The answer, unfortunately, might be yes. At one point, only a couple of decades ago, newsrooms were filled with reporters culled from the ranks of blue-collar and working class families. When I started in journalism, newsroom were gritty places. Profanity was not only common, but as permanent as the water stains on the ceiling tiles. […]
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Tag Archives: Reporting
Consider the Source
December 11, 2012 
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We have a humorous saying at the office: “It must be true. I read it on the Internet.” The reason this saying is so damn amusing is because, well, the Internet lies a lot. And the problem is that lots of people believe what they read – without checking the source. This is the result […]
Read moreThe Sorry State of Political Journalism
February 14, 2012 1 Comment
Not even NPR is immune anymore. This morning, WBUR, a NPR affiliate radio station in Boston, broadcast a story about the results of a poll about U.S. Senator Scott Brown and his likely Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren. The story reported that the two candidates were neck-and-neck. But the content of the piece centered on two […]
Read morePaywalls, Journalism & the Boston Globe
October 21, 2011 0 Comments
When I was a newspaper reporter, my peers and I referred to ourselves as “Inked-Stained Wretches.” It was our way of celebrating the broadsheet. The printed product that we all wrote for. From an early age, I wanted to be a newspaperman. I was the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper; news editor and […]
Read moreNewspapers Should Replace Reporting with Journalism
July 28, 2011 9 Comments
Reporting isn’t journalism. This is a distinction that few people understand, including many in the news business. And an inability to distinguish between the two is one reason why newspapers and other traditional media outlets continue to lose paying customers to the Web. We no longer need traditional media and professional reporters to inform us […]
Read moreSocial Media’s Staggering Influence on Journalists
June 9, 2010 5 Comments
Some amazing statistics released in 2010 on how social media drives content decisions for the traditional press and influences the way reporters and editors research and write news. These stats are from Cision/GSPM media survey: 89 percent of journalists source stories from blogs 65 percent of journalists use Facebook and LinkedIn for research 61 percent […]
Read moreBalance is Unnecessary for Good Journalism
February 8, 2010 7 Comments
Here’s what “balanced” reporting can beget: The birthers. A large group of right-wing conspiracy theorists who mistakenly believe that President Obama was born in Africa and doesn’t have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate. Yet Hawaiian officials deny those claims and have produced copies of Obama’s birth certificate. Death panels. The claim by members of the […]
Read moreReporting is Now a Commodity, but Journalism Isn’t
December 8, 2009 20 Comments
There’s a lot of urgency about saving journalism in the wake of the destruction caused by the Great Media Collapse of 2009. This is a good thing. Journalism is a fundamental cornerstone of a strong democracy and an open and progressive society. The problem, however, is that many people associate journalism only with print news […]
Read moreTruth – Not Sides – Is What Matters in Journalism
August 25, 2009 6 Comments
When I was a newspaper reporter, I heard the expression dozens of times a week: “There are two sides to every story.” I heard it from sources. I heard it from editors (especially from editors). I heard it from fellow reporters. Hell, I probably muttered those words a hundred times myself. Probably as my lame […]
Read more4 Reasons Why the Boston Globe is Still in Trouble
May 6, 2009 5 Comments
It difficult right now to determine what is going to happen between the Boston Globe and the Boston Newspaper Guild. Supposedly, the sides have reached a tentative agreement. How that would work after reports yesterday of Globe management wanting a 23 percent cut in pay for Guild members is anyone’s guess. Both sides remain close-mouthed […]
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HighTalk by George F. Snell III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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