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Home Front: Culture Wars

Bad News: J-school graduates, commence worrying

2006-05-30

I'd been thinking of posting this, and I have a few comments. Some background: Gene is a writer whose work I have always enjoyed. I first "met" him when he was the editor of the late, lamented "Tropic" Sunday magazine in the Miami Herald when I lived there in the 80's. I must note here that the Miami Herald in those days was a fantastic paper, and many of their writers and photographers went on to fame and fortune in Washington and New York (back when reporting for the NYT was an honorable profession). Gene discovered Dave Barry, and collaborated with Joel Achenbach, who is another all time favorite of mine. Tropic magazine was brilliant and funny, and I still miss it. Somewhere in my files I have a letter sent to me by Gene, thanking me for the letter I sent to him welcoming him to Washington.

But after reading this screed, I can only shake my head sadly. His reaction to the blowing winds of change shows that he is rapidly turning into the dinosaur his generation railed against.

Bad News
J-school graduates, commence worrying
By Gene Weingarten
Sunday, May 28, 2006; W28

From a commencement address I delivered last week:

I want to congratulate you all upon your graduation from the University of Maryland College of Journalism, and wish you luck as you prepare to embark on exciting careers in telemarketing or large-appliance repair.

A quick note here: U-MD has or had one of the finest J-school programs in the country. They graduated fine upstanding journalists like my sister, and also the cancer formerly known as Jayson Blair.

My point is, this is a challenging time for journalists.

But not for the reasons Gene is about to enumerate.

And because you are word people, you understand that "challenging time" is a euphemism often used to describe disasters of epic proportions. For example, Richard Pryor was facing a "challenging time" when he ran down the street half-naked and on fire.

Gene showing off his 'hip' factor here. Gene can Relate to Today's Youth. Do you think the Class of '06 even know who Richard Pryor is was? He's just some dead guy, right?

What are your challenges, specifically? Let us begin with, quote unquote, getting a job. Good jobs in journalism have become scarce as newspapers shrink and die, broadcast media fragment to smaller niche audiences and the public appears more and more willing to receive its "news" online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants. But, it's not like there is no hope. There are still high-prestige, well-paying positions in journalism. Unfortunately, they are filled by tired old coots who aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Me, for example. It'll take a hydraulic winch to pry me loose from this gig.

Gene is leaving something important out of this whine. The Washington Post has been offering its newsroom vets an unprecedented and very lucrative buyout to their lifers to take early retirement. Most of their columnists are leaving, and a good chunk of their veteran beat reporters. Gene may not have enough seniority to qualify for this offer, and that may be why he's staying around an increasingly empty newsroom.

Two decades ago, I worked with your dean, Tom Kunkel, at the Miami Herald. Back then, the Herald was a newspaper the thickness of the Singapore telephone directory. Today, when carriers fling the Herald onto suburban driveways, it settles to the pavement gently, like a sycamore leaf in the breeze. When Tom and I worked there, the Herald was the flagship of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, which no longer exists, having recently been purchased by the McClatchy chain, which sold some of the papers to the MediaNews chain, which sold some of the papers to the Kmart chain, which is using them as packing material for Scooby-Doo sippy cups. My point is, and I mean this sincerely, this is a challenging time for newspapers.

But enough with the bad news. There's plenty of good news, too. Vitally important accountability journalism is still being practiced by fearless men and women who question authority and speak truth to power, right up until the time power incarcerates them. The public doesn't seem to care. Our industry is not exactly riding a crest of support. The most recent job-approval rankings place journalists between "loan shark" and "ho'-bag skank."

We are not without blame for this. It seems as though every week we hear stories about some journalist somewhere who has gone bad -- plagiarizing someone, making something up, extorting cash from sources, robbing a convenience store and pistol-whipping the clerk. As a columnist, I am particularly dismayed by the smug, self-congratulatory attitudes exhibited by some of my brethren. We columnists should know better, inasmuch as we are the only people in America intelligent and principled enough to tell people what to think and how to behave.

Most of all, it is imperative that we journalists state the truth, without fear or favor. We must be prepared to take unconventional, unpopular positions on grave matters of public interest. Accordingly, I would like to leave you with four points to ponder.

(1) We need more Jews in the media. You can never have too many Jews, is my position.

Gratuitous swipe at the Jews. Why is this necessary in a college graduation speech?

(2) Objectivity is a good thing to strive for in journalism, but not at the expense of failing to confront the obvious. My own newspaper, for example, has written extensively about Vice President Cheney without once pointing out the self-evident fact that he is -- and I offer this as a trained professional observer -- Satan.

Gene knows that no proper journalist ought to believe in God. God is for ignorant superstitious tribals and of course the Noble Palestinians. With no God, there can be no Satan. And again my quibble here is that journalists are s'posed to be reporting facts, not interpretation. And I've yet to see any facts that establish Cheney as Satan. Again, this does not belong in a college graduation speech.

(3) You know that guy, Anderson Cooper, the CNN correspondent with the elegant white hair and the really sincere attitude who manages not only to report the news but also to feel the news resonate deep in his soul? Can't we put him in jail?

Whatever.

