From http://www.reuters.com:

RTL-TVI – 19h45 – vendredi 27/11

Bien qu’elle soit strictement interdite en Belgique et dans la plupart des pays européens, la vente d’organes est une réalité. Certains vendent leurs organes poussés par la misère, d’autres sont victimes de ventes forcées, dépouillées d’un rein au cours d’une opération bénigne. Enquête sur un commerce interdit mais très lucratif.

I wasn’t ready for my close-up.  I was ambushed by an eager Frenchman – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I went to watch some Amazonian tribesmen bless tree stumps from Ghana in Trafalger Square last week. We had to do a story about it for a class so the place was packed with wannbe journalists from City. Morade is not in the class but he had decided to come along and put together a TV piece for it.

Fiona who was also with us had been commissioned to write an account of the event for the Latin American Bureau website. With this angle in mind Mo got a lot of footage and I was recruited to be the interviewer. So I came up with the questions and interviewed a few people.

We were packing up and I was looking forward to joining some of the others in the pub when Mo decided he wanted a conclusion. I hastily composed some words and just as hastily forgot them practically every time Mo tried to film me saying them…

With a conclusion taped we needed an intro – walking and talking at the same time! As you can see from the video – these apparently are skills I can’t combine :$

The next day we had the fun of putting it together – I feel bad for Mo’s poor date – he kept putting her off as we found more we wanted to do. Journalism brings out the inner workaholic.

The will supposedly be published on the website but I haven’t found it up there yet.

I’ve always resisted suggestions that I should venture into the murky world of broadcast journalism – until recently.  It was fun – I really enjoy the editing process – you have to be very precise.

It is also incredibly restrictive – you have to always be aware of your technology. With TV especially there are so many aspects where you are limited in what you can do. You must have the pictures to illustrate what you are saying and the timing has to be on the button. Fast track to frustration when things don’t work out – and ultimate satisfaction when they do.

I made a video with anther Frenchman while we were embedded with the marines (execution footage – it’s pretty cool and also very wrong on many levels). I would choose this week to spend a lot of time with the French guys… though it was kind of nice to hear someone muttering ‘putain’ beside me every 2 minutes.

Despite the ethical dilemmas, I’m really proud of it (& very happy that it doesn’t feature my dopey-eyed face – do I really look that sleepy all the time people?). I haven’t managed to upload it here or to youtube unfortunately – I’ll ask someone with more of a clue and keep you posted…

These three men represent what I consider the journalistic ideal. What else do they have in common? They are no longer reporting. Well, sort of. As you know, Walter Kronkite passed away in July, after a lifetime of diligent reporting and being voted “the most trusted man in America”.

Carl Kasell, the voice behind Morning Edition on NPR News since its inception in 1979, has stated that he will no longer be reporting as of December 30th, 2009. Kasell will, however, continue announcing for the NPR news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Bill Moyers was the White House Press Secretary during the LBJ Administration, and went on to have a lengthy career with National Public Radio, as well as smaller stints on CBS and NBC. Since 2007, Moyers has hosted Bill Moyers Journal, discussing some of the most important and least-covered stories of the day with experts from multiple perspectives. I personally haven’t missed an episode of the Journal since its inception, and to me Bill Moyers represents the perfect journalist, one whose concern is uncovering the truth for the American people. Moyers is an outspoken critic of the American media, whose focus in recent years has shifted more and more to ratings and profits. Moyers is one of the few journalists who realises what “balance” truly is:

“The journalist’s job is not to achieve some mythical state of equilibrium between two opposing opinions out of some misshapen respect—sometimes, alas, reverence—for the prevailing consensus among the powers-that-be. The journalist’s job is to seek out and offer the public the best thinking on an issue, event, or story.”

Moyers has stated that he will no longer be producing the Journal as of April 30, 2010, and as of yet he does not have plans for another show. Let’s all hope that changes, for the good of America. Seriously, this man should be president.

I don’t know how I’ll feel once Kasell and Moyers are off the air; I certainly felt sick when Kronkite died. It really sucks having the wise older folks you trust no longer supplying you with vetted and insightful information. Who are we supposed to trust now?

White House Reporter Using Shorthand

We journalists like to think of ourselves as scrappy purists. Give us a reporter’s tablet and a Bic pen, and we craft prose that makes readers smell the waffly-goodness of a corn dog at the state fair, hear the grating nasal tone of the politician’s condescension, and see the glistening sheath of ice the winter storm slipped on the birch tree’s limb.

All this from scribbled notes and a photographic memory.

For as long as I can remember, my print journalism teachers in high school and college, as well as some wonderful editors,  looked down their noses at audio tape recorders. Relying on electronics was not considered real journalism. After all, Woodward and Bernstein didn’t need a tape recorder to break Watergate. It was, in fact, admitting some reporting deficiency to need an electronic device — like  we were Hell’s Angels bikers with training wheels.

Ironically, however,  journalism students in the United States —for the most part — are not required to take shorthand. (In the United Kingdom and Australia, most journalism students must perfect shorthand before graduating from college.) Most of us U.S. reporters rely on some self-taught skill of eliminating vowels or using stick-man symbols. It is, indeed, not perfect — especially when time has lapsed between note-taking and filing the story or when, say, your pen is low on on ink and you miss a few sentences reaching for your fresh one.

After 22 years of reporting, editing and mentoring interns, I have become very opinionated about this practice: Journalists should use all the technology afforded them to ensure accuracy. Young journalists should be taught shorthand in college and modern journalists should use both a notebook and a digital recorder when conducting interviews.

Holding firm to some silly tough-guy rule helps neither the writer nor the reader. To wit: When I was stringing for Bloomberg back in the mid-90s, I interviewed one of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, and she gave me an important quote about the possible rise in the fed funds rate. In my notes, I had written the quote with an up arrow — so my first read of the scribble implied that she said the rates were likely to climb. Listening to the tape, I realized I had missed the key words “not likely” — completely changing the quote. On the flip side, when I was crafting the profile of Under Secretary of Education Sara Martinez Tucker, my mini cassette tape (pre-digital recorders) got mangled at the end — and I had to rely on my notes for some crucial information.

In an age when telling apart a trained journalist from a community blogger is difficult, journalists should do everything in their power to use best practices… to deliver to our readers the *most* accurate quotes, warts and all. And, more importantly, as journalists, we must always put ourselves in our subjects’ shoes. Would I want a reporter taping my interview to ensure statement accuracy? You bet your press pass.

Me? I use a digital recorder and a notebook. And I record my telephone interviews, always with permission from the source at the other end.

Go ahead and call me a wimpy journalist. But remember, I’ve got it all on tape.

Samak finds food and politics don't mix

Former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej died yesterday. He succumbed to liver cancer in Bangkok’s Bumrungrad Hospital, aged 74.

Samak was PM when I moved to Thailand in April last year. He was quite a character and his presence – along with the movements of his rivals and his interactions with the press – could at times be quite comic, if not downright farcical. Before Thai politics turned sour with mob protests, airports seiges and coups, it could even be quite fun to read about Samak’s exploits.

He was the first of three PMs in my time here (three leaders in 19 months in itself is an indictment of the state of Thai politics) and by far the most memorable. He was nowhere near as photogenic as current PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, nor was he anything like as polite as his successor, Somchai Wongsawat, but that is precisely why he made his mark. He behaved aggressively, he was beligerent to the media, he sulked in public, he was unafraid to belittle people if he felt they deserved it, he was stoic in the face of political pressure – and his hardened appearance matched these, ahem, qualities.

