I recently visited a web site called AngryJournalist.com. I had read about it in a commentary from a prestigious journalism think-tank, the Poynter Institute. At first I thought it was a joke, then I got angry, because its welcome screen read:
“Tell us what’s making you upset at your journalism job. Anonymity guaranteed. One rule: no real names.”
How oxymoronic! Journalists sign their work. They report the news without fear or favor, or at least they should. To post an anonymous complaint shows fear. Even if some of the posters hold media jobs they are not journalists. Journalism is a standard of performance, not a position. And that standard is incompatible with anonymous caterwahling.
I live the frustration and fear so common in this age of disruption. Last year I survived a one-in-four cut in my newsroom. Empty cubicles surround me where colleagues once sat. I wonder when my turn will come. My paycheck is the main support for me, my wife and three kids. My wife had a cancer four years back. She is in remission but is now uninsurable outside of a group health plan. I worry about this but it doesn’t make me angry. At who or what? The 21st Century?
Instead I focus my indignation on the moral corwardice of American journalism. The most important decisions we as journalists make is what we cover and what we ignore. And it is the tone of coverage that sickens me. Setting aside politics and crime, what passes for news seems like so much hedonistic trivia meant to drive advertising sales.
I find this “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” sensibility completely at odds with what I see around me. I’m a frugal man. My commute car cost less than an iPod. A carpool buddy sold it to me as a favor. Yet for the first time in my life, at age 53, I must now balance my checkbook for any debit over a hundred bucks. This fluffy coverage represents the collective judgment of thousands of putative journalists. They too are anonymous for all practical purposes. But their judgments bother me. Aren’t media supposed to be a mirror? Mirror, mirror on the world, what the hell is wrong with you?
Since I work inside the system I do what I can. On my beat I try to cover stuff that I think matters. When things fall through the cracks I write a memo. I try to keep my anger in check because it doesn’t help. My editors are stuck between the newsroom headcases and the boardroom briefcases. No surprise which wins more often.
But I will not put a black bag over my angst and whisk it off to some anonymous Internet holding cell. If it disturbs you that a journalist who kicks ass and takes names by day goes home some nights and cries, then you should be disturbed.
Every morning I get up and put on a tie and my moxie and do it again. I know that thousands like me must do the same. We pick a few battles and try to manage the career risk by keeping our bitch-to-byline ratio positive. I sure wish we knew who each other were because I’m driving my family crazy and I could use the company of people who can understand how much it means to me to be a journalist, how hard I work at it and how little I get in return.
Meanwhile, I wish these anonymous whiners and wankers would change the name of their pissing pond to DepressedJournalist.com. That way they could enjoy the catharsis without tarnishing the brand of those of us who journalists and are angry enough to take our stands.
[...] Pissy Poodles Can’t Be Angry Journalists. Tom Abate is angry about angryjournalists.com. This is a passionate post about doing journalism that those in the trenches, and those who will be going into the trenches, should read. [...]
Personally, I think Angry Journalist should be called Boring Journalist. It’s a snooze.
Great post, Tom, although if it were me I’m not sure I would share all those personal details with the world.
You also might want to engage the kid who created Angry Journalist, Kiyoshi Martinez. I was going to leave a comment on his blog, http://kiyoshimartinez.com/nerdlusus/2008/02/10/announcing-angryjournalistcom/ pointing him towards your post, but decided to leave that up to you.
Sorry the world is the way it is,
Tim
Right on, Tom.
I’m a journalism teacher here at the bottom of the world (New Zealand) and I’m reading posts, blogs and stories like Tom’s with growing alarm. Being this far out of the mainstream, we have an advantage – we can watch what the rest of the world does and when the trends hit here (the delay is getting shorter by the year) we try to avoid making youjr mistakes.
The dilemma I face (after 25 years of journalism and 20 of teaching it) is what to tell aspiring students about the carnage going on in newsrooms overseas (at the beginning they’re too busy on Bebo to look for themselves).
Will there still be journalists? Presuming there will be (big media companies are starting to see the dangers of unmoderated contributions), what will they need to know?
Common sense tells me that the basic tenets of journalism haven’t actually changed that much – it’s the delivery modes that have. The 24-hour news framework is now a 24-hours-a-day framework (no wonder crusty journo bars have died out, as one of Mark Hamilton’s links told us).
I went teaching when I was 40. I was a burnt out editor who’d spent five years trying top rescue a metro evening daily. I thought I’d retire, but the super wasn’t enough, so it was PR or teaching. An easy decision – and one I’ve never regretted.
Think about a career change, Tom. Teaching journalism is being paid to rave on about your life’s obsession. You’re ready for it.
I’m a journalism teacher here at the bottom of the world (New Zealand) and I’m reading posts, blogs and stories like Tom’s with growing alarm.
Being this far out of the mainstream, we have an advantage – we can watch what the rest of the world does and when the trends hit here (the delay is getting shorter by the year) we try to avoid making your mistakes.
The dilemma I face (after 25 years of journalism and 20 of teaching it) is what to tell aspiring students about the carnage going on in newsrooms overseas (at the beginning they’re too busy on Bebo to look for themselves).
Will there still be journalists? Presuming there will be (big media companies are starting to see the dangers of unmoderated contributions), what will they need to know?
Common sense tells me that the basic tenets of journalism haven’t actually changed that much – it’s the delivery modes that have. The 24-hour news framework is now a 24-hours-a-day framework (no wonder crusty journo bars have died out, as one of Mark Hamilton’s links told us).
I went teaching when I was 40. I was a burnt-out editor who’d spent five years trying to rescue a metro evening daily. I thought I’d retire, but the super wasn’t enough, so it was PR or teaching. An easy decision – and one I’ve never regretted.
Think about a career change, Tom. Teaching journalism is being paid to rave on about your life’s obsession. You’re ready for it.
[...] from the 1960s television series, Get Smart. It would force rank-and-file journalists to complain out loud and generally behave like the heroes of newspaper epics such as His Girl Friday, or Inherit the [...]
Hi Tom,
Not a journalist. We raise super nice puppies, one breed being the poodle – so that’s how I got here. have to leave my comment, welcome or not.
I’m just a regular person here, living in middle America. We do not watch TV, do not watch the news. It is so one-sided, it is sickening. Not sure what kind of stuff you write, you are the same age as my husband and I.
I’d like to see True Journalism. Also, I’d like to see more positive reports of news items. Is it any wonder that we have all this horrible stuff going on?, when that is what gets attention for the last too many years. The trend needs to STOP. Talk about good things, leave the murders, the rapes, the awful things done to children right where they belong – in the police stations and courtrooms. Report about something good every day. I’m sure I am not the only one with that opinion.
I love my ‘job’. I get so much positive feedback, people love getting our puppies. They stay in touch, send me pictures. It is sharing love with others.
Sorry to hear you are having it rough.
Mary Ann
http://www.hearthsidefamilypets.net
Maryann
Thanks for your lovely note.
I am through the worst of it and on a much more positive path toward the same goal that you desire — a more useful and realistic form of journalism that helps us run our lives and our country, and understand our world. It is so uplifting to hear from you because I *know:* there must be many, many people who desire exactly what you expressed. And to hear even your one voice reinforces my conviction and resolve to work, patiently but persistently, to bring into being a more participatory form of media.
Thank you and God bless you!
Tom Abate