Tuesday, January 18, 2005

On seeing the forest through the trees:

In their zeal to get their message across, they forget to actually report the news.

I remember having a conversation (well, it was more of his talking at me) with a math teacher in the BPS. He seemed so proud that he stormed the President of my university's office years ago. When I asked the reason for this, he said that it was in protest of their too high tuition, of their being an elitist institution. After I mentioned that I had received a very close to full academic scholarship from them, that I knew several kids from Boston who got the same or better deal, and that wouldn't it have made more sense that he perhaps storm the offices of his university (the even more elite one across the river from mine. The one that made headlines for finally doing something that my school did for years: offered a sort of sliding tuition based on a combination of academic standing and financial need.), he had a fit and accused me of lying about my background, because his kids didn't have any such chances offered to them.

My answer to this of course was (and now we're getting to the point of this story) that perhaps if he'd have spent less time being an activist and more time doing the job he was paid to do, his students might have more opportunities open to them.

Those who work in what's now known as the Mainstream Media might do well to heed this advice. Do what you're paid to do. Concentrate on the five w's and make sure your sources check out. You want to be an activist? Do it in your spare time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you'd do well to check the credentials of your links when you are extolling the virtues of good journalism.

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030908ta_talk_mcgrath

Be said...

Your point being? I linked to an opinion piece that frames pretty well what we've been seeing a lot of lately.