Journalism in the 21st Century

When I worked at a trucking magazine, Trump was President. I never had an opportunity to report on him, but shortly before I started, his apearance in one of the trucks we provided on the White House lawn became iconic. Not everyone I worked with supported him, but I remained neutral, happy to have a job. Besides, what harm could he really cause? Look at him playfully mock honking, as excited as an eight year-old skipping school. Flash forward to 2024. The world is aflame with wars and hunger and deforestation. Here in Connecticut, I worry about actual flames as wildfires blaze east of Hartford. This is no time for silence. When a famous science journalist I know spoke out against Trump and his followers, she was canned. Her carefully worded apology to readers made me want to scream, "Nooo! You were speaking the truth!" For Trump 2.0 is not a cute photo op, whether he poses in a garbage truck or the fry station at McDonald's. Since we first saw him take office in J...

Not everyone has a journalist brother detained in Russia, but as Danielle Gershkovich said today, many of us have brothers. Watching her speak at the National Press Club briefing (remotely) was even more moving than I had imagined it would be, in no small part for her composure and smile, her sweetness and calm in the face of unspeakable fear. Joining her were longtime Iranian captee, Washington Post's Jason Rezaian, Paul Beckett, Washington Bureau Chief of the WSJ and Jason Conti, general counsel with Dow Jones and a lawyer on the detainee's case. NPC President Eileen O'Reilly moderated the panel, which included both emailed and live questions from assembled press and Club members. Beckett began by sharing the power of the recent milestone, 100 days, memorialized on its front page. "Acknowledging the impact and reality" was punctuated by the milestone, Gershkovich's imprisonment following his March 29 apprehension on so-called espionage charges. Rezaian said...

Many niggling grammar mistakes, slang, acronyms and jargon rattle my cage. Here is a short summary: 1. Every day is two words when one means "every" as a determiner and "day" as a noun. Everyday is an adjective, as in "everyday occurrence". I just read a post from the World Health Organization, no less, in which everyday was used incorrectly! "Get 8 hours of sleep everyday!" (Cue nails on 20th century chalkboard.) 2. I am tired everyone "pivoting". When a boss first told me to pivot, I thought she meant do a little ballerina turn. Say "change your tack" or "try another way" etc. 3. A hundred percent. A joke of this is made beautifully in the opening scene between John Mayer's shallow character on the make and B.J. Novak's. Every question they pose over cocktails has one answer, "hundred percent." Please only use this if you are telling an eighth grader how well he did on his math test. 4. Acronyms...

Today, yet another rejection came into my e-mailbox. "We have found other candidates whose exoerience more closely ..." Blah blah blah, said the editor to a woman, 61, who has been published in far more news outlets than whatever 30-year-old she just hired. When I returned to university for my master's at 56, I really had no clue the job market would challenge me. I thought doors would fly open. Instead of flying open, they are stuck shut, only opening with elbow grease. Why do Americans have such a hard time with the ageing woman? The clue might lay in the revolutionary Sports Illustrated cover girl, Mar tha Stewart, 81. I do not expect to look that good ever, let alone in 20 years, but why is this even a thing? Are we asking Robert Kraft or Senator Sanders, her peers, to show us their taut muscles in less-than wear? Gosh, I get a little embarrassed iust thinking about it. Yea, I am old enough to remember when Mom bought the Burt Reynolds Cosmo issue in the 70s, too. ...

I don't know why this bothers me but if I read or hear one more journalist or talking head say "Let's pivot", I will scream. Just say "Let's change course" or "Let's scrap our plans to investigate Hunter Biden" or "Let's stop using tired jargon and show a little intellectual spark." I never heard anyone say pivot outside the ballet world before 2017. Then it was everywhere. I went to grad school in London and, mercifully, the dreaded "pivot" stayed back in America. Yah! But wait, I had to move back to the U.S. when my student visa expired ... and guess what awaited me. Probably someone at Customs was dusting it off as I - newly educated by real English speakers, poor in purse but rich in thought - arrived at Newark. I also cannot stand when anchors tell viewers they will talk to us "on the other side". They mean the commercial break, but for the past couple years, "pivoted" to saying other side....

In late November 2009, more than 1,000 e-mails between scientists at the Climate Research Unit of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia were stolen and made public by an anonymous hacker. Climate skeptics claimed the e-mails proved global warming was not real, completely made up by scientists. At the time, I had been freelancing for a very prestigious scientific magazine, Engineering & Technology in Stevenage, UK, formerly IEE Review. I had written a number of environmental stories, including on electronic waste recycling and auto emissions and standards. I was not, however, a household name. I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in West Haven, Connecticut with my cat, just going about my business, making probably $16,000 a year. So when I received an e-mail from a new editor at Fox News, I was flattered. Flattered and horrified. What had I done to attract such attention? The person told me they had read some of my articles and were impressed. Would I be interested in coming dow...

