just a point

[rm]

I'm too tired to go into the whole of this now, and it will probably be misconstrued but:

Journalists don't owe you shit.

(and to digress for a moment -- don't talk to a journalist unless you are extremely disciplined about what you say and how you say it and can say it concisely, otherwise you're not going to be happy with the result. and if you don't know who else they're interviewing for a piece, or the thrust of it, don't talk to the journalist if you don't have the badnwidth for a displeasing result. I mean really, are you going to go on reality TV and then be surprised that the editing makes it look different than it was?).

They are not obligated to report the truth as you see it, nor are they obligated to care about what they write about. Hell, I had whole classes in J-school on how to write about shit I didn't actually understand (read: how to be a science journalist without being a scientist).

Some journalists are sloppy. Some are scumbags. Some like human interest stories because they care and some like them because they like to mock the freaks. Journalists can't control their editors or their headlines are are frequently beyond frustrated by whatever version of their article finally makes it to print.

Regardless, their job is not to make the subjects of their articles happy.

Finally, journalists are human and make mistakes.

Plenty of people I know have plenty of reasons to be legitimately pissed at journalists, but I am once again fed up with people being angry with "The Media" and taking it out on some non-specific guy at the bottom on the food chain who didn't do shit and/or some poor journalist who did the best they could with 600 words when you wanted 6,000 for your pet obsession.

Jouranlism is a screwy business, populated by screwy people dealing with the awkward and ugly trasntion into industry. Like anything else it has its good guys and bad guys. But I am sick sick sick of the immediate/automatic response to an article that didn't meet someone's personal fantasy being "is she stupid?" (this, btw, not directed at the individual on my friendslist who has a very good reason to be saying that very thing over a certain recent event).

I can be a real prick, but hello, NOT THE BAD GUY.

(brought to you by asshatery I'm trying to have the dignity not to explain)

Comments

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Interesting, because I was planning on writing some stuff up about this editorial from 2003 that darkthirty pointed out to me today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,923706,00.html But thanks for saying this. I get bored/frustrated with the "Main-Stream/Liberal/Conservative Media Are Morons!" posts, too.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I was just reading an article by a journalist I know - a lady whose job usually means interviewing the survivors, the kid who saw his parents gunned down, the widow, the neighbor - and how hard it sometimes is to be dispassionate but kind. How do you gently ask that kid how he's doing? How do you knock on the widow's door and ask her to spill her guts about her slaughtered husband? How do you keep from having nightmares when chasing the nightmares and nailing them to paper is your job?

With journalists, a lot depends on what desk they sit at (and whether they ever get to actually sit down at it). And, also, on their editor. Who hasn't written a gorgeous 2000 word piece to spec only to have something else come in and have your Pulitzer masterpiece hacked down to 600 words ten pages back?

Journalism isn't for the sake of the interviewed. unless it's vanity journalism - and that's not journalism, it's fawning and ass-kissing with a typewriter. (Which also pays well, but I can't call it journalism, quite.) You want to be in the paper, you don't get to choose why unless you're paying.

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

Exactly ...and well put, journalists are not there to make peopel look good and feel good about themselves, they are there to sell stories. Most journalists I have dealt with are more Rita Skeeter than Ms. feelgood, and I've always gone in with that knowledge. I've been burned and I've been flattered, but they aren't worth getting my panties in a bunch. Thery are simply doing their job.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The thing that set me off was fandom related, so incidences or clarity are nice.

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of self important indignation in fandom, people taking themselves far too seriously and unrealistically expecting journalists to serve them, which is quite NOT the case.

((((HUGS))))

[haya.livejournal.com]

You are right.
Celebs get coaching and even have specialized counselors for dealing with the media.

I think I would need one as I tend to open my mouth and insert my foot, especially if I am tired.