Journalism in the 21st Century

I was in New Orleans to interview a professor at a university when the talk came up about the Times-Picayune impending layoffs. "It's very depressing," I told a PR. "I interviewed there last year. I was upset when they didn't hire me, but now I get it. There was a hiring freeze." The PR said indeed, it was depressing. "This is the only business in which people will just give their work away." Really? "What about actors? Musicians?" He: "People pay for tickets to see a play." Perhaps. I said goodbye, walking down that hot, muggy Canal Street despite having 1.25 left over for the street car. Suddenly, I was nervous that in my profession, without watching each penny I'd soon be on the streets. --- Since leaving my last full-time job in Jan. 2008, at least three of my girlfriends have been laid off or "downsized." Some have reinvented themselves beautifully: launching magazines, web sites, radio prog...

It's counterintuitive, but this is how hiring managers should be judging their applicants. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world and all of us are judged on those thirty minutes or an hour, a writing or editing test thrown our way to assess our worth. Imagine if, wanting to choose a husband, you threw an hour-long quiz his way: "Here, catch!" He: "But, but...?" You: "Seriously! Time's a-tickin'. Go! Answer the 60 questions. I will be in the other room." ... The heart would race, the sweat would bead. He would turn in his answers, half of which would be "wrong" in your book. You: "I am sorry, but you lack skills for this job." He: "But we are crazy about each other! You said I was cu--" You: "Sorry. You failed the test. Next!" ... This is how we're judged in this very competitive job market, which makes it all the more important for editors and hiring managers to fine tune the...

It's not the "slut" and "prostitute" slurs or the insinuation that Miss Fluke offer the world free pornos in exchange for subsidizing her contraceptive fix. And it's not even that Limbaugh, on the face of it, is just a nasty, narrow-minded, clueless goon of a man desperate for ratings (and perhaps a roll in the hay). No, it goes even deeper. Limbaugh's rise to media power -- especially during an age when so many of my peers are flailing about as unemployed, unpaid or just as bad underpaid scribes/broadcasters/etc. -- points to what's really wrong with society. It's called Misogyny. Left unchecked, it allows for everything from the JFK mistresses to the wink from the boss who gives his 22-year-old waitress more hours than her gray-haired counterparts. Misogyny is the father who urges his daughter to quit competing so hard on the soccer team, and just settle down and have kids. It's the uncle who scolds his niece for a ten-pound weight gain on ...

OK, my hands are shaking as I write this. Bobs of sweat are forming on my temples. Are they bobs or globs? I don't know - I'm nervous. Just talking about stress interviews makes me crazy. As a journalist, I've been through some stressful interviews, but always sail through because I'm on the proper side of the discussion. I am asking the questions. The stress comes because: a) a PR has decided to get on the phone with us and thereby direct the interview (or try to) or b) some bigshot has decided to put me on speaker (happens fifty percent of the time) and when I ask to be taken off, acts like I have a hearing disorder or c) someone has decided he doesn't really want to answer any questions so much as suggest how I should write the story. So given all of the preceding stressful situations you'd think I'd be equipped to just show up at some suit's office, look pretty, calm, collected (what am I collecting? armpit sweat?) and sell myself. But I'm no Mar...

Edward's cousin worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. I would hear about his cousin's death when Edward came into Barnes & Noble in Westport, where I began working in October, 2001 after my job in New York came to an end that August. Edward was very depressed. He just wanted something of his brother's, wanted to go back, touch the site. I believe he got a sweater of the cousin's. Then there was the time I was wrapping a child's gift. I smiled, "Who's it for?" The patron, stonefaced, told me "her father died in the attacks." *** Moving to New York in 2001, I had a choice of either living in the city or moving farther out into the 'burbs. I chose the latter, but commuted into Midtown Manhattan, where I worked as a real estate writer for Rubenstein Associates. This PR firm happened to have represented, and still does, Larry Silverstein Properties. I had no idea who Silverstein was, but I knew this was all pretty fancy. I also knew that New York w...

Those who believe in Fate know it comes in all types: good, bad, and somewhere in between. Yet, fortunes are made on the advice of sages who predict nothing but starlight and roses, a yellow-brick-road of riches and romance into perpetuity--she shows equanimity, and it’s up to all of us to read the signs. Moving east When my regular freelance job came to a screeching halt in the spring of 2001, I didn’t want to give up my dream of moving to the east coast. I’d been writing articles each month for a CBS/Winstar startup, and had been having a ball. My producers were grooming me to come out and try my luck at a promotion. Yet thanks to Ch. 11, that dissipated somewhere between a check that was never cut and my resolve to trade bikinis for parkas. I was leaving Ventura, California. A contact at a top PR company in Manhattan, Rubenstein Associates, told me I was one of the most pleasant journalists he knew. He was so sorry I’d lost the freelance gig, so perhaps he could connect me with his ...

I've been covering the BP oil spill and its effects on people, marine life and wildlife for over a year. I can't fully explain why I've felt so passionate about this subject other than this has been the United States' biggest environmental crisis ever, capping the well was a gripping, internationally-relevant news story, and my memories of swimming in the Gulf of Mexico as a child are among my happiest souvenirs. But perhaps, no certainly, what's driven me through all of this is the people of the Gulf of Mexico, specifically those around Grand Isle, LA and Orange Beach, AL, whose stories continue to compel me daily. I've befriended a few of these folks on Facebook including top toxicologist Riki Ott, been invited to speak on the spill at UGA and attended a NOLA task force meeting on restoring the ecosystem. The stories of the people of the Gulf should inspire all journalists, but unfortunately, in the words of one source the media and big business are too ...