AngryJournalist.com, the rant-based site that is the most accurate window into the journalism profession, now has some competition: HappyJournalist.com! The happy site has been up and running for less than a week, but so far the results are not encouraging; it has 14 total posts, compared to more than 1,300 at its angry brother. A helpful point-counterpoint comparison of the two sites' content reveals that, hey, you can both be right:
Happy:
Julie 11:33 pm on March 2, 2008 | #I'm happy because I'm working with people who care about what they do and are still brimming with ideas 10, 15, 20 years after they started in the business.
Angry:
Angry Journalist #1279:Just in case you thought the past was really any different — or any less angry:
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices
Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile,
Spreads its curious opinion
To a million merciful and sneering men,
While families cuddle the joys of the fireside
When spurred by tale of dire lone agony.
A newspaper is a court
Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried
By a squalor of honest men.
A newspaper is a market
Where wisdom sells its freedom
And melons are crowned by the crowd.
A newspaper is a game
Where his error scores the player victory
While another's skill wins death.
A newspaper is a symbol;
It is feckless life's chronicle,
A collection of loud tales
Concentrating eternal stupidities,
That in remote ages lived unhaltered,
Roaming through a fenceless world.
Stephen Crane - 1899
Happy:
Christina 2:17 am on March 3, 2008 | #I love that I can read an obit and feel sad about a man's death but also know that, when he was alive, I wrote about him and his amazing character and that more people now know there are probably hundreds others who benefited from his existence.
I guess it's kind of a sad-happy instance
Angry:
Angry Journalist #1284:Journalist #1258 - If you got a journalism degree, you probably don't even know how to spell obituary never mind write one. When you get that barista job, remember to pour the foam not scoop it for a latte; you'll get a better tip.
Happy:
Mark E. Johnson 5:05 am on March 3, 2008 | #I'm happy because I get to help the next generation of journalists help their (future) communities.
Angry:
Angry Journalist #1301:I'm angry at optimists.







Comments
Happy:
I'm at work.
Angry:
I'm at work.
The Internet gives us the impression that a trend has arrived, when all that has happened is that guys are writing down their complaints instead of bellowing them at one another in Blarney Stones.
It's the Britney Spears of journalism.
In a perfect world, HappyJournalist.com would make AngryJournalist.com irrelevant. In more ways than one, it's a damned shame that's not the case.
Thanks for the replug. It's always nice to know the site has the eyes of Gawker.
dude, you'll get a better tip if you know how to steam the milk into three separate layers and can actually make a dry cappuccino with class and panache.
no, wait, strike that. most people are interested in sugary fucking frappuccinos or whatever knock-off equivalent the non-starfucksians have with a pile of whipped cream and some caramel drizzle. and they still won't tip.
Is it just me or does the guy in that picture look like Tim Allen's son on 'Home Improvement'?
Forget about tips. If you're not stealing merchandise slipping free lattes to the bartenders next door in exchange for shots of Old Grandad, you're never gonna make it.
And when is TookTheBuyoutJournalist.com going live?
... I was thinking about www.IUsedToBeAJournalist.com myself ... but, really -- I'm the guy that put it up, and sure it's unlikely that The Happy will get as much happiness as The Angry got anger, but heck, I didn't tell anybody about HappyJournalist until less than 20 hours ago (the blog announcement post is here: [www.joethink.com] ).
What I'm saying is: No fair, they got a head start.
It makes me happy to read obits too. For the right people...
Nice to know I'm in the bottom two!
Newsroom organizational chart:
1. Publishers
2. Editors
3. Reporters
4. Copy editors
5. Photo department
6. Whale shit
7. Page designers
8. Art department
9. Online
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