IJPC
NEWS NOTES
Updated
8-2007
2007
Megan Garber's “The Big Picture”
in Short Takes, Columbia Journalism Review, The Magazine,
November/December 2007. Movie journalists get an image makeover.
IJPC Associate Director Matthew Ehrlich is quoted.
The adventures of Belgian comic-strip boy reporter
Tintin is being developed by Steven Spielberg,
a lifelong Tintin fan. Herge Studios in Brussels made the
announcement in March, 2007.
"Goodnight
Burbank" and a made-for-the-Web Future
is Hayden Black's wicked little satire of local TV news that
has geneerated more than 2 million dowloads. A March 19, 2007
article by Scott Collins fills in the details. Goodnight
Burbank Web Site.
2006
Reuters
opened its first all-digital bureau in October 2006, a building
in the virtual world "Second Life" modeled on its
New York and London offices. Almost immediately, news agencies
around the world picked up on the story, intrigued by the
fact that one of the oldest existing news outlets would choose
to station Adam Pasick, a full-time reporter, in an entirely
virtual environment.For its part, Reuters is using the bureau
to disseminate its real-world news feeds to "Second Life"
residents, hoping in the process to find a new audience.
Reuters is not the only news outlet to hang a shingle in
"Second Life." In fact, CNET had previously opened
a "Second Life" bureau and has been using the virtual
space as a venue for interviewing luminaries from the technology
community.
"Reporters
on Film: Drunks and Tarts," David
Carr column in the New York Times, August 14, 2006.
IJPC Director Joe Saltzman is quoted: "The anger and
lack of confidence most Americans have in the news media today
is partly based on real-life examples they have seen and heard.
But much of the image of the journalist as a money-grubbing,
selfish, arrogant scoundrel is based on images from movies
and television."
"It
Pays to be a Print Journalist -- in Films. 'Scoop' Continues
Long-Standing Trend of the Noble Newspaper Reporter,"
by
Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, July 30,
2006. Farhi points out that "Scoop's" portrayal
of the journalist "is consistent with a long line of
cinematic print reporters." The article is based on an
interview with IJPC Director Joe Saltzman. "As a general
rule," writes Farhi, "when a story calls for a journalist
to do something serious or important -- solve a murder, expose
wrongdoing, spring an innocent man, etc. -- you can count
on seeing a print reporter at the center of the story, not
a TV journalist, says Joe Saltzman ....himself a former TV
journalist. "Perhaps the most damaging image of all,
he says, is the familiar scene of an anonymous army of camera-wielding,
microphone-thrusting broadcast reporters hounding a newsworthy
subject for information. Forget William Hurt's preening anchorman,
or Johansson's spunky news scribe. When people condemn the
news media ass arrogant and uncaring, says Saltzman, it's
usually because they remember this wolf pack from the movies
or TV." The article also appeared in the Los
Angeles Times: "Heroic Reporters Stop the Presses!",
The
Mercury News: "'Scoop' carries on tradition of print
journalists as TV Reporters, however tend to be portrayed
as shallow, uncaring," and other newspapers as well
as blog sites such as Gawker.com
and Emily's Blog.
"'Wars':
How a N.Y. Tabloid Really Works," by
Edward P. Smith, Denver Post Staff Writer, July 20, 2006.
"How people see journalists, though, appears to be influenced
more by pop culture versions of the press -- what people see
on TV and in movies -- than on any real-life interaction or
observation of journalists. That at least is the view of Joe
Saltzman, director of the Image of the Journalist in Popular
Culture project...." The article continues: "The
consensus is that these images have an enormous effect on
the public's view of what a journalist does and what a journalist
is" said Saltzman pointing to everything from the new
"Superman Returns" film to "Lou Grant"
to 1929's "Five-Star Final," one of the most loathsome
depictions of a tabloid reporter ever. And yes, there really
is a project that studies the pop culture image of journalists."