In deeply-divided Thailand, he certainly had his critics and enemies. It was his very presence as PM – and the fact that he was an open supporter of Thaksin Shinawatra and his ideology – that sparked the “yellow shirt” protests of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who laid seige to the grounds of Government House for weeks while Samak was in charge, and which ultimately – under Somchai’s premiership – led to deaths and the one-week closure of Bangkok’s two airports, causing untold damage to the nation’s economy and reputation.

But I respected Samak’s single-mindedness in the face of such pressure, with not only the PAD but also significant political commentators calling for his head. Not for him the weak attempts to appease all of successor Somchai, whose two and a half months in office were among the more forgettable even in a country known for the transciency of its leaders. Nor for him the squeaky clean, ever-smiling PR profile of Abhisit, who was surely appointed (notice I didn’t say elected) more for his appearance and undoubted charisma than for any heavyweight political credentials.

No, Samak told it the way he saw it, and while that of course didn’t mean he was always right, it did at least show he had the courage of his convictions, and to express himself publicly without first needing a spin doctor to polish his words.

Now, as stated before, I’m not a political analyst. This is not my area of strength, although like most people I have my own political opinions. But the news of Samak’s passing gave me cause to remember some of his more colourful moments.

Cake-eating cat

First of all, before the squabbling erupted into violent demonstrations, there was the usual tit-for-tat name-calling in Government House, with one opposition politician (I forget her name) bringing Samak to task for his choice of cafeteria food. As a man in his seventies, she said it was inappropriate for him to choose a piece of cake for lunch, washed down with a glass of bright red soft drink. She suggested Samak seek psychological help, because Adolf Hitler was known to have similarly immature tastes.

Now, even within the realms of political cat-calling, which often amounts to no more than childish spats along the lines of “You smell!” “Yeah? Well, you smell worse!”, this was adorably convoluted. Never mind education, employment and crime – “Prime Minister, would you care to justify buying that cake? Because I’m rather worried it is a sign you may be a tyrant in the making, capable of ordering the slaughter of millions.”

Samak, as was his wont, barely dignified the comment, choosing instead to fix her with a customary silent staredown.

But Samak’s finest hour would not have looked out of place in an episode of Fawlty Towers, such was the level of high farce.

Pursued on motorbikes by a press pack from Government House to Chatuchak Market, Samak sought refuge in a public toilet. Not wishing to speak to the media, he remained in a cubicle, but unfortunately for him the journalists proved even more stubborn than he. More than an hour later, Samak could no longer stand the heat, moisture, smell and mosquitoes (I have been to the toilets at Chatuchak Market and they’re no place for a dignitary, let me tell you), and emerged, furious and doused with sweat.

He ignored the reporters’ questions (surely the fact he spent an hour inside a toilet cubicle would have told them he was in no mood to speak?), instead bearing down on them with a fuming glare of which Charles Bronson would have been proud. After staring them into silence, he set about berating them and their conduct, and labelling them “disgusting” no less than a dozen times.

Reaction to this incident depended, of course, on which side you were on – either Samak was rightly defending himself against media intrusion, or he showed an arrogant disrespect towards the free press, who were just doing their job in the public interest.

There’s a bit of truth to both sides, but the bigger picture for me at the time was the fun factor of living in a country where the PM is forced to flee halfway across a city as hungry hacks literally chase him into a stinking, mosquito-blown long-drop. Add to that the picture of the nation’s leader stewing there for over an hour, followed by his ultimate outburst, and clearly you can see Samak Sundaravej was not your average politican.

And his eventual dismissal from office in September 2008, after just eight and a half months, was also unorthodox, if not comic for its irony. While the country’s leading industries of tourism, exports and foreign investment were taking near-death blows from the effects of the protracted demonstrations, and while the spectre of corruption hung over everything Thaksin and his allies did, it was none of these concerns which spelled the end for Samak. No, he was booted out because he had twice appeared on a TV cooking show. Innocent enough, except politicians are not allowed to accept money for working with private enterprises. Samak’s fee was nominal and his appearance of no bearing whatsoever to his political standing, but this was a conflict of interest. Not quite along the lines of Thaksin using his position to allow his then-wife Potjaman na Pombejra to purchase multi-million-baht swathes of land, but still, rules are rules…

Ultimately, it may have been a face-saving move. As pathetic a reason it may have seemed for removing a democratically elected PM, Thailand was at the time being virtually held hostage by protesters, with the international news coverage doing the country no favours. There were far bigger concerns than the PM’s appearance on a cookery show, but Samak was steadfast in his refusal to stand down or dissolve the cabinet, the two main demands of the PAD, despite the presence of 30,000 protesters camping out on the lawns of his workplace.

So while the cookery show controversy was of negligible importance, by following the law to the letter, the courts could remove him from office legitimately. And with that removal came a lull – as temporary was it was – in the tensions. The PAD had not been placated, as the Thaksin-backed People Power Party was still in charge, but tempers were nevertheless calmed, and at a critical time.

It also proved timely for Samak himself. Despite being disqualified from the premiership, he had the opportunity to return to power if voted back in, but instead he accepted the judgement and retreated from politics. It seemed strange for such a combative man to slip away from the spotlight so quickly and readily.

But then news came less than a month later that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer, and it all made sense. It’s unknown how long he’d been sick. Indeed, it’s likely he was running the country while ill. Considering how stressful a task that must have been in the late summer of 2008, that shows either remarkable devotion or unwavering stubborness. In Samak’s case, it was probably a bit of both.

He flew to the US for treatment in the new year, returning to Bangkok and continuing to be treated at Bumrungrad, one of the country’s best hospitals. After roughly a year battling the disease, he passed away at 8:48am yesterday morning.

My companion snapping a shot of the executed men

Microphone in hand to catch the full sound of the gunshots, I watched the first victim crumple on the ground. Fear was etched across the face of the second as he looked from his friend’s slumped body to the executioner. His body jerked awkwardly as he attempted to face the man who was about to kill him.

After he had dispatched the two policemen, the insurgent leader turned back to our camera, still intently trained on him. He held aloft the detonators connected to explosives – explosives tightly bound to two more local policemen.

A stark warning was issued: “If Nato attack our position I will blow these men up and myself with them.”

I asked him if anything could be done to save the lives of these unwilling human timebombs. I felt sick with fear for them – this man had already dispatched two others in front of us – their only crime was to uphold the local rule of law.

“These men are traitors. They have collaborated with the infidels. They will die no matter what,” came the harsh reply.

Safe and unthreatened, we returned to our transport – we were being used to deliver a message and to inspire fear in the local population.

Back at the Nato base where we have been embedded with the troops there is a dispute. Should we broadcast the horrific images of two men being put to death? I argue that we shouldn’t but my companion feels the images are so powerful that we must.

A problem – there’s no audio. We don’t have the words of the militia leader. It makes our editorial decision for us – we show the images but with a voice-over – hopefully our package is more than just propaganda. The escalation in violence and the threat of retaliation that the local people live with is our justification for the sensational images.

The piece goes out and I hear back from military officials – they thought the guys wrapped in explosives were suicide bombers – when they attack they will now try to rescue these men. So the attack is to go ahead and we are to join them…

Night has fallen, it’s dark and there is surprisingly little noise as the line of soldiers makes it’s way across the heath towards the insurgent stronghold. The sky is clear and I am seeing the stars for the first time since I moved to the UK. We stop to regroup before the assault begins and I see a shooting star so bright that I think it’s a flare for a moment…

Troop-sergeant Seacroft is our minder. He is in command of the attack and so he stays to the rear unless there are casualties at which point he reassures me “I will hand you over to someone else and deal with that situation.”

