Want some clips? Feeling scabby?
Journalists love to tell stories. I can’t remember the last time the Daily Emerald told one that was truly engaging, though this morning’s bold, red headline sucked me in: EMERALD NEWS STAFF STRIKES. ASUO sandbox politics were getting boring, I guess, so the reporters made their own scandal. They put off the strike until this morning so they could make news about it, as in, “I’m going to give you the silent treatment starting…right… NOW.”
Of course, the buzz started long before the headline. The photographers, who are total anarchists, let the cat out of the bag yesterday, and the cat slinked away into the night. Pretty soon people were talking about it in places where people should never talk about the Daily Emerald, ie the Lorax.
This morning I sat in Roma with then intention of telling an actual story. I had my notebook and latte all set up on the table, and I strategically threw my jacket on the opposing seat to ward off conversationalists. I was quickly distracted, however, when Emerald staff reporters Hannah Hoffman and Lauren Fox sat down two tables adjacent to mine. They had their firey headline on display, and they were all smiles, apparently not as desperate to return to work as their front page diatribe suggested: “We want desperately to return to work, but we cannot do so quietly and against our journalistic values.”
“Secretly,” said Hoffman, “I’m really glad that I have to write two less articles this week.”
Secretly? My friend, you are in a crowded coffee shop, in the presence of other semi-journalists.
Fox’s eyes bulged a little. “Is it wrong that I’m happy right now?”
I am, so why shouldn’t you be?
Fox was trying to do her homework, but she was too lathered up. And I was too busy eavesdropping… Not eavesdropping, exactly, since I moved over to the table next to them and bluntly asked Fox for her full name.
“We should have picketers!” she continued. “Every good strike has picketers.”
They started to discuss the possibility of the Register Guard covering the strike, or maybe even–gasp– the New York Times. I imagined the “Daily Emerald Staff Strike” headline underneath the one about suicide bombings in Pakistan.
“You know who wants to know about this?” said Fox. “Anne Curry.” She then proceeded to call another staffer (lets call him “Robert,” because that was his name) and rant about the possibility of notifying Anne Curry about the strike.
“You should call them! And if the Today Show needs someone to talk to, I’d be totally willing!”
Eventually, Fox and Hoffman expressed mild concern about the possibility of losing their jobs. They didn’t seem too worried, though. Even Fox’s somewhat conservative sorority sisters have assured her that no one would have the nerve to work for the Daily Emerald under the leadership of Steven Smith.
She’s right that no one wants to be a scab for the Daily Emerald. In fact, we were all secretly on strike already, and the current staff was all scabbed over until this morning. The ODE kids created the story, but they have no control over how the rest of us retell it.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I understand the Oregon Voice has an anti-authority reputation to uphold, but unethical journalism and false pretenses are no way to go about getting a scoop. When you ask someone for their name, you probably shouldn’t pretend you thought you knew them from somewhere and chat without revealing that you’re planning a backstabbing story that completely lacks the complete sarcasm the remarks were made with. But good job, you should feel proud of your “scoop”.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Complete sarcasm:
Who knew “gotcha” journalism was karmic?
March 5th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Gossip blogs like this disgust me. You write under the false pretense of “news”, you make sure you include your two sources and then proceed to completely twist what they “quote” to you and have difficulty deciphering what they are saying as honesty or sarcasm. The way the substance for this blog was gathered was completely unethical and you should be ashamed of yourself. Pretending like you know someone is not the way a real journalist gathers sources, and neither is failing to correctly identify yourself and your motives. So if you plan on becoming a real journalist some day, and leaving your very important position as a blogger for the Oregon Voice, you might want to look into taking an ethics class or two before you graduate.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Ethics schmethics. I’d rather have a soul and a sense of humor than your stodgy rules, which have been making journalism boring and ineffective for decades.
If you’d like, I can also recommend some higher education you could pursue– on changing ethical standards in the field of journalism. I know it’s scary, but the days of press passes, daily print newspapers, and subjectivity veiled by iron-clad “objectivity” are over. There is no set format for an arts and entertainment blog and no special card that makes someone a “real journalist” versus another media troll, and that is why this blog is 10x more fun to read than the Daily Emerald.
I’m surprised and flattered that you would refer to our humble institution as a “gossip blog,” though a little put off that you thought I was trying to write real news. I would never stoop to that level.
March 9th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I am no journalism major, and i dont even pretend to be interested in reporting the news… but i have always thought it odd how reporters traditionally get information from their subjects. The act of observation in an experiment changes the actions of the observed, so why should it be any different for news sources? The action of announcing the intent to report would change the quality of the information being gathered, pushing it from personally honest to shaped for public consumption.
Traditional press styles have shaped the consumer to accept and expect this bland bullshit as a golden standard.
Journalism has always, and always will be about reporting news with a slant– despite what high-minded, expensively taught collegian reporters may say. Reporters might as well embrace this understanding, because lets face it, the average human being doesn’t think for themselves. Reporting straight, unadulterated news would just move people to disinterest and political lethargy anyways.