Rate-It:
Journalists in Movies. Consumers
rate the degree of conviction with which actors have portrayed
journalists in movies throughout history.
OBITUARY: DARREN McGAVIN, who
played Reporter Carl Kolchak in the TV series “Kolchak:
The Night Stalker” in the 1970s died of natural causes
Saturday, February 25, 2006 at a Los Angeles-based hospital.
He was 83. He first played the fast-talking old-fashioned
journalist in “The Night Stalker,” a TV movie
about a reporter covering a vampire’s killing spree
in Las Vegas. The movie set a ratings record when it first
aired in 1972. The TV movie was followed by a 1973 sequel,
“The Night Strangler.” The ABC series, which began
in 1974 and lasted a single season, captivated a generation
of future sci-fi scriptwriters. “The Night Stalker”
movies and series have been credited with inspiring contemporary
entertainment including the WB series “Buffy the Vampire
Slayer,” and the 1997 film “Men in Black.”
Writer-producer Chris Carter has often cited Kolchak as the
primary inspiration for the long-running fantasy-drama “The
X-Files” that first aired on Fox in 1993. Frank Spotnitz,
a producer of a short-lived revival of the series that aired
on ABC last fall, wrote in Entertainment Weekly in 2005: “The
Night Stalker’s” combination of fear and fun worked
in large part because of the “jauntiness in the face
of doom” that McGavin brought to what he called “the
role of a lifetime.” McGavin also played journalists
in a 1988 TV production of “Inherit the Wind”
(Newspaperman E.K. Hornbeck); a 1988 episode of “Highway
to Heaven” called “The Correspondent”),
and “Crime Photographer,” a 1950s series based
on Casey, Crime Photographer mystery novels.
OBITURARY: DON KNOTTS, who played a reporter
in “The Ghost and Mrs. Chicken,” died Friday,
February 24, 2006 of pulmonary and respiratory complications.
He was 81. He was famous for playing the bumbling underdog
hero.
2005
“HOLLYWOOD
GIVES THE PRESS A BAD NAME” by David Carr
of the New York Times, published December 12, 2005: "People
may not be keen on consuming the fruits of journalism - ratings,
circulation and polling numbers make that plain - but put
them in a darkened movie house and the craft suddenly becomes
riveting. Journalists play a role in a surprising number of
movies that are rounding out the year and may well be around
at Oscar time. "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Capote"
take journalists as their chief preoccupations, but the news
media also get critical roles in "King Kong," "Munich"
and "The Constant Gardener." Filled with quotes
from IJPC experts including Joe Saltzman, director of the
IJPC.
HEADLINE
HUNTERS: Two new films underscore Hollywood's ever-changing
fascination with journalists, a column by Stephen
Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger,
Sunday, October 09, 2005.
BEST
BROADCASTING MOVIES OF ALL TIME as picked byh
the National Broadcasters Training Network. If you truly love
broadcasting, these are the movies for you. Visualize the
drama, the glamour, the conflict, and the big meaty stories.
Of course this isn't all there is to broadcasting, but who
wouldn't like to forget about the boring parts for two hours
and watch broadcasting at its best, worst, most comical, and
most cynical?
LIST
OF FICTIONAL JOURNALISTS from From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, 2005.
COURT
TV'S 15 MOST MEMORABLE MOVIE JOURNALISTS. It's
a little easier to make a movie about journalists. Since the
stereotypical reporter is witty, driven, direct and yet flawed,
they are usually pretty interesting characters. They have
appealing jobs which allow them plenty of time out of the
office and in contact with a variety of fascinating characters.
They are always digging to uncover some fantastic mystery.
And because there's always a deadline to meet, tension is
forever just around the corner. Since charismatic reporters
have the lead roles in the recent "Capote" and "Good
Night, And Good Luck," it got us thinking about other
compelling cinematic newshounds. We took a look at some of
greatest movies ever made about the business (we recently
did the same thing about lawyers in film) and tried to determine
which journalists have been the most memorable. Court-TV.Com
Hollywood Heat section, October 6, 2005.
