We need to keep the press honest in the coverage of this tragedy. Stand ready to Email your local press with facts regarding the pistol and round used by this madman.
I have read a lot of negative things about the media on this post and they are all correct. Before I start, I am not making excuses. I hope I can shed some light on what goes on in a newsroom and why some reporters do what they do and make the mistakes they do.
I used to be a newspaper reporter. I earned a degree in journalism, print media specifically. I had to leave because I couldn’t pay my bills and I was sick of the blatant disregard of ethics by journalists.
There are many problems in American journalism right now, most notably a cut in staffing. At one time, you used to have many people who were experts in their fields who would edit raw copy before it went to print. Newspapers had a whole army of people who worked behind the scenes to protect their credibility. By the time I entered the scene, many of those staff had been cut. Instead of the many people working to put out a good product, my raw copy went to one copy editor (an overworked and under paid copy editor) and in many cases went right to print.
A second problem is that you have trouble advancing in journalism if you don’t find sensational stories. At the paper I worked at, a reporter made up a story that claimed the ground water had been polluted by the dump. She had no proof except that two people in the area had contracted cancer. She wrote her article and won a press award. The EPA stuck the bill on the town. It turned out the water quality was fine, but it cost the town a whole lot of money. She was able to get a better job because of the story and a bump in pay. For a while she was even teaching journalism at a university.
A third problem is that many journalists are arrogant. I remember a few years ago when Chai Soua Vang shot six hunters in Minnesota with an SKS. The local reporter who worked at a weekly paper wrote that an “SKS is like a 30-06 hunting rifle.” He said the rifle had a high capacity clip. I couldn’t let it go. I called the man and told him the article was well written except for the fact errors. He responded with, “Well who are you to tell me how to write?” I responded that I was a reporter too who wrote for a daily. I then explained the difference between the 7.62 x 39 and the 30-06. He was still a jerk and didn’t change the fact errors in the story. That story was on the wire service.
A fourth problem is lack of education. Most people who claim they are journalists don’t have the education to back it up. In many cases they have degrees, but their degrees don’t have anything to do with journalism. We even had people in our newsroom who had never earned a college education. Instead of paying reporters more money, newspapers and TV news stations just find someone who doesn’t have the education and pay less money. I know someone right now who didn’t finish high school and is working as a camera person at the local TV station.
Sorry about the rant. I just thought it might be nice to hear from a former insider.
