That prompted Paul Stevens, moderator of the Connecting email newsletter for retirees and friends of The Associated Press, to ask, "Is negativity toward life a requirement to be a good reporter?"
 |
| John Wylie |
"I say that just the opposite is true. I crossed the Rubicon Saturday and am now officially a part of the OPA's Half Century Club. Throughout those 50 years, I've said or thought every day that I have the best job in the world. I get up each morning with no idea what the day will bring. Maybe I'll be talking to a police officer who saved a little child from wandering into a busy street, discovered the child was alone because Mom worked a day job and a night job to keep her family fed, clothed and housed, but sometimes the overnight sitter fell asleep early. The cop found a place for the child to spend the nights safely. I got to write about it, spreading the word about an important service. Maybe I'll get to see a major figure make a surprise visit to town and make a speech that makes history, which I get to record. Maybe I'm able the next day to follow up on an elderly lady who was swindled and in the process found she had a lot of company. Maybe I missed a day's sleep following up tips, but in the end we wrote the story, the swindlers were jailed and the victims' money was returned. Each day I have had the chance to go into the world, follow the news where it takes me and when I'm satisfied the facts are solid and I can write a compelling story explaining what those facts mean -- and how they can be used to fix a problem. I love history, I love talking to people, and I love history -- especially writing about it.
"That's my job every day -- studying history, talking to people, looking for documents and places to research, writing about it and hopefully create something that will make the world a little better place. It sounds corny, but I still wonder how I got lucky enough to work doing what I love, actually get paid to do it. If I'm really lucky, maybe I'll inspire another young historian/story teller/collector of fascinating people with fascinating stories to share. If that's having a negative view of life, then perhaps we all should adopt it? I prefer that sometimes those 'negative' questions are asked because the reporter or editor has the same joy about going to work in the morning -- that when the sun sets in the evening the world will be just a little bit better place."
AP retiree Lee Mitgang wrote that Biden's comment "brings to mind a panel I was on in the early '90s at Teachers College, Columbia University, discussing how education reporters were covering the hot topic of school choice and vouchers. The audience included some pretty media savvy folks, among them the heads of a number of Washington-based education lobby organizations, most of whom I'd dealt with many times. At some point in the give-and-take, one of them said that our primary purpose as reporters should be the betterment of schools generally, and public education specifically. I recall replying that we all want better schools but as a reporter, my first responsibility was to supply our readers with the best and fairest information I could about the taxpayer-funded institution I was covering. As such, I said, 'I'm not your enemy, and I'm not your friend.' To this day, I'm amazed at the blowback I got from this supposedly sophisticated audience who -- like thin-skinned presidents -- either don't fully understand or don't accept what reporters do for a living. I still stand by my answer."
No comments:
Post a Comment