CHRONICLE
OF HIGHER EDUCATION FEATURES IJPC LIBRARY. In
its Sept. 30, 2005 edition, the Chronicle of High Education
features six academics whose libraries are of national interest.
One is the IJPC Library created by its director Joe Saltzman.
NOT
QUITE LIKE IN THE MOVIES. REAL NEWSROOMS DIFFERENT FROM REEL
ONES. By
Rebecca Rothbaum, Poughkeepsie Journal, Aug. 27, 2005.From
the corruption-busting crusader to the sleazy ambulance chaser,
the fast-talking wiseacre to the ambition-driven loner, the
reporter in film has a history that is as old as Hollywood
itself, a stock character who has shaped the public's perception
of journalism as much as it has reflected it. Not that this
image has anything to do with reality. Or that it matters.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE HACK. We all know that movies
and TV only ever portray journalists as scumbags who'll do
anything for a story. According to ‘hackademic' Rob
Brown, we're wrong. Press Gazette, Thursday, August 4, 2005.
By Rob Brown, Head of Journalism Studies, School of Communication
Arts, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
New Research Shows Americans' Love-Hate
Relationship with Journalism
Missouri School of Journalism April 27, 2005. Columbia,
Mo. -- A new study shows that Americans have a more positive,
more complicated set of attitudes toward journalism than the
recent wave of media criticism implies."The consumers
of American journalism respect, value and need it - but they're
also skeptical about whether journalists really live up to
the standards of accuracy, fairness and respect for others
that we profess," said George Kennedy, co-author of the
study and a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.
For example, this national survey shows that, by 62 percent
to 18 percent, respondents agree with the statement, "Journalism
in the U.S. is mainly a force for good." By the same
3-1 margin, respondents agreed, "I personally benefit
from what journalists provide." And by 75 percent to
12 percent, they agreed, "Journalism helps me understand
what is going on in America."
However, respondents to the Missouri survey agreed with results
of other national surveys that they see bias in journalism
(85 percent to 13 percent); that journalists too often invade
privacy (65 percent to 26 percent); and that journalism is
too negative (77 percent to 22 percent).
Glen T. Cameron, who holds the Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair
in Journalism Research at the School, and Kennedy, designed
this survey. It was conducted by the School's Center for Advanced
Social Research. The survey reached by telephone 495 respondents,
selected at random. The results are 95 percent certain to
be accurate within a range of 4.4 percent plus or minus. After
the telephone survey, Kennedy interviewed, also by telephone,
a dozen people whose responses to the survey seemed typical.The
study is part of a project with the working title "What
Good is Journalism?", which will include a public forum
on Wednesday, April 27, in Arlington, Va., and a book to be
published within the next year. The public forum is co-sponsored
by the First Amendment Center.
Kennedy said that what distinguishes this study from the
dozens of recent surveys showing disdain and distrust of journalism
is that this one asked, along with the usual questions, a
number of questions other surveys haven't included."We
wanted to find out whether journalism actually serves any
useful purposes in people's lives, and what those purposes
might be," he said. "We also, of course, wanted
to assess whether people believe what they read or hear."
The survey and the follow-up interviews show that, by significant
margins, Americans do think journalism is important and that
they do trust what journalists tell them, though with some
reservations.One survey respondent who agreed to be interviewed
was Kimberly Huggins, a 25-year-old candy store owner in Georgia.
Her assessment seems to be widely shared: "There are
a lot of outrageous things, but how do you curb the outrageous
things without getting in the way of things we need to know?
It's good to know what's going on."
In the survey, respondents agreed, by 93 percent to 4 percent,
that "the freedom of the press is important to our system
of government." Asked whether journalists have too much
or too little of that freedom, 14 percent of respondents said
"too little;" 23 percent said "too much;"
and 60 percent said "about the right amount." By
62 percent to 19 percent, respondents agreed with the statement
"In general, American journalism is credible." Newspapers
were rated trustworthy by 56 percent to 26 percent; television
by 57 to 25 percent.
