Journalists

joanna bujes joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com
Wed May 29 10:10:28 PDT 2002


At 09:15 AM 05/29/2002 -0400, Chris wrote:
>Rather a large number. They hang out in hotel lobbies, talk to each other
>and talk to the identical same talking (always pro-Western) talking heads.
>They speak exclusively to middle- and upper-class Russians who speak
>English. They know absolutely nothing about Russia. They can't even watch TV
>or read a magazine.

Lest anyone thing Chris is exaggerating or that the profession of journalism has taken a sudden dive, I'd like to offer the following anecdote. Twenty five years ago I worked briefly as a sports journalist: I covered a major tennis tournament at the Cow Palace (S.F.). There were about twenty journalists covering the same tournament. As I spent two days loyally glued to my seat and taking notes on a rather lack-luster slug fest between the luminaries of the day, every single other journalist covering the tournament was sitting in the pressroom stuffing themselves with the free food/drink and watching that weekend's football games. Every once in a while they'd glance at the court monitor and scribble a few notes. That was the extent of their coverage. I was shocked, but the editor of the tennis journal told me it was not unusual.

Why should political journalism be any different?

Joanna



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