We’re held back from the front as the troops rush through the trees in which the militia have their stronghold. They’re quickly spotted by the sentries and we can see the bright bursts of gunfire. Two loud explosions momentarily drown out the sounds of the battle – I know whose sad demise the sound marks…

Seacroft is on the move, low and quick. We struggle to follow through the vegetation, unused to jogging in body armour and helmets. We’ve smeared our faces with camouflage paint but my impractical navy and cream rain jacket practically glows in the inky atmosphere.

Our helpful minder explains that the two groups are attacking from different sides but have arranged their angles so that they are not shooting across at each other. We’re moving left towards the main force but we venture a little too far toward the centre – the point where the insurgents are still in control, the troops have not come this far yet.

An ‘enemy combatant’ jumps out of the trees ahead and lets off a quick burst of gunfire. A few feet ahead of us the troop sergeant falls to the ground and we, the four ‘impartial’ media professionals fall victim to the same hail of bullets. As I slide to the ground the shadows above brighten as light from a flare brings the foliage into relief…

…

Or that is what would have happened if this had not simply been a training exercise – for the young officers of the Royal Marines and equally for us journalism students.

We continued on with Troop-sergeant Seacroft until he reached the casualties. Men who had been picked by the supervisor of the exercise to play ‘almost dead or wounded’. At this point however we had been showered with blank rounds several times over and our valient troop-sergeant was declared dead.

Chaos ensued for the next 30 minutes until the insurgent threat had been eliminated. It was now time for me to enjoy myself and bother the poor guys trying to reorganise themselves with an endless stream of questions. ‘How many have been killed?’ ‘Did you take any militia captive?’ and so on.

We were on our way back – the ‘tactical’ route i.e. not straight – we had stopped to allow the brass time to discuss and plan what to do and how to get home. I wrangled an interview with our miraculously regenerated troop-sergeant but his brother-in-arms decided I had asked too many questions. I was roughly grabbed by the arm and pulled away. “He’s very busy and he doesn’t have time to answer your questions now!”

The fun continued back at the base.

Two huge explosions not far from the camp resulted in a scrabble to investigate. I bagged an interview with the commander of the base. A few questions in I get a gem of a quote. “These kind of occurrences will happen in the early stages of an invasion,” said troop sergeant for Nato headquarters 2nd Lieutenant Perks.

It was just a slip of the tongue and he quickly corrected himself but I couldn’t help the smirk and he gave me a look that said ‘Damn, you caught me’.

Hard at work

Being embedded with the military was an amazing experience. The fictional country the soldiers were dealing with unsurprisingly had several similarities with the situation in Afghanistan. Though it was always clearly an exercise rather than the real thing, it was important and simple enough to take it seriously. Many of the men involved had already been to Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the ones who haven’t already been have signed up to go when they graduate (in two weeks).

I talked to as many soldiers as I could during the two days to try and understand why they sign up for this. One of the most interesting conversations I had was with one of the training officers on our way back from the chaotic attack.

He made the point that there is a new generation of soldiers now – they knew the UK was at war when they signed up and they knew what kind of war it was. He had decided to join the marines when he was 17. He was 15 when Nato invaded Afghanistan.

We lay on the ground during a break in the march and watched a shooting star. We didn’t know that we were watching the Leonid meteor shower. He promised to let me try on his kit when we got back to base to feel the weight of what they have to carry.

But when we got back I was busy chasing interviews and writing stories.

I couldn’t see his face in the dark so I didn’t know which one he was. He has signed up to go to Afghanistan as soon as he passes out. By now, he’ll know if he’s being granted his wish.

Man, it’s tough being a conservative these days. Officially, I’m a moderate independent, and someday I’ll get around to doing a rant on the need for a viable third party. But those poor conservatives, beaten to a pulp in the 2008 elections, leaderless, and more and more in disarray. They brought it on themselves for standing by and letting George Bush do whatever he wanted and being asleep at the switch while the economy slipped into the crapper. Now they have to endure Sarah Palin, like a chirpy, drunken party guest who won’t leave… and won’t shut up.

Can anyone name a losing vice-presidential candidate that has received as much attention as her? I didn’t think so. The media LOVES her. They would have a full blown tizzy if she were to retire. It’s not just that she has been critical of the media. It’s not just that every time she opens her mouth, something stupid comes out, meaning, something to disguise as news. It is, in part, because she encapsulates everything that is wrong with the Right: Schmaltzy, out of touch, unaware of their shortcomings and instead of trying to change for the better, digging their heels in and appealing to a base that is not only small, but unrepentant. Ok, there are other things wrong, but that can wait for the above rant.

Here’s my conspiracy theory: The left wing media, which means everyone except Fox, wants to parade Sarah Palin about as the Voice of the Republican Party in order to discredit conservatives, drive any moderates to the left and therefor further their political and social agenda. What makes this easy is she loves it. She’s like the idiots on reality shows who can’t get enough camera time, so they act like even bigger jerks than normal. She thinks she’s telling it like it is, but, like most people who think they’re telling it like it is, she’s just obnoxious. This is basically her ‘appeal.’ She’s attractive and shoots her mouth off under the guise of telling it like it is. Attacking the media is very popular, I do it all the time, but her attacks are whiny. Everything else she says usually comes off as uninformed and snarky. She makes a good target.

The most insidious part of this vast, left-wing conspiracy, is how the media keeps pushing the idea that Palin is a serious presidential candidate for 2012. The idea that she could win the nomination really makes conservatives look stupid. The only people who think she has a chance are the media, and Sarah. Everyone, but her most looney loons, I mean, supporters know that she has zero chance of this.

From what I’ve heard about her recently released book, Going Rogue, only serves to show that she really does not have much depth beyond that of heckler. It sounds like a tabloid account, full of her being sassy. I’d bet a dollar that sassy is what attracted McCain’s campaign to her. “She’s sassy and tells it like it is! She’s a perfect match to John’s more laid back manner,” they gushed over latte. So, we have a book, her next step should be talk radio, the female Rush Limbaugh. Maybe they could even become a team, like all those morning zoo shows.

Limbaugh: “HEY! It’s the Rushman and Sassy Sarah! You’re lookin’ awfully sexy today, Sarah!”
Kaboing!
Sarah: “Of course, fatso! Oh, darn, there I go tellin it like it is!”
Rimshot!
Limbaugh: “Hehe, you sure do tell it like it is, candy pants! Right now, Skeeter’s got the buzz on traffic! Take it away, Skeet!”

The media has also been inflating her importance during her book tour. A report I saw the other day on Today started by saying “thousands” were lining up to get the book. A few seconds later (literally), that estimate was “hundreds.” Then they showed a few goons waiting in line, most of whom looked and sounded like they couldn’t read. Hope there are lots of pictures. When Palin was in town for the tour, the local media jumped on the bandwagon. They breathlessly reported that people were lining up, complete with a shot of the crowd. Never once did they give an estimate. From what I could see, and knowing the geography of the location, there were less than 100 people. Earlier, they reported that people had camped out for this. Then there was a shot that showed about 8 people. Hardly a throng. I have yet to hear what the actual sales have been. Maybe they’re keeping that quiet since the number is probably low and made up mostly of a few knuckleheads and reporters.*

Another problem I have with Sarah Palin is something for which she should be banished to a Gulag. She single-handedly saved Saturday Night Live. The show was dead. The only reason it was still on the air was nostalgia and NBC had nothing to replace it with. Then comes along Palin and now we’re stuck with SNL for God knows how many more years past its prime.