Respondents strongly supported the investigative, or watchdog,
role of journalism. By 83 percent to 8 percent, they agreed,
"It is important for journalists to press for access
to information about our government, even when officials would
like to keep it quiet." They were less positive about
how well journalists exercise that role; 65 percent rated
journalists "good watchdogs over public officials,"
and 59 percent said journalists are "good watchdogs over
business practices." By 53 percent to 28 percent, respondents
agreed that "journalists do a good job of protecting
the public from abuses of power."
Like respondents to other surveys, those who participated
in this study found plenty to criticize, as well. By 74 percent
to 18 percent, they said journalists tend to favor one side
over the other in political and social issues. Of the 85 percent
who said they see bias in the news, 48 percent identified
that bias as liberal; 30 percent identified it as conservative.
Respondents also said, by 70 to 22 percent, that they think
journalists are "often influenced" by "powerful
people and organizations." Half said they find American
journalism "too sensational," with 7 percent finding
it "too restrained" and 40 percent finding it "about
right."
This complicated mix of support and skepticism was summed
up well by David Hudson, a 47-year-old computer network manager
in Alabama. Mr. Hudson said, "Journalism may be slanted,
but it's the best way to get the news. If you take away journalism,
you'd want it back with whatever flaws it has." Contact:
George Kennedy; kennedyg@missouri.edu; 573-882-4045.Copyright
© 2005 The Curators of the University of Missouri. Copyright
2005 Associated Press The Associated Press
MASON ADAMS, 86; Played Managing Editor on “Lou
Grant” Los Angeles Times, Friday, April 29, 2005. Mason
Adams, the veteran character actor who won acclaim playing
the compassionate newspaper managing editor on “Lou
Grant” and was a familiar voice in countless radio and
TV commercials, has died. He was 86
.
Adams died of natural causes at his home on the Upper East
Side of Manhattan, said is family.
As an actor whose career spanned more than 60 years and included
playing the title role on the long-running radio soap opera
“Pepper Young’s Family,” Adams was best
known as managing editor Charlie Hume on “Lou Grant,”
the Emmy award-winning dramatic series staring Ed Asner.
A spin-off of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” the
series ran from 1977 to 1982 and earned Adams three Emmy nominations
as best supporting actor.
“I thought he was a gorgeous actor,” Asner told
The Times on Thursday. “He was a tremendous, key part
of whatever good there was in ‘Lou Grant.’”
Being with Adams, Asner said, “was an enriching experience
both on camera and off. He had a presence filled with depth
and interest and underlying passion. And I stole more from
him than he stole from me. I will miss him greatly.”
Allan Burns, co-creator and executive producer of “Lou
Grant,” said Adams “was one of the best actors
I ever worked with. What he brings to every part and especially
to Charlie Hume was what he was himself, which is smart as
hell,” Burns told The Times on Thursday. “He had
tremendous integrity and he was such a wonderful, wonderful
actor.” Burns said Adams constantly challenged the writers
“to find depth to his character,” and when they
wrote scripts that fleshed out this “sort of mild, smart,
quiet guy,” Adams “would always do it beautifully.”
Adams, who spent time with several newspaper managing editors
in preparing for the role, felt he had a special responsibility
to maintain the integrity of the job. “Early on, the
writers saw Charlie as a comic buffer between Lou and Mrs.
Pynchon,” the strong-filled owner-publisher played by
Nancy Marchand, Adams told Associated Press in 1981. “There
were times when Charlie came across as a fool. I said to earn
respect and credibility, the managing editor has to be like
the major general in an army. The character soon achieved
its current image.”
That image apparently rang true. In 1979, a Florida newspaper
conducted a poll of the most trusted men in America, and Adams’
Charlie Hume ranked with legendary CBS News anchorman Walter
Cronkite.