For the past two weeks I've stewed over the discomfiting feeling that my CV is not ATS-worthy. If you don't know this acronym, then bless your little heart. I didn't either until about five months ago, but now that I do know, I hate every last initial. Applicant tracking systems are designed to chuck out job applicants so HR managers don't actually have to read 257 resumes. The problem is, apparently the code or whatever it is you call it is not sophisticated enough to read a CV as it really exists. I, for example, was deemed an engineer by an ATS. Why? Because the word pops up a few times under names of publications I have written for, e.g. Engineering & Technology. Further, my alma mater is listed as my last employer. Really. None of this is amusing to me. A very skilled career counselor had approved my CV prior to this ATS debacle, and as I write this I still don't know how to fix it. I did some research and think if I re-save it as a plain text document I ...

Today has not been a red letter day. First, seeing that I was in need of a job I decided to apply to waitress locally. Yet I soon got a call and they asked if I could do office work. Then when I showed up to do office work, the rotund proprietor asked behind his messy desk: "How much can you lift?" Earlier, he had asked what I had been doing in England ("studying") and then asked if I had made any money writing or if it was (then he laughed) just, you know, a hobby. I left that interview thankful that at least I had a real job interview on Thursday, for a reporting position in New York. I had walked by the Nissan dealership and spoken to the young salesperson. "I won't buy a car til I get a job. This is my third interview so I feel I will probably get it." Then I got on to the computer just now and had received an e-mail from HR: "Sorry, Laurie, but Hector (not his real name) has decided to hire internally. We will retain your resume. Keep checkin...

When I told my brother last night that a local restaurant and bar reminded me of a pub I'd find in Ealing or anywhere in West London, "except then people spoke with American accents," he quipped with a laugh: "Including YOU!" He knows how to get my goat. He knows that my 14 months in jolly old England affected me in many ways including how I communicate. I wrote my dissertation in British English, receiving a mark just four points shy of distinction. I am rather proud of this. Yet, those British words and phrases are not helping me here in Connecticut. Instead, I must reassimilate - a process I never hear anyone talk about! - and learn to love the way my fellow Americans speak. I was gone 14 months, as I said, and though I returned on various trips I was basically spared Trump nation-speak. So following please note I make no apologies for hating the following: 1. "You got this." - If Brits are saying this as well, I have not heard them, and every time ...

As a journalist for several decades, I've prided myself in always reporting the truth. Then I heard Carl Bernstein explain that a good journalist tells "the best version" of the truth. I decided to edit my response to that question, so much so that when a young journalist asked me about my approach to this profession, I mimicked Bernstein. Then I read her paper, elegantly written and beautifully conceived. When I saw what I had said - I was not misquoted - I thought that "the best version" just isn't good enough. If you're not a journalist, let me explain what goes on in news rooms and what news itself is. News is not a synopsis about the day your child brought home a B+ in Math, your family ate Hamburger Helper, the laundry had to be redone because the washer's acting funky, and Aunt Margaret dropped by unexpectedly. No - the news is that your genius child, aged 5, has advanced to high school math, invented a new social media app that has brought hi...

In part one of this interview, Marissa Gamache, a reporting intern in Arlington, Virginia who'll spend her senior year of college at Maynooth University in Ireland before graduating from Bethel University, spoke to me about how her generation sees the current state and the future of journalism. Marissa and I work on the same publication, Transport Topics , right now. Following is a lightly edited transcript of that recent conversation. .... I see myself and my parents' generation more connected than the one in between the two of us. What do you mean? I look at it as 10-year gaps, instead of Generation X or Z or whatever, or millennials. I think the values my parents had -- as well as those of persons in their 30s or late 20s -- are even different than those of the kids who are 18-25, 16- 28, and I think that's because right now it's the thirtysomethings who are starting to push all their ideals and all of their ingenuity. I think that when we come up in the ...

Marissa Gamache will be starting her senior year of college this autumn, spending part of it studying in Ireland at Maynooth University before graduating from Bethel University in Minnesota. She is completing a double major in journalism and international relations, and this summer, is interning as a reporter on the government team at Transport Topics in Arlington, Va. where I am a business reporter. I wanted to discuss with Marissa how her generation of reporters sees journalism these days, where it's going, and how she fights the allure of getting all her news from Facebook . Marissa, when you think of previous generations of journalists, what words come to mind? I think of the 6 p.m. nightly news and my parents. Are they journalists? No. I think of old journalism, Watergate, Edward R. Murrow, and Bob Costas. Thank you. So, how do you feel your generation is changing the way journalism is done? I think we're on a minute-to-minute basis. I think we are expecting...

One of my favorite journalists was Hunter S. Thompson. I remember my ex-boyfriend Benoît telling me that he'd loaned my copy of "Fear and Loathing" to his brother, and that they both said my comments in the margins seemed more like something a guy would have written. I took that as a compliment. In college, I took a five-unit Hemingway course (three units was the average) and loved reading his old journalistic writings. I liked being a "chick" in a man's game. It reminded me of my high school newspaper, where I was one of the only females on the team of reporters. I am still in touch with these guys, and cherish those memories from Livermore, California. So looking back, I realize I was molded long ago to be a tomboy type of journalist, one who could spar with fellows on the one hand, while still looking lovely in lace that evening. I wore the same long man's blue and white striped work shirt with jeans in college, every day, cigarette dangling from my...