To be honest, I felt sorry for her at first. Here was this bumpkin, thrust onto the national stage, totally unprepared, and since she was a Republican candidate, the media went after her like Oprah after a baked ham. Then she just wouldn’t go away! So I lost any sympathy for her. I sincerely hope that whomever it was in the McCain camp that pushed for her as a running mate and/or vetted her, have been bumped off in a most heinous way, then fed to sharks, then I hope the sharks were slapped around some, too.

The preceding rant was provided by Dave Carr.

FOOTNOTE: For the record, I do feel sorry for John McCain. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he’s a good man. Even his political adversaries are hard pressed to say anything substantially negative about the man. He did not look good in that campaign, mostly because he got a lot of bad advice. But anyone who, when offered the chance to get out of the Hanoi Hilton, refused because other men had been there longer, then spent another 5 years in that hell hole gets a pass from me. He’ll have to do something pretty bad… hmm, really hope giving Sarah Palin her big break isn’t…

*Ok, I heard this morning on The Week with George Stephanopolopoulus that Palin has sold 700,000 books. That may sound like a lot, but even if that number were to reach 1,000,000, that’s only around 1/3rd of one percent of the population. A million votes will not win the White House. I’ll be curious how many times that number is breathlessly reported by the media as proof of her popularity.

Hey all! We have good news for all of you Comet readers! From now on you will no longer have to wait an entire month for a new issue of the Comet. Starting tomorrow, the Comet will be published weekly! Every week, we will post that week’s Fan Art, Comic, and Writing contest winners as well as showcase the top work from our soon-to-be reporters! Each edition of the Comet will feature the best of the best in Fantage news writing, so be sure to work hard on those articles once you become a reporter!

Don’t forget to head over to Mt. Fantage tomorrow to take the test to become a reporter! You never know—your work might be featured in the next Comet!

Attention job seeking Fantagians!  Starting Friday, Fantage will be hiring news reporters to cover interesting news and events around Fantage! On Friday, there will be a NEW building on Mt. Fantage called Comet & Co. and they need your help! Go there to take the test to become a reporter. Pass the test and you will receive your reporter’s camera which will be available for pick-up on Monday.

Each month, reporters will receive 4 different themes that they will be assigned to cover. Reporters will take a snapshot of an interesting event that matches the theme and then write a short blurb describing the action. Don’t worry about having the equipment for this task, we will provide everything for you! Those who write the best reports will have their work featured in the new weekly Comet.For each submission, you will be paid in StarS!

Comet & Co. needs your help!

If you think you have an eye for the unique and a talent for news writing, then take the quiz Friday!

I took it, and I passed!  I can’t tell you the answers, because it’s really to show if you understand what it is like to be a reporter!

Macy, Sue. 2009. Bylines: A Photobiography of Nellie Bly. Washington,DC: National Geographic.

The fascinating story of the pioneering, Nellie Bly. A woman in a man’s world, she was a globetrotting reporter, breaking new ground in travel (she rounded the globe in 72 days!), reporting (she went undercover in an insane asylum for 10 harrowing days!), and social mores (she worked in a man’s profession, supported herself handsomely, married a man many years her senior, and ran her own company!) She was a world-wide phenomenon, the likes of which we don’t see anymore.

Well-researched with numerous photos, maps, and photographed artifacts, Bylines contains a Forward by Linda Ellerbee, Afterword, Author’s Note, Chronology, Resources, Sources of Quotes, Illustration Credits, and Index.

Suggested for ages 10 and up, even adults will enjoy this one! A captivating story about a remarkable woman.

The armed forces remain a mystery to a huge section of UK society. I thought this quite strongly when our bus rattled over the cattle grids at Caerwent training area yesterday.

As us 10 trainee journalists skidded along the rain-soaked roads of the 1,500-acre site, we got held up by marines with tired-looking black and green faces and their guns. Smashed-up warehouse buildings and barbed wire lined the roads while skeletal sheep grazed the tufts of grass around them. It was like entering another world.

We were there on a Senior Command Course to watch marines Non-Comissioned Officers – the forces’ real on-the-ground elite – compete for promotion from corporals to sergeants. We were herded around on patrol, ‘embedded’ with the military to test their skills in keeping us alive. Read on to find out if they managed it.

But we also had to test our skills as journalists – whether we could pick through the miles of jargon and chaos, and of course, darkness and freezing rain, and come out with a usable story on the other side.

The military and the press have always been at odds. Journalists take risks; they don’t fall into line, and the soldiers looking after them have to risk their necks to pull them back, like children, from the side of the road.

But it’s worse being a freelancer. If you’re not embedded with a unit you have the advantage of uncensored copy – but the disadvantage of being blown up or kidnapped at any second, as the case of Javed Yazamy proves. According to the International News Safety Institute, 23-year old Mr Yazamy, a freelancer who contributed to the Canadian Press, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Kandahar City, Afghanistan on 10 March this year. He was in his vehicle at the time. There are countless cases like his.

So the MOD’s line recently, especially since Iraq, has been that they’re in support of the press. “It’s part and parcel of being in a liberal democracy,” Major Andrew Ferguson told us.

“Some journalists, once they’re embedded, decide to go against the military to get the story they want. But the individual will be ostracised – and they won’t be allowed to work with the military again.”

The two of us, he said, must work under the same sense of brotherhood the forces work with themselves. And surprised though we were, once we were on patrol with the marines they treated us like family.

The troop, made up of 38 corporals from all over the UK, took us under their wing and showed us round. The men in their mid-thirties, all with years of operational experience, were spending the 10-day period camped out in one of the deserted buildings. They lived on an hour or so of sleep every 24, and 7000-calorie ration kits which included dehydrated lamb dinners, unbranded milk chocolate and even tiny bottles of tobasco sauce.

It was few days in and they were already exhausted; five had dropped out from an original 43, one due to appendicitis. While they sat around and told us their war stories, the November wind whipped through the broken windows of the old ammunition factory where they still are now.

The time came for orders – their briefing - and they all gathered in a darkening corner of the warehouse where a model of little cardboard boxes and crepe paper had been put up. We sat on a cot bed along the wall and were introduced as “our friends in the media”, which earned us a curt nod from around the room. The report points on the model were given names like Kate Adie and Trevor McDonald, in honour of us.

The mission was to make a reassurance patrol in a fabricated Afghan village down the road, with the intention of setting up future civic projects. Those in charge of the various sections ran through a dazzling array of jargon that we tried furiously to scribble down in the near-dark. They explained parts for us, which we just about understood before they moved on again. By the end of the orders we were fairly confident the three of us would just be following the troop sergeant in single file the whole way.

But, as could be expected, the mission didn’t go to plan. We were at the rear of the troop when those at the front came under fire from insurgents (played by members of the army). We were impressed by how we were looked after. They had us sit completely still while supposed chaos unfolded and gunfire rattled overhead.

Some of our colleagues, playing freelance journalists, were locked in a toilet and told to stay there until things calmed down. They weren’t told what was going on; we were. We had various officers retreat from the front line to calmly reel off what they were doing now; even to make some light conversation. Many of them seemed to enjoy having guests in their midst.

Then a corporal from one section was ‘injured’ by a ‘gunshot wound to the leg’ at around 6pm. He was stable, and so it wouldn’t be newsworthy, we were told. As there was a risk of injuring civillians the troop withdrew back to the base. We came back cold, wet, and without a story.

We got back, debriefed, and the men went off to get some kip while we were driven back to our base. It felt like we’d hardly started; and when some young riflemen we got chatting to back at the base went out to play more insurgents at 11pm, and left us to sleep, we felt inadequate.