2004
NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: Yesterday Today & Tomorrow
by Art Berman discusses how audiences perceive newspapers
and other media outlets, Sept. 28, 2004.. IJPC Director Joe
Saltzman is quoted pointing out "very few people ever
see real-life journalists doing their job." What the
public has seen, he says, is the journalistic “pack
of wild animals” popping up to hound movie and television
heroes since the 1970s. Add to that the scenes of real-life
reporters who regularly descend upon today’s public
figures like Kobe Bryant and Martha Stewart, and you can see
the source of some respondents’ negativity.
DE JOURNALIST
-- MEDIA DAG 2004 -- De Journalist spreekt tot
de verbeelding. IJPC Director Joe Saltzman quoted on top 10
films featuring journalists. Original Danish publication.
IJPC ASSOCIATE
MATTHEW EHRLICH writes "Movies elevate,
rather than dengirate journalism and reporters" in his
new book, Journalism
in the Movies (University
of Illinois Press), published August, 2004. A news release
out of Champaign, Illinois, says: "Are movies to blame
for the public’s low opinion of reporters and journalism?
Has the Hollywood portrayal of the news business grown harsher
in recent decades? Some in the news media think so, says former
reporter Matthew Ehrlich, now a journalism professor at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author
of an engaging new book on the subject." Article-Review
on book: "Journalism through the camera's eye: Book looks
at how Hollywood shapes our views of the press."
"HAPPY
TALK NEWS COVERS A WAR by FRANK RICH, New York Times,
July 18, 2004. "Up to a point, it's fun to howl
at Will Ferrell's priceless portrayal of Ron Burgundy, the
fictional local TV news star at the center of "Anchorman."
The movie is set in the prehistoric era of the 1970's, when
such infotainment inventions as Action News and Eyewitness
News were still in their infancy. With his big ego, big lapels,
big ties, big hair and pea-sized brain, Ron is every newsman
who's ever told us "This is what's happening in your
world tonight!" while remaining clueless about anything
happening beyond his own teleprompter. Ron Burgundy has only
one flaming passion: to end up in the big time of network
news."
100 GREATEST MOVIE JOURNALISTS OF ALL TIME. Premiere
magazine’s April 2004 edition, “The 100 Greatest
Movie Characters of All Time” features four journalists:
No. 12 is Charles Foster Kane played by Orson
Welles in Citizen Kane, 1941: “The essential paradox
here is that this movie is about a group of people delving
into the character of the title newspaper magnate –
who remains essentially unknowable.”
No. 41 is Jane Craig played by Holly Hunter
in Broadcast News, 1987: “News Producer Jane Craig can’t
enter a cab without telling the driver the quickest route,
nor can she begin her day without a brief crying jag. Brisk,
capable, overscheduled, and brutally honest, she seems to
know everything except how she feels emotionally. Caught between
her neurotic soul mate (Albert Brooks) and the airhead anchor
(William Hurt), she has no idea how to reconcile her head
and her heart. When her boss snaps at her, ‘It must
be nice to always believe you know better – to always
think you’re the smartest person in the room,’
Jane admits, ‘No, it’s awful.’”
No. 52 is Howard Beale played by Peter Finch
in Network, 1976: “Is he an ‘angry prophet denouncing
the hypocrisies of our times’ or just nuts? The newscaster’s
populist rants are so vehement that it’s hard to discern
the uncomfortable truths behind them. Everyone remembers ‘I’m
mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’
But his best moment is one of silence: As the network president
delivers a sermon on the divinity of corporate America, the
once-raving Beale sits silently in the foreground, focused,
calm, understanding everything.”
No. 61: J.J. Hunsecker played by Burt Lancaster
in Sweet Smell of Success, 1957: “The ice-pick-sharp
dialogue certainly didn’t hurt matters, but it’s
Lancaster’s physical indomitability that distinguishes
this self-righteous snake of an N.Y.C. gossip columnist. ‘I
love this dirty town,’ Hunsecker mutters to hapless
press agent and cat’s paw Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis).