And, lastly:

(4) Our field is changing rapidly. Technology is overtaking us at an unheard-of pace. The journalists of tomorrow may not look anything like the journalists of today. I mean, literally. For all we know, they might have gills and three buttocks. That's how fast things are changing. But rest assured that, however dizzying the rate of change, when what's at stake is the sacred art of truth-telling, there is always one constant. One thing will always stay the same: Your editor is going to be an idiot.

And so will your college graduation speaker, Class of 2006. Mr. Weingarten gave you absolutely nothing in his speech that will make you better journalists or even remotely employable. You *will* be world-class whiners, however, a skill which seems to work well in Mr. Weingarten's dying ecosystem. Good luck, graduates.

Posted by:Brett

#18 the Jews thing was totally inappropriate. What if he'd substituted *blacks*? still hip, still funny? mmmmmmmmm no

Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-30 23:06

#17 Actually he wrote a pretty good book a few years ago about his battle with Hepatitis C.

His commencement speech was fairly status quo and true to his 'style'. The point of my rant is that it was inappropriate for a commencement address.

The 'jews' thing still bothers me, it's another one of those *wink wink* Jews secretly run the planet conspiracy statements, and ought not to be foisted on impressionable students about to grapple with paying their school loans. It's more subtle reinforcement of the academia/media party line, and I think it sucks. Note it was the *very first* item on his list.

From the musical South Pacific (yes, written by Jews):

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-30 22:22

#16 I'm contemplating another masters degree... possibly in Irish American Cultural Studies. Headed to the frig just now to begin with a ice cold Guinness.

Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-30 22:14

#15 wow - was he drunk? medicated?

Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-30 22:10

#14 Can we declare journalism as a 'job that Americans won't do'?

Posted by: DMFD 2006-05-30 21:57

#13 And not only that closedanger - WE (at last taxpayers and parents of the students) ARE PAYING FOR IT!

Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-05-30 21:42

#12 Wow. My impression of U MD just went way down.

Posted by: Unavitch Unaviper3310 2006-05-30 21:41

#11 A long time ago, you could go to school and learn. And when you graduated, you had learned. And commencement was not a political rally but rather just a "Get them on their feet with a good attitude" speech.

This entire education system is so shameful now. I do not know if it is surviveable at this point. Maybe the loss and bankruptcy of this mess is needed. Or not.

Either way, something is Very, Very wrong.

Posted by: closedanger 2006-05-30 20:55

#10 Uh oh..... I rather liked it. I read the whole thinger as a piece of self-mockery. Still...

the Herald was a newspaper the thickness of the Singapore telephone directory.
I used to hike 1/4 mile each Sunday to buy it. :<

Posted by: 6 2006-05-30 16:37

#9 If this guy was the best they could get to deliver the commencement address, I got a feeling U-MD's J-school isn't nearly prestigious as it used to be.
And not only that, he uses it as the basis of a "mail it in" column...

Posted by: tu3031 2006-05-30 15:00

#8 We need more Jews in the media ..."

His name's Weingarten - this might be a little joke on himself.

This would have been a big improvement over the snoozefest I got from Chuck Robb at my graduation. It's a series of jokes, people! Although you're right, he's nowhere near as good as his protege Dave Barry.

Posted by: Spesh Angereque2682 2006-05-30 14:54

#7 I submit this as proof that the MSM is dead and starting to rot. I hope that we don't have to witness each and every implosion personally.

Posted by: wxjames 2006-05-30 14:51

#6 We columnists should know better, inasmuch as we are the only people in America intelligent and principled enough to tell people what to think and how to behave.

Intelligent? I don't know in America but here in France you become journalist when you aren't good enough at maths and physics for an engineering carreer and not good enough at litterature to either become a writer or a teacher.

And for principled, let's just recall the name of Dan Rather

Posted by: JFM 2006-05-30 14:39

#5 Bloody, self-indulgent nonsense all through. Nice fisk, Seafarious. As for his concerns about the employability of the graduates looking up at him, so wide-eyed and enthusiastic, as far back as the 1980s the only way a space opened up was when a sitting journalist died. It was easier to find a job as a chemical engineer during the oil bust.

Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-30 14:08

#4 We columnists should know better, inasmuch as we are the only people in America intelligent and principled enough to tell people what to think and how to behave.

If Dave Barry said this, it would be funny. I suspect this guy means it.

Unfortunately, given the recent spate of heart-wrenching stories about non-existant people, misrepresentation and misinterpretation of facts and the inability of journalists to separate news from editorials, we doubt both your intelligence and your principles.

Posted by: SteveS 2006-05-30 13:53

#3 Amazing. On second thought, this is probably not an uncommon rant among the old hands of "journalism", but delivered as a graduation speech? What did these kids do to deserve this massive dose of self-pity and deranged bullshit? Just as Seafarious is shocked and saddened by the fall, so must be the fool who invited this cretin to speak. Or so I hope.

This is what you'd expect to hear mumbled or screamed into the seat cushions in the back booth at the seediest bar in town - The Losers Club.

Sometimes the trip from sanity to insanity can be very short. Especially if you haven't the perspective and honesty to recognize you're completely full of shit and most of what ails you and embitters you is self-inflicted.

Posted by: Uneamble Jating3646 2006-05-30 13:30

#2 I've read Dave Barry and this guy is no Dave Barry.

Posted by: ed 2006-05-30 13:16

#1 Here's the Washington Post columnist who ought to have given the speech.

Posted by: Seafarious 2006-05-30 13:03

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