Before they left, they were a little suspicious – asking if I was hiding a dictaphone under my Times - but more often they were just incredulous about our work, much as we had been towards theirs. Maybe our relationship with the military is not so much hostile as, well, ignorant.

So we could all do with learning a little more about each other - even if the work’s not to our taste. And it seems the feeling’s mutual. As one 21-year-old rifleman said: “Is that all you do? Read papers all the time? I’d rather be shot at any day.”

I was raised in a family of four members by the value of always fight for your rights if you are right. I was always taught to never give up on what’s mine, neither on my beliefs, values, and believes. Of course when I was young I used to always fight for my rights, but from a kid’s point of view.

Now that I have grown up, that’s when I started grasping the whole point of fighting for your rights. Unfortunately, the moment I started understanding the meaning of fighting for my rights, that’s when the world started to take the role of my kid’s point of view of not getting it fully. So the world and I weren’t exactly at the same page.

When it is said that kids learn from their families and their parents, it’s true. Why? Because seeing my mother fighting for women’s rights, my father fighting for his beliefs, my sister fighting for other people’s rights, and my brother fighting for freedom of the mind, that’s when it affected me and hit me real deep. Saying this means that your beliefs, values, and believes come from both nature and nurture.

BUT, ha ha,, BUT is a word that I hate, unfortunately it must exist. But with all of the “fight for your rights” that grew within me, I came face to face with the world that didn’t give me a slight chance to fight for my rights. Meaning, we live in a world of jungle, where no mercy is allowed, and no closing your mouth could benefit you. Therefore, enclosing this fact, I started not having patience when it came to my rights. Meaning, I gave up easily just to avoid the headache of the ongoing actions from “fighting for my rights.” And believe me, that wasn’t the wisest thing to do.

Days passed and still I saw my family fighting for the rights of theirs and everyone’s, and me with zero moves. But yesterday I came across a situation that got me believing there’s still hope for this world of jungle.

A group of girls and guys, including me as a support, were fighting truly from their hearts for their/our rights. They were fighting, because their rights have not been granted fully to them. So instead of staying still, they managed to fight their last fight with complete shahameh, meaning courage in English, and that my friends was a seen to be replayed over and over again.

As a result to this shahameh, today I received a phone call from one of the guys saying that we won. We actually got our rights back along with a $100 as compensation. So you know, there’s still hope. That one of the guys told me, to always stand tall, raise my chin high, and always fight for my rights because no one will. That’s why they’re called RIGHTS.

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones last week gave a lecture to us here at CJS entitled ‘From typewriter to Twitter‘, chronicling some of the changes which have taken place in his career in journalism since he began at the BBC in 1981.

He described how in the 1980s compiling a news piece for television was such a team-based job, reeling off the writers (producers, reporters and editors) and the craftworkers (cameramen, film, lighting and sound technicians, and engineers).  He compared that to now, where he described reporters now as having a dual role as both ‘lone wolf’ and ‘team player’.

It’s quite a paradox, that.  Because using digital technology, a reporter can go out and compile all kinds of different pieces of content – audio, video, stills, not to mention good-old fashioned copy – fairly easily by themselves.  So in that sense, it is easy to be a lone wolf – if I want to I can go out to a story and film an interview which I can then use in full alongside the copy for my piece online, and then produce a podcast using the audio.

But I need the ‘team player’ aspect to make it work, because the sphere of social media is essentially a collaborative one – there’s no point in me making the content if I don’t have anyone to share it with. 

In that spirit, I’m currently in the process of getting myself into some more network-type things: I’m trying to build a Google Map with the photos from this blog pinned to it which I hope to have up and running in due course; I’ve joined Delicious and will be posting my bookmarks as soon as I’m capable; and I’m hoping to get an invite to have a play around with Google Wave soon.

Time for the lone wolf to join the pack…

I recently got back from serving as the media coordinator for my first trade show. Although the show was quite small in comparison to past years, it was a great first experience. I found that preparing for the show was actually more work than the show itself—which ran effortlessly with the exception of one minor detail…

The press room was a little sad—there were only about 10 companies with releases and information for the media. But that didn’t stop reporters from coming, and it actually worked to our benefit, as we had about ten interviews throughout the show.

Before the show, I worked with the interviewees by prepping them with our key messages, potential Q&As and overall interview etiquette (like don’t look at the camera). It paid off, because they were rock stars. But someone should have been spending time with me on how not to be awkward! When the reporter began the interview, I found myself not knowing my exact role. I obviously wanted to be there throughout the interview to make sure everything went smoothly, they had all the information they needed and just to provide moral support. But I ended up feeling as though I was following them around like a lost puppy.

Maybe I should take it as a compliment that the interviewees were so well prepared, they didn’t need me? Or maybe it was just in my head? Nonetheless, it felt a little uncomfortable. However, I felt it was completely necessary. I was able to provide information on where to get images and our news releases, as well as to make sure everything was accurately reported.

Has anyone had a similar experience. Or even better, any tips to avoid this?

Obama covers his heart for Russian National Anthym

U.S. President Barack Obama take part at a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 6, 2009. President Barack Obama touched down in Moscow on Monday for a full-scale summit and diplomatic meetings

© AP

President Obama:

Today I read of your administrations’ plan to re-define September 11 as a National Service Day. Sir, it’s time we had a talk………

During your campaign, Americans watched as you made mockery of our tradition of standing and crossing your heart when the Pledge of Allegiance was spoken. You, out of four people on the stage, were the only one not honoring our tradition and reverence.

YES, “We noticed.”

During one of your many speeches, Americans heard you say that you intended to visit all 57 states. We all know that Islam, not America, has 57 states.

YES, “We noticed.”

When President Bush leaned over at Ground Zero and gently placed a flower on the memorial, you nonchalantly tossed your flower onto the pile without leaning over.

YES, “We noticed.”

Every time you apologized to other countries for America ’s position on an issue, we have wondered why you don’t share our pride in this great country. When you have heard foreign leaders berate our country and our beliefs, you have not defended us.

YES, “We noticed.”

When your pastor of 20 years, “God-damned America ” and said that 9/11 was “America’s chickens coming home to roost” — and you denied having heard recriminations of that nature, we wondered how that could be. You later disassociated yourself from that church and Pastor Wright because it was politically expedient to do so, but we know that you continue to have secret meetings with him.

YES, “We noticed.”

When you announced that you would transform America, we wondered why. With all her faults, America is the greatest country on earth. Sir, KEEP THIS IN MIND, “if not for America and the people who built her, you wouldn’t be sitting in the White House now.” Prior to your election to the highest office in this Country, you were a senator from Illinois, and from what we can glean from the records available, not a very remarkable one.

YES, “We noticed.”

All through your campaign and even now, you have surrounded yourself with individuals who are basically unqualified for the positions for which you appointed them. Worse than that, the majority of them are people who, like you, bear no special allegiance, respect, or affection for this country and her traditions.

YES, “We noticed.”

You are 9 months into your term and every morning millions of Americans wake up to a new horror heaped on us by you. You seek to saddle working Americans with a health care/insurance reform package that, along with cap and trade, will bankrupt this nation.

YES, “We noticed.”

We seek, by protesting, to let our representatives know that we are not in favor of these crippling expenditures and we are labeled “un-American”, “racist”, “mob”. We wonder how we are supposed to let you know how frustrated we are. You have attempted to make our protests seem isolated and insignificant. Until your appointment, Americans had the right to speak out.

YES, “We noticed.”

On September 11, 2001 there were no Republicans or Democrats, only Americans. And we all grieved together and helped each other in whatever way we could. The attack on 9/11 was carried out because we are Americans.