Holding frigid court at one of his regular nightspots, Hunsecker
eviscerates Falco, a senator whom he calls a friend, his bimbo
consort and her manager.”
ALEX BARRIS, author of Stop
the Presses: The Newspaperman in American Films, a
ground-breaking book on the image of the journalist in Popular
Culture, died January 15, 2004 at the age of 81.
DAMAGES,
a play by Steve Thompson, in London, June-July, 2004. James
Naughtie, in his review ("All Human Life is Here:
Journalists are not heroic, but quite passable as villains
with a conscience," The Times, Saturday, June 5, 2004,
p. 8) writes: "It would be terrible if journalists were
too celebrated on the stage. Nothing could be worse than an
attempt at heroism. Tedious though it is to have to endure
the flagellatory self-basement of some of the trade, who enjoy
wallowing in the self-pity that's really pomposity in disguise,
it is always better to be kept in your place than to be put
on an artificial pedestal that's bound to crumble away. We're
stuck with the caricature of the morally duplicitous hack
because, in truth, it's safer and more comfortable than some
shining suit of armour which never quite fits."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, June
18, 2004 -- Jim Mullen in the HotSheet column writes: "The
Stepford Wives. Nicole Kidman wonders why all the women in
her new town act like overdressed, man-pleasing robots. Maybe
they all work in TV news?"
THE
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Despite
recent ethics scandals (or maybe because of them) the entertainment
industry continues to find the news business irresistibly
amusing. An article in the Boston Globe by Don Aucoin appearing
in April 14, 2004 does a thorough job of giving a history
of the reporter in film and television programs. Associate
IJPC Director Richard Ness gave Aucoin much of the information
that appears in the article and is quoted.
ACTRESS WHO PLAYS TELEVISION REPORTER
in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Interviewed in
People Magazine. Alicia Silverstone plays
a television reporter and was asked if she learned any tricks
of the trade. "Not a lot," she said. "But it
was definitely fun to be aggressive. And journalists are so
aggressive." When asked who she would like to interview,
she said, "Meryl Streep. I would love to pick her brain
and find out more about who she is." Asked what's the
dumbest question a reporter ever asked her, Silverstone replied,
"What is my bra size. I was like, "What?" Another
lady asked me if I was a virgin. I was so young, and it was
so embarrassing."
NEWS ON “THE DAILY SHOW”?
YOU’RE JOKING. David Bauder of the Associated
Press writes this dispatch out of New York (published in the
Los Angeles Times Calendar section, Tuesday, March 2, 2004
(Page E16): Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather…and
Jon Stewart? Readers over 30 might scoff at Stewart’s
inclusion, assuming they know who he is. For many under 30,
the host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”
is an important news source. A poll released this year by
the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found
that 21% of people ages 18 to 29 cited “The Daily Show”
and “Saturday Night Live” as sources of presidential
campaign news.By comparison, 23% of the young people mentioned
ABC, CBS or NBC’s nightly news broadcasts as a source.More
startling is the change from four years ago when Pew found
only 9% of young people citing the comedy shows and 39% the
network news.
In Entertainment Weekly (March
13, 2004), Jim Mullen writing in "Hot Sheet" makes
fun of journalists used as punching bags by celebrities: "Russell
Crowe. The Aussie dislocated his shoulder training for the
upcoming boxing movie 'Cinderella Man.' Probably hitting a
reporter."
The Italian sensation, Reporter Mouse
Geronimo Stilton has a taste for adventure and cheese.
Stilton runs The Rodent's Gazette in New Mouse City, Mouse
Island. Click here for the latest
edition of The Rodent's Gazette. Who is Geronimo Stilton?
