Gawker
AngryJournalist.com, an increasingly popular site that consists of nothing but rants from pissed-off reporters, is now the most accurate summation extant of journalism as an industry. "I'm angry at my coworker who thinks his awful high school basketball videos that lack basic storytelling are good enough, because they get the most 'clicks,'" says one. Don't we know THAT feeling! After the jump, videos of Nick Denton playing basketball. Wait, no. After the jump, two comments that encompass everything that is right and wrong with journalism in America today.
Angry Journalist #276:Editors who tell you to "dumb down" the writing, not trusting the reader's intelligence. The public who doesn't give a shit about what's going on around them. AP style, nut grafs, and ledes. The lack of balls in writing style. The large MSM outlets who skew the news and make community journalists look like assholes. The lack of truth in journalism. The fact that politicians try to make themselves look good in the press, rather than give the truth, and we have to take it as is. The fact that the state I live in has one reporter opening a month, we have a popular journalism major at a state university, and dozens apply to each job that comes up. What are the rest of the kids doing? The fact that I can't pay off my debts as a community journalist, and in fact only create more. The fact that if I ever want to move up in this field I have to give out blow jobs. The fact that writing shitty stories over irregular hours makes me so numb I can't bear to sit and write fiction during my time off. The fact that I am considering a trade job to get out of this field I worked so hard to get into. The fact that I love the concept of the news, but hate the way it is done, and am disillusioned by how I am told to do it. The fact that papers look to hire journalists with online and multimedia skills, but only take paper packet applications. The fact we have to write the same amount of stories we always have AND do more multimedia on top of it. The fact that there is never enough time to really spend out in the public chatting with the people who matter most — the readers. Shall I continue?
Angry Journalist #275:contact's do not call back!
Comments
BUT what ABOUT the KITTENS?
I'm increasingly pleased I got out of journalism. The more pr-oriented writing job I now hold has the virtue of allowing me to know whose ass I am kissing and why.
The fact that if I ever want to move up in this field I have to give out blow jobs. Otherwise, I'm stuck forever writing for fuckin' Gawker.
You do get really good at giving blowjobs, though.
So, over there on the GM court, do you guys play W-H-O-R-E-S instead of H-O-R-S-E?
(And Nick shoots underhanded, right?? C'mon, you can tell me.)
I'm so glad I decided to become an air traffic controller instead of a journalist.
Sue Ellen, don't get overwhelmed; just do one thing at a time!
@Flashman: OMG GET OFF THE BLOG AND KEEP OUR PRECIOUS FLYING BABIES ALIVE!
This is why I'm from Outer Space.
Are "nut grafs" painful?
@PeenScene:
Blow jobs are only a quick fix, like to make it through to payday. To have a long career in journalism, you have to do anal.
@Michael Jahn: In that case, call me Maureen Dowd.
I hear Nick Denton hates it when his friends become famous.
@mitchel_stevens:
...and successful.
The should bring back the snap-brim hats with "PRESS" cards in the band.
Just wanted to say thanks for the plug. This made my day.
Sounds like another over-privileged Ivy to me. At least you're not scrubbing toilets, dude.
Journalist's are whiny!
@PRIsNotJournalism: No, I went to a land-grant university, and I'd say he's got it about right. Every j-school should really have a course called Reality of Journalism 203, where they explain that none of the high-minded (or even mildly laudable) ideals your other professors go on about at length will apply once you have a job.
That said, scrubbing toilets probably is worse. On the other hand, at the end of the day, a toilet scrubber knows he's left the world better than it was before.
Sounds worse than advertising. I mean, it sounds the same but we get paid so much more money.
Sheesh, no wonder #276 is a "community journalist." Talk about a nut graf.
@Dickdogfood: don't you mean "KITTEN'S"?
@Moff: I'm sure toilet scrubbers feel that pride everytime they are wiping poop from under the seat. Come on, really.
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