Can a contrarian (journalist) still make a living?
Have you hugged a contrarian today?
I went to the NewsWrights United journalism/drama event on Monday at the Upstairs Gallery above Theatre OFF Jackson and hardly got a word in edgewise.
The stage reading of the opening salvos of the “New New News” play was great, but I’m no theater critic. I did like the thematic setup: a newsroom streaming live its spot reporting of its own reporting … possibly of its own demise. Intelligent. Witty. Or so it seemed to me.
Then it was followed by navel gazing and thoughtful reflection on forces out of our control, in particular as those forces pertained to Journalism. I liked that too. Here’s my report of that part of the evening:
Chris Grygiel, coordinator of political coverage for the Seattlepi.com blogs: This is nothing new for a wire reporter; we’re just watching journalism as it is happening.
Art Thiel, local sports writing legend and co-founder of soon-to-be launched Northwest Sports Press: Can quality journalism be monetized? We’re going to give it try.
Tom Paulson, formerly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and now with Humanosphere (http://humanosphere.kplu.org/) and NewsWrights producer: This is a strange time in journalism, and I’m not sure how to be successful in it right now, but that will pass.
Monica Guzman, formerly of seattlepi.com and now with Intersect.com (you won’t really know what it is, like me, unless you’re in the in-crowd and got a beta invitation): This is an era of new voices.
Mark Higgins, Metro Editor at the Seattle Times: There is still life in the subscription model, and we’re doing fine.
Brendan Kiley, theater critic at The Stranger: Define objectivity for me.
From my biased point of view, what I heard was this: Can a person be a skilled, dedicated and helpless contrarian and still making a living? Anybody!?
It did strike me like a stage-prop chair that contrariness is an essential quality of a journalist. Of course, journalists are far from being the only contrary people on the planet (but not demagogues, more on that in a moment); but to be a journalist, you have to at least be a contrarian.
When a contrarian journalist (which might be the same thing as being a good citizen, which would make every good citizen a journalist!) notices all eyes staring in one direction, his/her impulse is to doubt the reality of whatever it is they are all staring at and instead look around for who is smiling to him/herself.
If everyone in a room starts singing the same tune, the Journalist finds sources to tell him/her who started the tune and then finds out why.
Another way this contrariness gets expressed is by someone like Eric Nalder (http://home.earthlink.net/~cassidyny/naldertip.htm) who worked for both Seattle dailies in his time and now is the senior enterprise reporter at the Hearst Corporation. I heard him say once that he tells his subjects he is there to “help them.” Then he proceeds to dismantle their excuses and assertions and expose their sins to the world. I guess that’s the best kind of help.
Basically, if your mother tells you she loves you, call bullshit and launch a full-fledge investigation.
We’re talking about people who are for nothing nor are they against anything (thus excluding demagogues). They live to find the counter position, the lie in the details, the secret hidden in the closet. Then they publish it. They are not people you want to bring home for Thanksgiving. They are a pain in the ass.
The question isn’t whether we will like these people (no) but whether as a society we will give them the tools and incomes necessary to be a counter force to the abusers of power and dissemblers who have their own forces arrayed backstage, ready to hijack the story and twist it for their sole benefit.
Jake Ellison worked in newspapers for 22 years, 10 at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer until it closed in 2009. He now works in marketing.
PREVIOUSLY BY JAKE ELLISON
What’s in a name? The saving of an important cultural institution — journalism
Contrary to your assumptions, I can find the joy hidden in your pain.
Where were these “contrary” voices when they had the chance? Our state’s budget problems are due, in large part, to a complicit press that has served more as propagandist than watchdog. If those contrary “journalists” had been responsibly fulfilling their fourth-estate duties all along, citizens of this state would not be facing half the budgetary challenges they have before them.
I see a lot of press sites currently wringing their hands over anonymous commenting. I can’t help but feel they are reacting to a government pressure to stifle the noise of public discourse. It was soooo much easier when they (and a complicit gate-keeping press) controlled the story. News flash: neither the fourth estate nor the government controls “news” anymore. Attempts to shut the people up will only result in your continuing slide to irrelevance.
Yeah, it’s terrible — the state of Capitol reporting. The P-I stopped publishing two years ago as of this coming St. Patrick’s Day. TV news staffs are tiny. This year alone, there have been 2,799+ layoffs and buyouts at US newspapers; in 2009, there were 14,783+ let go, according to the following source, while in 2008, there were 15,992 let go:
http://newspaperlayoffs.com/