And YES, “We noticed.”

There were many of us who prayed that as a black president you could help unite this nation. In six months you have done more to destroy this nation than the attack on 9/11. You have failed us.

YES, “We noticed.”

September 11 is a day of remembrance for all Americans. You propose to make 9/11 a “National Service Day”. While we know that you don’t share our reverence for 9/11, we pray that history will report your proposal as what it is…a disgrace.

YES, “We noticed.”

You have made a mockery of our Constitution and the office that you hold. You have embarrassed and slighted us in foreign visits and policy.

YES, “We noticed.”

We have noticed all these things. We will deal with you. When Americans come together again, it will be to remove you from office.

Take notice.

If you agree with this please pass it on to all your internet correspondents.

The writer of this piece wished to remain anonymous

Article source Pravda.

Obama is a despicable person and a sorry excuse for the President of the U. S. He can’t hold his hand over his heart for our national anthem but can at a ceremony at the tomb of the unknown Russian soldier. Thanks to the blogprof for bringing this out. The source for the photo, Pravda.  Did anyone see or read the above in the MSM? Where are our so called reporters?

We live in a world where surrounds us all kinds of sickness, illness and disease. And as a defense to all of this, each year a new medicine is found as a specific cure. Else life would not continue to function.

Now the problem lies that each year there’s a new whole monster of disease to face and to try to avoid. Like for example, last year there was bird’s flu. We discovered it and with time found some ways to cure from it. But nothing compared to this year, the year of 2009 swine flu. This flu really made the headlines. It even made everyone panicked, and till now finding a cure. Or what I mean is that a cure was found, but still it has not been tested to see its efficiency. So I wonder what the hell! Our lives have become a whole new phase of panic from the person next to you if he has any itsy bitsy symptoms of flu. If the person sneezes, you immediately wonder does he have swine flu!

For example, the other day my little cousin had a sort of sore throat along with coughing and varied high temperature, so our minds immediately produced the sound of “Ching ching, watch out, she may have the swine flu.” So what’s with that? I mean highschools have been closed from the increase numbers of swine flu. People’s lives were delayed because of this swine flu. Literally when you think of it, you think it’s a new monster of disease that’s delaying us more from moving forward, as if we need any more delays in our lives! Numbers of swine flu carriers keep increasing more and more; yesterday they reached in Jordan around 2,000 something and more than few deaths increasing. So is this normal! I wonder.

Call me crazy, but do any of you recall watching the movie “V for Vendetta?” Anyways, in this movie, this hero, who calls himself V, fights and wants to take revenge from politicians and important people, who once injected a virus into people as a sort of testing it, and eventually they died. So is this what is happening to us? I mean I know it’s only a swine flu, and it’s a true cause. But hold your horses and think for a minute; highschools are being closed because of this virus, meaning no more education for children. This is for the first reason. Second, I wonder how a medicine called TamiFlu went up from being around $7 to $70? Wow. By the way, the price of the medicine may not be accurate, but still its price jumped instantly in one day and one night. Third, why when you go to the U.S there is no mentioning whatsoever about swine flu? Why this panic of swine flu only exists in the Middle East? Did you ever wonder about that? Well, I did that’s why I’m going crazy.

Anyways, it may be eventually a normal disease, or it may be an injected one for a specific medication to be marketed, who knows! As a matter of fact, I’m not here to accuse, I’m only here to share my thought out loud. In the end,  I have the right to speak.

Le Visa d’or News a été attribué à Wojciech Grzedzinski, de l’agence Napo images, pour un reportage sur le conflit en Géorgie réalisé en août 2008 pour le journal Dziennik.
Il a reçu un chèque de 8 000 € offert par Paris Match.

Le Visa d’or catégorie magazine a été attribué à Zalmaï pour un reportage sur l’Afghanistan intitulé “Promesses et mensonges, le coût humain de la guerre contre la terreur”. Il a reçu un chèque de 8 000 € offert par la Région Languedoc-Roussillon

Le Visa d’or catégorie presse quotidienne a été décerné à Barbara Davindson, du Los Angeles Times, pour un reportage sur les dégâts causés par le tremblement de terre près de Chengdu, province du Sichuan, en Chine en mai 2008.
Il a reçu un chèque de 8 000 € offert par la SNCF.

Dans un contexte difficile, le festival de Perpignan dévolu aux reporters continue de montrer les fleurons du genre.

Visa pour l’image, 21e festival international du photojournalisme, à Perpignan (66). septembre 2009.

Sale temps pour le photojournalisme. En 2008, c’est Françoise Demulder, figure chérie de la profession, qui, après un long combat contre la maladie, tirait sa révérence en plein milieu du festival Visa pour l’image – qui, pour le coup, lui consacre un hommage dans le cadre de son actuelle édition. Cette année, autre coup dur, rappelant de manière encore plus frontale l’âpre réalité du métier : mercredi dernier, Christian Poveda a été assassiné près de San Salvador (Libération du 4 septembre), probablement victime des maras , ces gangs radicaux qu’il exposait douze mois auparavant à Perpignan. Triste boucle qui n’empêche pas le photojournalisme, à l’économie morose – sur fond si hautement symbolique de démantèlement de l’agence Gamma -, de garder la tête haute à Visa, où continuent cependant de converger en masse professionnels et amateurs. Débuté le 31 août sur un tempo corpo (colloques, salon, soirées), Visa se poursuit jusqu’à dimanche, à travers vingt-cinq expositions, toujours gratuites, ce qui fait une sacrée différence avec Arles, l’autre fief estival de la photo. Parmi les plus significatives – où figurent aussi celles de Massimo Berruti, Ulla Lohmann, Pascal Maitre, Jérôme Sessini ou Sarah Caron -, en voici quatre détaillées.

Eugene Richards «War is Personal» (couvent des Minimes)

Ancien de Magnum, dépêché par Getty Images, l’Américain Eugene Richards, 65 ans, est une des «stars» de Perpignan. Réputé pour ses sujets douloureux – des dégâts de la drogue aux Etats-Unis, à la lutte de sa femme atteinte d’un cancer du sein -, il aborde cette fois le traumatisme lié à la guerre en Irak à travers une série de témoignages individuels d’une intensité indubitable. Aux quatre coins du pays, Richards a rencontré ceux qui sont rentrés sans en être pour autant vraiment revenus. Qu’il s’agisse de séquelles psychologiques ou physiques, beaucoup de ses sujets, cadrés de près, ont les paupières baissées. Une femme militaire, simplement car elle est morte ; d’autres, car ils n’ont plus la force ou la possibilité d’assumer leur condition, de Jose Pequeno, ancien sergent qu’une grenade a amputé de 40 % du cerveau, à Tomas Young, dont la cicatrice verticale dans le dos trahit une paralysie irréversible. La quarantaine d’images en noir et blanc sélectionnées est scandée par une série de textes non moins glaçants, qui contextualisent le désarroi. Carlos Arredondo explique : «Lorsque je me suis approché pour la première fois du cercueil où se trouvait mon fils, j’ai eu peur de ne pas le reconnaître. On ne nous avait pas dit comment il était mort. On ne nous avait pas dit qu’il avait un trou derrière la tête. Mais c’était bien lui… Je me suis alors penché pour l’embrasser, pour toucher sa tête, ses mains, ses doigts, ses épaules, ses jambes, pour m’assurer qu’il les avait encore…» Plus loin, tel autre semble tomber des nues en déplorant que la mort, en l’occurrence, se limite à «un visage de plus qui passera aux infos. Une statistique. Pas comme Heath Ledger qui se tue à la cocaïne dans son putain de loft à Manhattan». Ce constat offusqué est signé d’un certain Keels, ami d’une des victimes.

