Wayne Barrett

            Wayne Barrett is a writer who did not get along well with the other writers or editors because he took great pride in his work and did not want to see it changed. He would not go to the office because he would rather stay home since he did not fit in well with his work environment. His co-workers admitted that he was a difficult person to work with, but they had a very high regard for his work.

            He was also often described as a guy who wanted to say something good about someone but always ended up saying something bad. This was evident from many of his articles about mayors, where he would try to list some of the positive things they have done but would end up being overly negative with harsh criticisms. It is funny because in the New York Times article (“The Ex-Voice of the Village”), many of the people being interviewed reacted the same way when talking about Barrett – they often start off by saying he is a great guy, but they have to finish with some kind critique of his harsh work ethic.

            As they often say, the best writers are very difficult to work with because they view their writing as a personal masterpiece, and they often despise slight changes because they feel like it ruins their work. His style of work is definitely something to be respected, and he did some great investigative reporting for the Village Voice, so perhaps he had a right to act that way in regard to his work.

            I personally understand why he acts this way, as I cannot stand when people alter my work, but at the same time, I feel like I also have to be sympathetic to my mistakes, and I will always admit them if I feel they are legitimate. It also seems like he was very stubborn to change, and in a field like journalism, that is not really an excuse. The fact that he did not have a cell phone is not a very positive thing for a journalist because we need to always be up-to-date with what is going on and the same goes for his disbelief in e-mail.

            However, I will have to reserve my “telescope” comments on him until I actually meet him next week because it is very easy to judge someone by what others say about them, but the real perception of a person comes with your own interaction with them.

Beat Reporting Column Opinion

The following link is to a New York Times article by Nicholas D. Kristof and was posted on April 9, 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10kristof.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

            In this column, Kristof gives a brief description on the state of disagreement that Congress is constantly in and explains why he thinks that it is not beneficial to our country. He begins by calling the government a junior high school and says that the adults are nowhere to be found; a surefire way to make fans of your readers because it seems like no one really likes the government. After all, we are tax paying citizens and as long as we pay taxes, we have a right to complain about every single little thing the ones in charge of our country do.

            It seems like Congress is just a tug of war between Democrats and Republicans without anyone really caring about how our country is run. As long as one side wins at the end of each day, who really cares about the common people, right? How about focusing on problems that affect all of us on a daily basis and fixing them? No, let’s just act like children instead and threaten to close down the government because it will make the Democrats look bad. Doesn’t anyone realize that this affects everyone – Republicans included?!

“In other words, the Republican position is that America faces such a desperate debt crisis that we must throw millions under the bus — yet the result is more debt than if we do nothing.

What does all this mean? That we’re governed by self-absorbed, reckless children.”

            Bravo, Mr. Kristof, bravo. Being a native New Yorker, I am all for some cold-blooded Republican bashing, but seriously, does this statement not sum up the crisis fairly well? It is not just the Republicans that do things like this, but when the president is a Democrat, it is going to show more on the Republican side since they do not have “command” of the country, and they just want to show up the other party.

            Can we all just get together and run this country the way it is supposed to be run? A government that takes care of its people and puts childish squandering to rest.

Beat Reporting Topic

                So, I have been checking the news every day to see if any high schools are thinking about implementing a journalism program in the near future. Guess what? None of them are. How about the distant future? Nope, not even that. Let’s face it: not that many people in our society care about journalism. The field is dying, the job market is atrocious, you wouldn’t make any money as a journalist anyway, etc., etc. – the list goes on.

I am positive that there are still some teenagers who want to become journalists, but the pool is a small one. It goes beyond even the job market and all those other problems. You just don’t learn about journalism when you are growing up, so why would you want to be a journalist?! I can say with complete honesty that I did not know a single thing about the field of journalism until I was randomly put into a journalism class in my senior year of high school. That’s right – my senior year! By that time, I already had other aspirations, and it was just a meaningless elective to me. Oh sure, I had plenty of fun in that class, and I learned a lot, but I had already made up my mind that I wanted to be an English teacher long ago.

Well, it’s funny how things change, don’t they? Three years later – after learning that there was no way I wanted to talk about boring topics that were forced on you by the high school curriculum and that being an auditor would be a monotonous, painful job – I decided to try my hand in journalism again, and oh, how I loved it, but I wonder, would everybody be like me? Probably not. So, it should be very important that students are exposed to journalism much earlier on, so that they can develop an understanding about what the subject is about and see if it’s something they might be interested in.

In order for that to happen, more schools need to have journalism programs. It’s hard for some people to get into the ideal high school, and if they’re just placed in a zone school, then there’s a chance that they won’t have a journalism class or really, any class that they might want to take outside of the basic English, math, science and history ones. It’s always really sad when a high removes a journalism program by deeming it as “non-essential.” More responsibility needs to be placed on high schools to offer courses beyond the run-of-the-mill ones! 

Reporting Topic

Sometimes you just can't help but wonder what people are thinking when they institute certain policies. My current pet peeve is with Telemundo's Spanish-only subtitle policy. The idea behind it makes sense - Telemundo is a Spanish television station, so therefore the majority of its viewers are also Spanish and understand the Spanish language. What about the ones that aren't though? Telemundo might be a Mexican station, but don't they want to reach other viewers? Would it be so crazy that English-only speakers would want to watch Spanish television? There is a way to incorporate two different subtitle sets at the same time and they can be switched with your remote - apparently, it just seems to elude the minds of the people at Telemundo. I really don't see why Telemundo wouldn't want to make more money by reaching a wider audience; it really doesn't make any sense.

As someone who only speaks English, this really bothers me. I live in a very largely Hispanic neighborhood, and when I go into shops, either Telemundo or Univision is on, so I tend to just watch what’s on that television. A pretty recent example is how I wait in the chiropractor’s office for a good amount of time for my appointment, and the only TV that’s on is playing Telemundo with subtitles – Spanish subtitles. I watch it because there’s nothing else to do, but I really don’t understand anything that’s going on, and maybe I would watch it at home as well if I could. From a marketing perspective, it’s a pretty selfish and dumb thing to do.