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.

It's Good to Be Free

WMNF volunteer Julia Jones spearheaded this Sunday's Juneteenth/Father's Day effort, adding flair to already-scheduled programs (Scott Elliott told the Sunday Simcha's Kevin Frye: "Today I get to be Jewish and you can be black."), and inviting the community into the radio station for film, food and shout outs to dads near and far on live air. 


In case you're a little rusty on American history, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in most rebel states. But Texas didn't recognize that law until the war ended over two years later, according to the Smithsonian:

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas, bringing news to the town that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free.

Ronny Elliott & Baye Kouyate 

Ronny Elliott played a new song, Message to Texas. 

You may work me 'til you break my body/But you can't touch my soul

You can't give me freedom/I'm already free

I told him that as far as I knew, he's the only hillbilly songwriter with a song celebrating Juneteenth. Then he said hello to his dad, even though they've never met and he's only spoken to the man once by phone. 

I caught up with Robert Cunningham in the music library, wearing his dad's hat. Host of the Sunday Evening Jazz Clinic since 2003, Robert said "I lost him on June 23rd, eight years ago."


I saw a few minutes of two different documentaries, Blacks and Jews and The Night James Brown Saved Boston, as I took breaks from reporting - an interview with writer Adrienne Maree Brown on the upcoming Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Listen to the WMNF Drive-Times News this week for more info. 

Coincidentally (or not), Adrienne's Twitter account carries this quote by Camus: 

The only way to deal w/an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

In case you missed anything, all WMNF music shows are archived online for one week.