Stanley Greene «The Western Front» (caserne Gallieni)

Ceux qui ont la vue courte reprochent parfois à Perpignan sa litanie d’horreurs, égrenant conflits, famines et épidémies. A cet égard, Stanley Greene en connaît un rayon, du Soudan à la Tchétchénie. Toutefois, l’Américain expose ici un aspect bien moins connu et grave de son travail : des photos de jeunesse qui, en noir et blanc, consignent la scène musicale et arty de San Francisco, défilant au Mabuhay ou au On Broadway au tournant des années 70-80. Certains noms sont passés à la postérité (Dead Kennedys, Residents, D.O.A.), d’autres pas (Sweet Tommy, Black Dolls). Punk «bubblegum» ou «gothique», les images – que Greene a cru perdues pendant vingt ans – sentent la sueur, la bibine, le foutre et la pisse. Vivifiant.

Brenda Ann Kenneally «Upstate Girls» (couvent des Minimes)

Prix Canon de la femme photojournaliste, l’Américaine Brenda Ann Kenneally est une presque quinquagénaire volubile et copieusement tatouée qui agit à sa guise. De retour dans la région de son enfance, à Troy, dans l’Etat de New York, elle a suivi l’infraquotidien d’une partie de la population de cette ville jadis prospère ayant subi de plein fouet le déclin industriel dans les années 70. Une nouvelle donne qui a généré une débâcle économique, mais aussi idéologique et sociale, où survivent des familles en kit. Mère seule travaillant à l’extérieur et élevant une portée de marmots gorgés de soda et de télé ; oncle, grand-mère, cousin ou sœur formant un tissu clanique inextricable ; capharnaüm domestique saturé de linge éparpillé, de paquets de céréales éventrés et de jouets dispersés, pathologies afférentes (malnutrition, schizophrénie, psychose…), le panorama inspire un mélange de tendresse et de compassion. Brenda Ann Kenneally s’y intéresse depuis maintenant cinq ans. «Au départ, dit-elle, ils ne comprenaient pas bien le sens de ma démarche. Comment expliquer à une femme qui torche son gosse en préparant à manger pour les autres, que moi aussi je suis en train de travailler en prenant des photos ? Ces gens vivent dans des zones culturellement très fermées, pour eux, l’image se limite à la télé version MTV. Depuis, ils ont pris l’habitude de me voir faire des allers-retours. Dès le début, j’ai privilégié une façon d’agir intuitive, saisissant des représentations visuelles sur le coup, en me disant qu’elles ne se reproduiraient peut-être pas.» Brenda Ann Kenneally a touché pour la première fois de l’argent grâce à la photo en 2000. Depuis, fonctionnant en indépendante, elle compose au gré des commandes, des bourses et des chambres louées dans son domicile. «Ça n’est pas simple, précise-t-elle. Chacun de mes projets nécessite au moins deux ans d’investissement et j’estime à 50 000 dollars [35 000 euros] la somme nécessaire pour tenir correctement une année, quand on vit à New York avec un enfant à élever. Un instituteur gagne plus. Mais je ne me plains pas.»

Miquel Dewever-Plana «l’Autre Guerre» (couvent Sainte-Claire)

Miquel Dewever-Plana travaille depuis une quinzaine d’années au Guatemala. De fil en aiguille, il a resserré son attention sur les maras, en cherchant à montrer que ces très jeunes bandes sont formées d’ «assassins qui, souvent d’origine maya, ont d’abord été eux-mêmes victimes d’une accumulation de violences» et qui, par-delà la barbarie (racket, viol, trafics en tout genre, exécutions sommaires) sont aussi «porteurs d’un immense désespoir». Pauvreté, manque d’éducation, maltraitance, corruption irriguent donc les images d’un quotidien fulgurant et nihiliste qui aboutit en général à la morgue ou à la prison – un cliché montre un gardien qui fourgue une boulette de crack à un détenu.

Soucieux d’illustrer les problèmes sociaux d’un pays en capilotade, Miquel Dewever-Plana estime qu’ «une photo n’a de valeur que si le chemin parcouru pour l’obtenir a été humainement intéressant». Malgré un constat «assez desespéré» , il travaille avec l’Etat guatémaltèque en préparant un livre et un cahier éducatif qui viseraient à «démystifier les maras auprès des jeunes». En deux ans, il a déjà effectué cinq séjours d’une durée d’environ trois mois et compte faire encore un ou deux déplacements au cœur du pandémonium, le prochain étant prévu fin octobre. «Je suis conscient de travailler sur un sujet très sensible et cela passe par l’instauration d’une relation de confiance qui prend énormément de temps», ajoute le photographe, rencontré à Perpignan la veille de l’assassinat de son confrère Christian Poveda, qui œuvrait sur le même thème au Salvador.

Libération du 7 sptembre 2009.

or: slashing the staff like this could results in assault charges

or: Remaining News Staff required to perform miracles, also to cure cancer before fiscal quarter

Well, it is with a heavy heart and a cold sweat that I have to write this piece on the further death nell of the Newspaper industry. I say newspaper because all indications show that the online/television media are fairing relatively well. All signs point to the eventual demise of the printed paper on a wide scale and little can be done, it seems, but for industry leaders to continue to cut off fingers and limbs so as to slow the gangrene-like spread of the infection until they can find a cure for what ails news, the most valuable use of movable type in my humble opinion. With companies reporting massive ad revenue losses, circulation decline, and current business models failing like a bad monkey heart transplant, there has been no choice but to make sweeping layoffs, close reporting bureaus, and to close down papers all together. Though reporters and their families are the immediate victims of this necessary blood letting, the real victim here will undeniably be the American public with less diverse and more poorly researched and fact checked stories as the remaining reporting force is stretched thin to continue to deliver the same level of content with less resources and editorial oversight.

Recently the Times Co. issued a statement that they would be cutting some 100 jobs from now until Dec. 31, which accounts for 8% of it’s newsroom staff. This is only the first sign of how many jobs it will cut, being as this is only the first number since it cut 100 jobs in this same type of program last year. The Times Co. as of 2008 employed some 1,300 employees. That number today is difficult to calculate, but they have had regular rounds of layoffs, and with revenue dropping by the millions every quarter you can bet that the layoffs are going to come more rapidly in the coming year. Up to this point it was cutting in to their profits, stock dropping, but they didn’t have to make the severe cuts. Now it has become apparent that a company of this size, a company that was founded in 1851, is beginning to buckle under its own weight, its spindly legs of analog media can’t support its decrepit, obese form any longer. You have to understand that the Times Co. also owns the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and about 15 other regional publications as well as a minority stock holding in the Boston Red Sox, a fact that a lot of New York sports fans probably don’t know, if they did I think the circulation would fall through the floorboards over night.

In addition to one of the largest publishing organizations making cuts the Wall Street Journal is simply closing its doors on the Boston Bureau it has maintained for many years, try 100 of them, which generally contributed reports on New England, health care, education, and financial services. Yes, this is what we need, an industry leading, pulitzer winning bureau that covers these pivotal topics at a time like this. Dow Jones & Co., who on the Wall Street Journal have taken drastic measures recently with salary cuts, hiring freezes, completely closing some regional publications, and most recently cutting 50 jobs, leaving the company with only 750 employees world wide. 750, that is only 150 more employees than the LA Times currently employs; in 2007 the LA Times employed 1,200 employees. As you can see we’re not just losing ho-bunk back water papers, the leaders of this industry are failing every day as times get more and more complicated and good news coverage becomes critical.

