War stories

(photo courtesy of Stephen Gates, I believe)

The Huffington Post today points out that when people rank occupations, "newspaper reporter" shows up close to the bottom. The story refers to a survey on careercast.com ranking jobs on five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

This is, of course, a case of same-old, same-old. It's nothing particularly new that people in and out of the newspaper reporting profession hold it -- at least on occasion - in low esteem. As an illustration, I offer the history of American cinema, which is filled with great old movies depicting newspaper reporters as both noble and ignoble characters - often at the same time. See Ace in the Hole, It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday/The Front Page (either version), Deadline USA, One Fine Day, Laura... I could go on(and perhaps one day, I will).

Back when I was a newspaper reporter, surveys were ranking my occupation somewhere below being Darth Vader's valet's dog's chew toy. And frankly, depending on what was going on at the time, if you got any random collection of reporters together and asked, you could get a nice litany of complaints. About things in and out of the newsroom.

But the fact is that reporters love/hate/love their jobs. Don't believe me? Ask any reporter or former reporter for war stories. Then get ready to sit and listen. And laugh. And be shocked.

My personal stories include (but are not limited to):

• seeing my first murder victim 8 days on the job as an intern,
• having a judge pull a gun on me - in front of witnesses,
• having relatives of a murderer threaten me (more than once, more than one case),
• having a supporter of a convicted politician shove me on the steps of the federal courthouse,
• being subpoenaed to testify against a judge and a police chief (different cases),
• being threatened with lawsuits,
• exposing a baby pageant scam (that resulted in the scammer going to the slammer),
• having my identity stolen by someone trying to influence a small town mayor's race,
• nearly getting knocked down by an escaping defendant (and the deputies who were in hot pursuit),
• sneaking into a hospital room to interview a wounded cop (not my finest moment),
• meeting Mr. Sulu,
• reuniting lost lovers (big mistake, good story),
• meeting jerks,
  
• being one myself,
• meeting and befriending a lot of very nice people in every strata of society,
• and experiencing all the yelling, finger-pointing, second-guessing, self-pitying, righteous indignation, self-righteous pontificating, back-slapping, and practical joking that go on in newsrooms every day.

Good times.

All reporters probably have similar stories. And truthfully, it's that kind of stuff that attracts us to the business. And those kinds of experiences are what make many reporters stay even though the good usually comes flavored with bad, and the bad comes reeking of worse. That's why they get away with paying reporters so little. The job is just too much fun and reporters are just too crazy.

As long as the job of reporter is there (it soon may be on the endangered species list), you'll find somebody willing to fill it - no matter what the surveys say.