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Talking Journalism
It's easy to think the worst of the world's despots. It's often a well-informed guess, maybe even a correct one. Certainly, it's cathartic. But is it what journalists should do? Mark Twain had it right when it comes to lightning and lightning bugs. Distinctions matter when we decide which word to use. Take the socialist label, for example, and whether Barack Obama is one. If you use "socialist" correctly, Obama is not one - and nobody else is, either. Go home, shut the bathroom door, look straight at the mirror and repeat after me: It's possible I don't have the answer. Maybe I don't know. My story could be ... wrong. There - doesn't that feel better? Acceptance of infallibility puts you on the road to real answers. Is it too much to ask journalists to know a little something about the subject they're reporting on? Maybe ask a question or two? Challenge their assumptions? Sometimes, apparently, it is. The next time your iPod or cell phone seals you in a world of unceasing sound and babble, remember the thousands who would give anything for a few minutes of peace and quiet. Fed up with bland "he said/she said" news? Tired of shrinking newspapers doing less and charging more? I was, so I decided it was time to stop complaining and start doing the reporting myself. Let me tell you how it's going. Journalism's job-ocalypse underscores the problem with making diversity a numbers game: Hire so many blacks or Hispanics and you win! True diversity is a staff that reflects the community, not just in race but also in faith, personal backgrounds and in all the ways that make us different. President Obama may be a child of the '80s, presumably free of the previous generation's "Us vs. Them" battle plan, but many in journalism seem unwilling to stand down. Just take a look at some of the recent skirmishes.
Want to do something that makes an impact for decades? Need to remember why you became a journalist? Start a newspaper in your local grade school and meet some natural-born communicators just itching to become reporters. The BBC's decision against airing an appeal for humanitarian aid for Gaza after the Israeli invasion was met with scorn by many in Britain's journalism community. What the BBC saw as a defense of its impartiality was seen by one such journalist as a way to dodge Israeli criticism.
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Bill Kovach Honored
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The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect 
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