Sunday, January 27, 2019

"Uh, DON'T stop the presses!"

So, you wanna be a Journalist? Be able to stick a PRESS card in the band of your derby.

Flick your tongue over the tip of your No.2 Ticonderoga yellow pencil and jot down notes in the slim Reporter's notepad you keep in the breast pocket of your jacket. 

Check your knotted tie at your collar and be all business as you write your impressions of a "Perp walk" going into the courthouse. Or getting details from a smoke-smudged firefighter or a police officer at the scene of a gory murder that started out as a yelling match in a "domestic dispute."

The accused politician who is all bluster and outrage and the stunned black man who was turned away from the polls. Recording the happy expressions of joy from the parents of a 5-year old who was found safe and sound after a harrowing ordeal...

Oops, sorry. Newspapers are not hiring, they're firing.

Yeah, the Times they are a-changing and I don't mean the New York Times.

 Saw this long article this morning in a newspaper newsletter I receive from former co-workers at the San Diego Union-Tribune..
“Another brutal day for journalism.
Gannett began slashing jobs all across the country Wednesday in a cost-cutting move that was anticipated even before the recent news that a hedge-fund company was planning to buy the chain.
“The cuts were not minor.
“At the Indianapolis Star, three journalists were laid off, including well-known columnist Tim Swarens. At the Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, University of Tennessee women’s basketball reporter Dan Fleser is out after more than 30 years in sports. The Tennessean cut three positions, including high school sports reporter Michael Murphy. Traci Bauer, the executive editor of LoHud (New York), was let go.
Six were laid off at The Record in North Jersey after nine took an early retirement buyout earlier this month.
“On and on it continued.
          “Four were let go at the Westchester (New York) Journal News. Four were let go at the Ventura County (California) Star. Five were let go at The Citizen-Times in Asheville, North Carolina.
“The Arizona Republic laid off two, including cartoonist Steve Benson, the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner for cartooning and a finalist for the award four other times.
“News of the layoffs leaked out on Twitter and across newsrooms on Wednesday afternoon and continued well into the night, with reports of cuts at the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times, the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Fort Myers (Florida) News-Press and USA Today’s travel section. It’s still unclear how many journalists and how many news outlets were impacted. Gannett did not respond to a request for comment.

Labels: , , , ,

posted by chuckography @ 9:54 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

EXTRA, EXTRA...Read All About it.

For many years I worked for newspapers and now we hear the print medium may be going out of style. Even becoming trivial. For example, here's a paper featured in a 1936 movie.

No, not really. It's a fake. A prop in an anti-drug propaganda film of the thirties. But, bear with me here.

The film later became a comedy cult classic in the late 60s and 70s, drawing college kids to Midnight Screenings. That's when I first saw it.

You probably don't remember the fake newspaper front page but I'm sure you've heard of the film."Reefer Madness."

The actual title was "Tell Your Children" and featured a trio of sleazy drug dealers, innocent teenagers, wild parties, jazz music and a shooting death, all revolving around "reefer" cigarettes. (Posters for the film spelled the evil drug as m-a-r-a-h-u-a-n-a.)

Take another look at that newspaper banner headline about the drug/murder trial. The smaller story below is about the exploits of Dick Tracy and a successful G-Man raid.

This particular movie newspaper is listed online. It's under Reefer Madness.... as trivia .

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

posted by chucker @ 6:47 PM 0 Comments