picture of things. But leave the opining to others.

Oh, yeah, and Mark -- I second what Some Guy said. You just invalidated any opinion you might have on this subject with that asinine "exageration."

 

Well, it's official. We are now friends.

 

That's sweet!

 

Hey, in this day and age you can never have enough friends.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a whole pack of reporters in the White House press pool that travel along with the President everywhere he goes on Air Force One?

How is that any different than traveling with the team that you cover?

 

I think security and access is the issue here. It's easier to stay inside the bubble than going in and out of it all the time.

 

I've said it once, I'll say it again: This is the most self-loathing industry in the universe. You understand that you can trivialize anything, correct? Driving a big rig? What's so hard about sitting in a truck and listening to tunes all night? An assembly line? Mindless! I can't believe people get paid for what a robot can do!

I would argue that being a beat writer is more demanding in many ways than the manual labor jobs that people on this site constantly feel they must feel prostrate to. And that goes for City Hall, cops, education and the non-travel beats, as well. You work on an assembly line, you don't have to worry that the District 6 councilman just got a 3 a.m DUI.

 

The "coach's firing" one is a good example of something you'd need to more be pragmatic with, but my original premise -- much, much more opinion and analysis from the beat writer -- stands.

 

I agree, sf. the firing thing is the extreme of the argument, and there's an awful lot of territory that can be opinioned before you get to that level.