Are you about to slit your wrists journalism students? A few hesitation cuts while you get the nerve up to pull it off? Well I’ve got exactly what you need to close the deal; The East Valley Tribune, after some 118 years of publication, is turning off the presses and calling it a day Dec. 31, 2009. Yes, a paper that has service Phoenix and the surrounding areas for more than a century could not survive despite cutting staff by 40%  and scaling production back to only four days a week. The problem might have come from their parent company claiming bankruptcy recently, but one can’t be sure. In putting the paper up for sale the closest thing they got to a serious offer was a oily haired jukebox salesman in an ’84 caddy who offered $500 dollars, a Wurlitzer at factory cost, and a buffalo head nickel. The deal fell apart when they wanted all of the 45’s thrown in for free and ol’ Neil commented that he wasn’t gonna get hosed like that without getting kissed first. You might say that who gives a shit about the Phoenix area? Well it has stood for a long time as the largest growing community in America, a growing readership pool to draw from every year, and the pulitzer prize winning paper continued to lose circulation and ad revenue. If a paper in a growing community with more potential readers moving there every year can’t survive, then who can?

This is only a portion of the bad news, a small sliver of the awful news coming from the financial front. Every single day bad news streams in and I just can’t publish all of it, for the mere fact that I can’t stand to analyze it as I try to break in to an industry that is hemorrhaging revenue and dropping employees like a pinata exploded. The WGA East (Writers Guild of America) issued some statements that echo my own concerns. I find that the most disconcerting fact that I think we are all failing to recognize is what the guild refers to as a difficulty to provide “reliable, informative material in the face of unrelenting budget cuts.” This is exactly how I feel as a journalist. What is occurring is news gathering organizations attempting to provide the same level of coverage with less staff to do so. What happens is now you have employed staff journalists required to now cover more ground, which will stretch them thin on accuracy and in depth, thoughtful coverage. Then, in a sick twist of fate, now there are fewer checks and balances as to the accuracy and quality of this writing in less research staff and editorial oversight leaving far too many wholes for poor journalism to fall through.

What we have here is maybe comparable to a regimen of men trying to hold a line, defend against an enemy and without warning half their force is called away, so now you have half the fighting force holding the same stretch of land; it is too much for too few to cover, no matter how hard they try and with whatever conviction they have, it will not be the same caliber as when they had more men. This thinning of the ranks leads to less accurate, and to a greater extent less thoughtful and in depth reporting. The 100 year old Boston Bureau I mentioned earlier won its Pulitzer prizes for investigative reporting on favoritism in university admissions to the children of Alumni as well as shady business practices of backdated stocks for company executives. The first casualty of this cut back will be the time consuming, heavily researched, and expensive practice of investigative reporting. The in depth kind of work that you don’t get without a company putting journalism first. Where we have ended up, and are heading to like a bat out of hell is now ‘bottom-line journalism’ on two fronts; basic, bare bones daily reporting coupled with cost first decision making on what gets covered and how.

Years ago journalism starting taking its cues from tabloids and sensationalizing stories. This is the time of the likes of Fox News coming to supremacy in the network battles. When you started listening to pundits and stopped watching the nightly news. The loudest voices and the most controversial personalities became the leaders in news, and then you have Glenn Beck in a league unto himself. News became about salacious headlines and quick witted propaganda, but to a greater extent it just became about entertainment. What was tolerable was that you had relatively legitimate news organizations to cover everything else and deliver unbiased news on a daily basis. Those that wanted real news coverage could get it. What also aided in the tolerability of the situation was that there were many voices, many sources, and great staff members checking and rechecking facts as well as layers of editors and publishers sifting through work to prevent bias and misinformation to greater extent. This slashing of staff and research budgets is now leaving fewer voices, 50% at some papers as other just close their doors. Now the diversity of coverage has been compromised, the quality of coverage has been compromised, and to a greater extent, the publics trust has been compromised.

I want you to, for just a moment, imagine a world without the LA Times, NY Times, and USA Today. Where will you get the news? You can’t get there? OK, how about a more nefarious and dangerous situation, imagine only the NY Times, or the LA Times, or the USA Today. This is the great disaster you will have to come to terms with eventually. Imagine a world where everyone has gone bankrupt and one company, one news gathering organization stands as the only publication left. What if there was a bias, or if they decided to not cover certain things? Without other companies to compete with, without a need to fact check they could run rough shod over the world, and God forbid you get a publisher or owner with an axe to grind, bias could run amok upon it’s pages with no way for you, the reader, to compare facts and try to get the whole story. It would be a Stars and Stripes kind of situation during Vietnam; smooth over the bad news and beef up stories with false facts and embellishment whatever news fit your agenda (also see ex. FOX News). Absolute anarchy as the public can’t get the real story or be informed enough to make a decision about Presidential candidates, bills up for a vote, etc. You don’t want to be there, I know I don’t.

This is a scary situation that needs immediate attention as diversity and quality in reporting begins to deteriorate in the public sector. A bailout is out of the question, the newspapers didn’t get in line soon enough and with all of the healthcare reform spending a TARP money, there isn’t enough to go around, so papers are shit out of luck for Government help. Besides, if the Obama Administration got its fingers in to free press the effects and distrust by the public in reporting would go through the roof. A share of the Times Co. in the Obama back pocket would only fuel the flames of the communist and fascist sentiment some have for the administration. I have heard rumors that the companies I have spoken of in this piece may be considering creating a united front with other groups to team up and begin charging for premium content or online subscriptions all at once. This would not create an immediate flocking from those who charge to those who don’t. A kind of Newspaper Alliance to help everyone and hurt no one so that they can all try and move in to an era of online profitability that has been lacking ever since the 90’s.

I promise you that the fall of the news empires in this country is not over, it will be getting much darker before there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I predict the fall of a titan Newspaper like the Boston Globe or a paper with a readership nearing one million on Sunday editions going down before people begin to take serious notice. It will take the fall of a news empire or the sale of the LA Times to bring the spotlight squarely on the industry. Can you imagine if the NY Times were put up for sale or eventually just had to claim bankruptcy. It is not entirely impossible as being a publicly traded company, if stock were to fall to a buck a share the company would crumble, massive closing of international bureaus, layoffs, etc., the company could be in ruin inside 90 days from the stock falling. A world without the NY Times would a be a terrible place given the fact it would shake confidence in others and possibly lead to a domino effect resulting in the ugly world I mentioned in the last paragraph.

Embrace of online media will help, but it is not going to fix the problem, you don’t make up 60% ad revenue declines by charging .99 micro-charges for weekly subscriptions to the Times. A complete restructuring of the business model will need to take place to find a profitable design for the 21st century paper. In the meantime you, the readers and general public need to be wary of reporting, check your own facts and dig deeper to find the information that you need to form opinions and make decisions. As the journalists are stretched thin and expected to perform miracles on a daily basis for less money on tighter deadlines without the needed support staff I ask that you forgive inaccuracies and instead pick up more than just the one paper. Take a cue from me, I read the LA Times, NY Times, USA Today, as well as my local papers to check facts and try to get the whole story as well as a wide array of different stories. I don’t subscribe to any of these papers, I read them online for free, bad aspiring journalist, I know, but I put in the leg work to be assured that I am as diversely informed as possible. What you now need to do is support papers more than ever by doing the job of research assistant, reporter, editor, and publisher at multiple papers to get your news. You now do the same job four people used to do at the paper…welcome to modern journalism, you have to get your own coffee, too, we had to fire Jimmy last week.