The Value of Journalism
“…those giant presses and barrels of ink and fleets of delivery trucks were never what made newspapers invaluable. What gave newspapers their value was the mission and promise of journalism—the hope that someone was getting paid to wade into the daily tide of manure, sort through its deliberate lies and cunning half-truths, and tell a story straight.”
– Mark Bowden, The Atlantic, October, 2009
I came across Bowden’s “The Story Behind the Story” in The Atlantic the other day. It deals with the state of the news industry and what happens when professional journalists are replaced by people with a specific agenda and no other purpose than to win the ideological war that appears to have overtaken our country. The above quote pretty much encapsulates what I love about journalism when we aren’t being told to do more with less or when coverage is dictated by bean counters. Anyway, it made me feel a little better and hopeful that spending the last 10 years in newspapers wasn’t a total waste of time!
a ship of fools
It seems like every time I get around to updating this thing, I preface it with ‘sorry I’ve been away’ or some other excuse for not being a regular blogger. For a while I got hung up on Twitter and Facebook, both of which are simultaneously entertaining and eternally frustrating. I guess it speaks to the idea of digital overload and too many outlets and deciding where stuff should go – do I tweet this? do I put it on FB? do I blog about it?
Another reason for the lack of posts is that in my opinion I haven’t shot anything worth a damn in a very long time. I mentioned this to my boss the other day after spending two weeks as the photo editor while he was out of town. I said I felt like I had been shooting a few good assignments but nothing that really stands up beyond the next day’s paper. Perfectly serviceable pictures but easily forgotten.
A while back I thought it would be good to post a picture from every assignment – good bad or ugly. Well, let’s say I just couldn’t take the ugliness anymore! That and the paper instituted a new social media policy. It isn’t as draconian as some organizations however it was a bit ambiguous as to what I could post on this blog. What was clear was that I could not post stuff here before it runs in the newspaper. As it turns out, lot of the stuff I’ve produced lately has not been on deadline and when it finally does run, I forgot I even shot it.
And finally, the main reason is that I’ve been kind of depressed lately about the business in general and preoccupied with my place in it. I read on another blog – forgive me, I forget which one – a sentiment that really resonated with me, especially after hanging out with some old photographer friends from my college newspaper days. Of them all, I am pretty much the last one actually doing journalism. A few are commercial photogs but everybody else is onto other things. Anyway, the sentiment was that nobody ever got into photojournalism for the money. We knew we wouldn’t get rich but we had the expectation that we could make a living doing something we loved; connecting with people, taking readers to places they could not go to, opening them up to their neighbors, creating understanding, erasing ignorance or moving others to action. Not to mention it is just a cool job. What other job allows you to be in other people’s shoes every day? So we’ve got this job that we love doing it so much we often put it over our personal lives. We love it so much we keep doing it, even when it doesn’t love us back – and that is the part that hurts so much right now – is that no matter how much we get abused – furloughs, lay-offs, pay-cuts, doing more with less, some of us will keep coming back for more. Why? Because we believe in what we’re doing, we believe in the power of the storytelling, whether or not the newspaper business implodes around us. Unfortunately for many that resolve is crumbling. If you had told me ten years ago that I’d still be in newspapers. I would have rolled my eyes and said of course I will. I would have told you that not only would I be in newspapers but I’d be at the Washington Post or New York Times covering a war in some third-world hole, shooting meaningful pictures during the day and carousing with my fellow photographers at night.
Instead, I find myself questioning why I keep doing this. Why bother if the newsroom leadership is primarily concerned with keeping costs down and filling the news hole with content that is good enough instead of being relevant to our readers? As long as I can do it in 40 hours – excuse me, 37.5 hours now – per week, that will be sufficient. Bang out a few portraits because there isn’t enough time to actually cultivate a story, hit up some prep sports, do a drive-by building mugshot or a quick-hit picture of some construction. Wait, haven’t we done that story? Doesn’t matter? OK, put it in the paper anyway. Do more with less? Two plus two now equals five? Of course it does, but only if you manage your time better. Thank you sir, can I have another?
The reason I return, black-eye after black-eye, is that I can’t figure out what the hell else to do. Sit in a cube, pushing papers or crunching data? No thanks. I’ve done my time in a cube-farm and I’ve shot enough portraits of cube-dwellers to know that is a slow death in the American gulag. So here it is, the rub: I think I’ll probably go down with this ship of fools if only because I still believe.
Covering Local Government
Last night I was sent to cover a meeting of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors as they held a public hearing and vote on whether or not to join the Virginia Railway Express. It started at 6:30 and my deadline was 10pm. I figured that was plenty of time. I wasn’t expecting to make a particularly great picture but the decision to join has been argued back and forth for nearly two decades. A fair number of people turned out to support and oppose the county joining. Arguments included everything from opposition to a new 2% gas tax, to the morality of joining or not joining, that supporting VRE is just another example of socialism, that it would improve the quality of life, that it would bring revenue to the county and somebody even floated the idea that VRE is unconstitutional. The public comment portion wrapped right around 9pm and I was excited – plenty of time to get the vote in and beat my deadline. I’d be home in no time.
I should have started out by saying that I do not regularly cover local government meetings and I now have a new respect for my colleagues on those beats. After the public comment had ended, the supervisors started talking. And talking. And then another one would talk – no wonder this process has been going on for years.
9:30 rolled around, still talking.
9:45, more talk.
9:50, now I’m getting nervous.
9:55, and I am trying my best to employ a jedi mind trick on the chairman, “This is the time to vote. Vote now. Do it!” Alas, it didn’t work.
9:58, I’m sending text messages to the office saying the vote will happen any minute if only these guys will stop listening to themselves talk. The crowd was kind of keyed up and I wanted a reaction picture so I held off on sending anything.
A couple of minutes after 10, they vote to join VRE but with the provision that the date be moved to February 2010, after any new supervisors take their seats, essentially opening the door to another vote and the possibility of NOT joining. Read reporter Dan Telvock’s story here. The reaction picture I was hoping for didn’t happen and the pictures I moved could have been sent a hour earlier. So, 4 hours and 3 mediocre pictures later I stood in the parking lot, transmitted pictures and contemplated punching myself in the face.
Stop Waving At Me
Look, I understand this is not a good picture. In fact it is a bad picture. And maybe I’m cranky about having to work today but I need to ask, why do runners always feel the need to wave when they see a camera? You know what that wave gets you? Deleted. Deleted or posted on a blog by some angry, bitter photographer who needs to pull it together! Happy Independence Day everybody! Hopefully somebody will enjoy a hot dog and a cold beverage on my behalf.
Rain-out
All of today’s games are postponed till tomorrow due to rain. I can see softball but what’s the problem with playing some soccer in the rain? Bad weather would have made for some interesting pictures. Now I might be stuck here till Sunday…
