WMNF's Future of Journalism Series

Fake journos O.K. too. With Rob Riggle in Largo, FL 2007 

Although I love talking to anyone about anything, my favorite people to interview are other journalists.

I want to know what they know, how they got started, what they're covering, what they'd rather be covering and when the book's coming out.

Maybe it's because I've always been a freelancer. I miss creative pow wows and staff meetings, opportunities to be a mentor & be mentored.

I'm still hungry for the knowledge and experience that will make my work better. So I live vicariously by asking the questioners lots of questions.

And as a media activist at heart, I'm also particularly fond of spreading my love of (good) media and journalism to those outside of the industry. I think everyone in any field should know how media works and how it can both bring benefits and do harm. 
  

Which brings me to my latest project: a Future of Journalism series on 88.5 WMNF. I started by making a list of all my journalism & media heroes, and then asked them for interviews.

©2007 NPR, by Stephen Voss

On Monday the first of these interviews aired. The premiere episode featured NPR's David Folkenflik, who talked about being editor of Page One, a book of essays on the New York Times and journalism, which he says picked up where the documentary of the same name left off. 

There's also an extended interview in which David talks about his early career in newspapers, making the switch to radio, and how after seven years at NPR he's still referred to as the "print guy".

It was exciting to hear how excited he is by the current state of journalism. While the news business has been gloomy since I entered it and suffered immensely this recession, Americans are consuming more news than ever.

  

Next week's interview is with Peter Osnos, who has my nomination for godfather of modern American journalism. He began his career as the lone assistant to independent journalist I.F. Stone (whom he calls one of the first bloggers), spent many years overseas with the Washington Post, gave my generation one of our finest journalists, founded PublicAffairs Books, and much more. 

Happy listening.

Folding Back "Page One"

The New York Times' TV & digital media reporter Brian Stelter, 26, may be ahead of the online curve but he knows the value of newspaper subscribers and "old fashioned reporting."  


Earlier this month Brian sat down in Seattle with my pal Warren Etheredge (the Brian Lamb of movies) to chat about the Page One documentary, trusting major networks & local news gatherers, and the importance of Twitter, aka "crack for media junkies." 


The High Bar w/ Warren Etheredge & Brian Stelter from The High Bar on Vimeo.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

I was in my senior year of college in Dover, Delaware studying & learning how to produce media when September 11th happened. 


After three days glued to the tube, a friend had to pry me away. There was no new news. I was traumatized again and again watching the scenes replay. 


And that began my news blackout. I couldn't watch or read or consume anymore, didn't know who I could trust. Certainly not the New York Times. 


I was dismayed with media in general by graduation. After two commercial radio internships where I learned that most DJ's in America no longer produce or program but push buttons for minimum wage,  I was at a loss as to what to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to be a communicator, but there was no place for me in the media. 


So I made videos. In 2003-2004, I discovered the 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle where I volunteered in exchange for equipment rentals and classes. 

I found Warren Etheredge, who took it upon himself to make movie audiences smarter because, as he claims on his website, "Smarter audiences make a better world!"


I started learning, living, paying attention. I went out to public events, like a Howard Dean speech, and then read about it the next day in the paper. Sometimes what I saw didn't match what the reporter saw. Who was more right? 


Then I watched Control Room. Ever since I've been convinced that if you have something worth communicating, say it in a video. 


You can do it independent of corporate media, and it's the best way to get Americans to pay attention. A great video is almost as a good as experiencing life first hand. 


So by now I've mostly forgiven the New York Times. (Judith Miller, not so much.) It's a company, an institution, which I tend to think can lead to inherent wrong doing. But the individuals behind it are damn fine. And right now that institution facilitates them being at their best.  


Page One: Inside the New York Times is playing at Tampa Theatre through Thursday.  

Blame the Rapist Not the Victim

Funny (not ha ha) how within a week of my stories on sexual assault, which focused in part on how the media (mis)handles such horrors, the New York Times fell on its face by reporting on the gang rape of an 11-year old from the perspective of the (18!) rapists as the real victims.  


Florida's freshman Rep. Kathleen Passidomo followed suit by citing a quote from the article, that the victim could have prevented the multiple sexual assaults from 18 males aged preteen to 27 if only she hadn't been dressed like "a woman in her 20s."


Let's examine that statement. Do women in their 20's deserve to be raped? Just the slutty ones? 


What about nudists? Are they asking for it? And if that's true, someone please explain to me why Muslim women, especially in nations that require them to wear the head-to-toe burqa, are sexually assaulted as much if not more than women in the U.S.? 


Thank goodness the public editor had the heart AND sense to call the NYT's mistake because no one else at the paper stood up. When our media "gatekeepers" are uneducated and insensitive about an issue, how can we expect the public to be any better?


Let's demand a smarter media. And a smarter U.S.