The Wacky Wiegler Year in Review (2014)

Well, well, well. You're probably reading this on your smartphone, or the mini iPad or some other tablet. If you are sitting at a desk reading this on a computer larger than a loaf of bread you are probably also listening to "Afternoon Delight" and playing Pong while you're at it. For in 2014, the year when everything journalistic was consumed not only digitally and quickly but minimally, everyone competed to do things faster and smaller than the next guy. If you were capable of reading font on a one-inch screen, hey, you've got a leg up on me. I'm still enlarging fonts and begging PRs to only send me releases with 12-point lettering. Yet, the trends toward faster and tinier were innocuous compared to the tragic assault on our industry that came with layoffs. Fewer and fewer of us were making a living as journalists -- from reductions at The New York Times to CNN to smaller papers such as the Orange County Register. At CNN, too, it seemed that the trend was skewing toward younger, blonder, perkier and less controversial. Watching Candy Crowley's farewell, for example, reeked of misogyny. I could be wrong, but it seems that she was pushed out in favor of attracting a male audience intent on watching women gorgeous enough to pose in magazines read the news. This is not to say that brilliant women such as Erin Burnett don't deserve to be there -- they do! -- but what would happen if say, they put on 30 pounds or aged 20 years? The average female broadcaster is either 35 or looks it, and is a size many real women/print journalists haven't been since high school. In newsrooms such as the Grey Lady's, a white woman, Jill Abramson, was pushed out for political reasons, ostensibly because she wasn't fair to her African American colleague, Dean Baquet, who would replace her. That may very well be true, but the PR for the Times wasn't great during this upheaval, and the ensuing layoffs a few months later were proof that all was not right there. Environmental journalists such as myself had been previously disheartened to see a full-on folding of this department, a trend that would later be echoed at NPR, also struggling. Yet, in the midst of this uncertainty, the blogosphere and Twittersphere continued to explode, resulting in a power for community-based journalism the big dogs could only envy. When stories such as Ferguson or even the death of Robin Williams were shared, many of us were just following Twitter, not the Times (New York or LA). So what's ahead for 2015? I predict more layoffs, sadly, at beloved papers and myopically male-controlled networks. I see more infotaintment, botox and IT smarties leading the way as the five Ws and one H real journalists learnt in J school fade away. Suggestion: If more philanthropists supported a New York Times, a Washington Post or even an Orange County Register, the civilized masses would be better for it. A strong local paper informs the populous in ways that paid-for-content rags cannot. As for coverage, the fallout from the 24-7 obsession by CNN with the missing Malaysian Airliner (the first one, the one we haven't found and which CNN doesn't appear to care about anymore) proves that networks can and will reverse course after a spate of bad press. It was almost embarrassing to watch as journalists on their shows went from the nonstop plane talk to seemingly considering it an afterthought. Another trend that will change may include how journalists cover celebrities. Anyone who interviewed Bill Cosby between the start of his career and the end of it, or most of them, rue that they let him get away with, if not murder, then rape after rape after rape. It sickened any reporter with a pulse to watch the way Cosby sought to intimidate the AP reporter at the art opening at the Smithsonian. Not sure what was worse - Cosby's arrogant request not to run the bit about the rape allegations or his wife's stupid smile. Celebrities are notoriously known for controlling interviews or trying to, and any journalist who doesn't play ball well, moves on to some kind of more respectable work. I'd love to see every journalist report the truth about celebrities, not allowing the spin doctors to control whether we reveal that say, Renee Zellweger really did have a little work done, or that Maria Shriver really did know about her husband's love child, but just hoped we'd never find out. And before you comment, Kennedy-and-Bridget-Jones fans, these last two asides were just speculation, ahem. Hopefully, one trend will continue to permeate our business, though: wit. There is no replacement for a fine intellect and biting pen. So I leave you with laid off OC reporter Kevin Sablan's (@ksablan) farewell tweet at 10:34 AM on June 9: "I'm leaving the company soon, and was happy to include farts in one of my last columns."

In 2014, a string of late night talk show hosts either announced their retirement or actually completed their shows, from Leno to Letterman and Craig Ferguson to E!'s Chelsea Handler, who moves on to Netflix next year. Photos: Wikimedia Commons Images including "Caricature de l'acteur américain Robin Williams réalisé au crayon graphite" by Fabrice Ledoux. Follow me on Twitter or contact me through www.lauriewiegler.com. Read my articles at www.muckrack.com.laurie-wiegler 12/28/2014 12:12 AM EST: This story was filed just a few hours prior to hearing that AirAsia Flight 8501 went missing, probably over the Java Sea.