PCLoadLetter
Well-Known Member
Excuse a bit of a rambling tangent here, but it makes sense to me, at least...
I went to Oregon in the late 80s. At the time it was regarded as one of the best J Schools on the west coast. It did not have a single faculty member -- not one -- who had ever worked in the business. Which is to say... a great number of J schools have had a tenuous connection to reality, at best. Their thoughts on journalism meant little to me then and nothing to me now.
Readers or viewers are not as stupid as we pretend when we have these discussions. The old school, make-my-professor-happy notion that she should hide that she's happy that Colorado won... that's utterly pointless. Your audience does not want someone who will pretend to be indifferent to their alma mater winning a game in a pretty huge upset. What they want is someone who will be honest with them about what they are covering. They can tell the difference.
A lot of you got sold a bill of goods when you got into the business -- essentially that what you were doing was a calling, like the priesthood. There were sacred rules you had to follow. You will work long hours for fast-food pay, you'll never get a holiday off, and you will act like what you are doing is deadly serious. That's all kind of ridiculous when what you are doing is writing about forking football.
It's OK to enjoy yourself. It's OK to be happy when your team wins a big game. She kind of overreacted, but if my school had the recent record her school has, I'd overreact too.
Pearlman wasn't all that critical, but he can go back to shilling for the TV show and leave her alone. When I clicked his tweet the first response I saw was from a former newspaper writer here, wondering what ever happened to the old standards. To be clear, this person was a terrific writer and a top-notch journalist and I'm sure she's just as wonderful now in the world of academia... but I could go back through her tweets and pull up reams of fangirl stuff she's posted over the years, too. It's OK.
TV people get excited for the local team, particularly if they have personal ties. Newspaper people do the exact same thing but pretend they don't because their professors told them it was a sin. It's OK. You've graduated, and you don't need their approval anymore.
I went to Oregon in the late 80s. At the time it was regarded as one of the best J Schools on the west coast. It did not have a single faculty member -- not one -- who had ever worked in the business. Which is to say... a great number of J schools have had a tenuous connection to reality, at best. Their thoughts on journalism meant little to me then and nothing to me now.
Readers or viewers are not as stupid as we pretend when we have these discussions. The old school, make-my-professor-happy notion that she should hide that she's happy that Colorado won... that's utterly pointless. Your audience does not want someone who will pretend to be indifferent to their alma mater winning a game in a pretty huge upset. What they want is someone who will be honest with them about what they are covering. They can tell the difference.
A lot of you got sold a bill of goods when you got into the business -- essentially that what you were doing was a calling, like the priesthood. There were sacred rules you had to follow. You will work long hours for fast-food pay, you'll never get a holiday off, and you will act like what you are doing is deadly serious. That's all kind of ridiculous when what you are doing is writing about forking football.
It's OK to enjoy yourself. It's OK to be happy when your team wins a big game. She kind of overreacted, but if my school had the recent record her school has, I'd overreact too.
Pearlman wasn't all that critical, but he can go back to shilling for the TV show and leave her alone. When I clicked his tweet the first response I saw was from a former newspaper writer here, wondering what ever happened to the old standards. To be clear, this person was a terrific writer and a top-notch journalist and I'm sure she's just as wonderful now in the world of academia... but I could go back through her tweets and pull up reams of fangirl stuff she's posted over the years, too. It's OK.
TV people get excited for the local team, particularly if they have personal ties. Newspaper people do the exact same thing but pretend they don't because their professors told them it was a sin. It's OK. You've graduated, and you don't need their approval anymore.