As journalist Stilton puts it, "That's me! I run a newspaper,
but my true passion is writing tales of adventure. Here in
New Mouse City, the capital of Mouse Island, my books are
all bestsellers! My stories are full of fun -- tastier than
Swiss cheese and tangier than extra-sharp cheddar. They are
whisker-licking-good stories, and that's a promise!"
The 34 titles by the Italian best-selling mouse-journalist
are being released by Scholastic Books in 2004.
IJPC offers a preview of City
Editor, Georgia Journalist Larry Peterson’s
first novel (2004). The book chronicles 10 days in the life
of City Editor Jack Donahue who is in charge of news coverage
for a medium-sized daily newspaper. Donahue goes from crisis
to crisis: demands by a local congresswoman that he fire his
ace political writer, pressure to fire another reporter who
fabricated a story about Hillary Rodham Clinton, a crime story
that flip-flops the names of a victim and the assailant in
a fatal stabbing. Donahue is also mystified why his executive
editor is trying to stop reporting about a proposed treatment
center for repeat sex offenders. It seems the editor's family
stands to cash in big if the facility is built. Peterson knows
the field – he’s been a city editor at three newspapers.
He thinks his book will appeal to journalists: “Although
the plot compresses a lot of things that normally occur over
a longer time, I tried to make it a realistic portrayal of
the newsroom, with all the drama, chaos and even boring stuff,"
Peterson said. "But I also wanted to explain some of
the issues reporters and editors face every day."
2003
An article in the New York Times, On
Film and in Print, The Quiet American Still Fascinates
(Jan. 29, 2003) illustrates the impact of the image of
the journalist on journalists themselves. Martin F. Nolan
writes, "The book heavily influenced correspondents who
covered the American war in the 1960's. "Many passages
some of us can quote to this day," said David Halberstam,
who received a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting while
a correspondent for The New York Times in 1964. "It was
our bible." Fowler [the journalist], following a besieged
French patrol, outlines a modus operandi for intrepid reporters:
"No journalists were allowed, no cables could be sent,
for the papers must carry only victories. The authorities
would have stopped me in Hanoi if they had known of my purpose,
but the farther you get from headquarters, the looser becomes
the control, until, when you come within range of the enemy's
fire, you are a welcome guest." By the 1960's, the book
had become "the equivalent of what Napoleon suggested:
a marshal's baton in every corporal's knapsack," recalls
David Greenway, who covered the Vietnam War for Time and The
Washington Post. "Every reporter had one. Many carried
The Quiet American and Scoop by Evelyn Waugh."
2002
MEDIA PEOPLE ON TV MORE NUMEROUS THAN IN
REAL LIFE
Entertainment Weekly (Oct. 18, 2002) compared prime
time media people with a breakdown of the U.S. workforce (based
on federal statistics). It turned out that 8.3 percent of
prime time's 431 gainfully employed regulars on TV are media
people compared with only 0.3 percent in the real U.S.
workforce. The only employed regulars who were more in evidence
on TV were medical workers (21 percent compared to 0.9 percent
in reality), police (11.4 percent compared to 0.9 percent),
and lawyers (8.3 percent compared to 0.7 percent). Ranking
lower on TV than media people were executives and managers
(6.4 percent on TV compared to 31 percent in the U.S. workforce),
salespeople (2.6 percent compared to 11.8 percent), forensics
specialists (4.5 percent compared to 0.01 percent), space
travelers (5.9 percent compared to 0.0001 percent) and secret
agents (1.8 percent compared to "unknown"). Entertainment
Weekly (Oct. 18, 2002).
IMAGE OF THE REPORTER KEEPS GETTING WORSE
Apparently, the public's image of the news reporter keeps
getting worse. In a special Dilbert poll referred to in Campbell's
article, news reporters were voted the top "weaseliest
profession" over lawyers, politicians, tobacco executives,
oil executives, accountants and advertising executives. Scott
Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert, calls a weasel
"anyone who is trying to get away with something."
You can read all about in a "Special
Weasel Edition" of the Dilbert Newsletter, No. 43.
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