Whether you are 25 or 55, as I am, transitioning from pajamas to pin-stripe suits can be a daunting experience. Once day you're eating PB&Js and working from 10 to 4 or 11 to 10 and the next you're expected to be in a cubicle by 9 and play nice with strangers. Having recently taken a staff reporting position - after 10 years of freelancing - I can attest that there are growing pains. I take responsibility for my independent skin, one that got tougher as I aged, and so learning to be in a team is sometimes tricky. Mom put it this way: "You're like Luzie (her elder cat); you don't like people to get too close." Now, Luzie and I happen to have a lovely, warm relationship. She'd wait in the doorway of "her" room alongside Mom during the four months I spent at Mom's in South Texas. She'd "meeew!" and I'd "meew!" and know just how to pet her before she bit me. So yeah, perhaps that's me, at least on days when I...

The subject of today's blog post wasn't hard to come up with: I recently made the decision to relocate for a job opportunity. However, even nearly two weeks into the job I'm still grappling with how to explain my decision-making process. It's sort of like someone throws you in a forest and tells you to find your way back to camp. You know you were at camp; you know you're only 3 miles away; but you also know you don't recognize anything where you are. Moving is one of the most stressful experiences in life, and so is taking a new job. Combined, you might as well get a divorce or grieve the loss of your puppy. I haven't researched this, but I imagine it's even harder as one ages. When I was 39 I drove across the country for a job in New York. It had been my lifelong dream to work in the Big Apple, having grown up on Woody Allen movies and fancied myself a kind of Mariel Hemingway-esque character. I would grow sophisticated on the Upper East Side and le...

Journalists are tasked with holding persons in positions of power accountable. We are also supposed to remain objective at all times, at least when we're on the job. This is probably easier for print journalists who can scowl or laugh with colleagues behind closed doors as they hammer out their latest treatise for print or online consumption. Broadcast journalists have a steeper hill to climb, though, and that has never been more apparent than during the Trump era. While CNN's Wolf Blitzer does a sterling job keeping a poker face, Anderson Cooper recently and famously rolled his eyes when speaking to Kellyanne Conway and Jake Tapper frequently smirks during interviews. CNN has a history of hiring reporters whose emotions are easy to read. Remember the Piers Morgan era and his passion for gun control? What about Don Lemon getting so drunk on New Year's Eve that it was embarrassing to watch? While these issues, one can argue, are morally poles apart from a journalistic pers...

Recently, I've experienced at least a handful of faux pas on the behalf of what I assume were millennial mistakes - calling me Laura or Miss Wiegle, not understanding what a "commission" means (do you have a dictionary?), and completely leaving out the name of an entity written in my post. In all three instances, I'm sure the offenders were in their 20's, an age when both the mind and body are more agile. I remember being 23 and stewing over whether or not I'd put my quotation marks on the right side of the period. In 2017, though, I rarely get the sense that millennials care as much about typos and grammatical errors as I did. On the flip side, they care very much about apps, social media, and the latest smartphone flavor. I recently conducted a job interview on Skype, for which I was thankful, but in the coming weeks I completely blew it when I didn't know how to fix my microphone. I ended up looking like a ludite (which I am not) in front of the thirty...

When The New York Times published an article about the dour job prospects for women over 50, I rejoiced - not because I find such things worthy of celebration, but because I could relate. As I write this, it dawns on me that some will think it's sour grapes or there is something pathologically wrong with me. Maybe I get into job interviews and step on the interviewer's foot, show up late, smoke in the hallway or tell him all about how I like to make queer kitten sounds at the office Christmas soirée. But no, no, that's not me, and hasn't been me for all of the 23 or so job interviews I've had in this wonderful field we call journalism. What I have suffered from, though, is middle-aged woman syndrome. No longer taut, I find that projecting I can still be "taught" is tricky. Unless I'm interviewing with women my age or older, there is clear prejudice. Wait, back up, no it's not clear, it never is. I just lost out on a job I actually wasn't sur...

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 tre...

I'll admit: I have some personal baggage (is there any other kind) that makes me react severely whenever a man lies to me. This is both good and bad - good because I run away from jerks but bad because I tend to suspect, perhaps more than I should, that a fair portion of the men out there are less than angelic. It would be unprofessional to launch into too much personal history, so I'll skip right to the professional aspect of my life, the part that enjoys male colleagues as much or more than my fellow females. I've always prided myself on being "one of the guys" one minute, a lady the next. This is one reason I think I did relatively well covering Wall Street. I knew when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, so to speak, never carrying a wink too far but then again, knowing when a skirt is better than slacks. Decent men in the businessworld understand this game, and never take it too far. They have wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers and they are learning,...