Problem with a newsmagazine.

I'm on the newsmagazine staff at my highschool, and we're sending it to national competition this year. The only thing that really gets a winning spot or even a mention is groundbreaking stories like student abuse or the solving of a mystery. Sometimes even something like a battle of the bands will get you a name in the junior journalist hall of fame.

The thing is, journalistic ethics state that you have to abide by community standards. My community has that thing where nothing interesting ever happens, and if it does then the town won't want it to be printed.

It's technically not censorship, but it is. I want to write something that's newsworthy, but I'll never be able to with these Goddamn townies.

And the worst part is, city council just passed a ruling that allows beer to be sold anywhere. Coincidentally, there have been more car wrecks attributed to drunk driving than there ever has been before.

It makes me so angry! I hate censorship! Isn't the press supposed to be the watchdog of the government? Grrr!

I think I shall start an underground newspaper where I go out and investigate drug busts and this whole community standards bullshit.

 

I love underground newspapers. I'm a subscriber to a local one here. They tell everything from salary of government and school board workers in the area to the development plans for the county and what kind of destruction will be done and who it can have effect on. They also tell about where there's going to be roadblocks for cops checking ID and doing breathalyzer tests and such...

 

Grrr.... damn them. Write what you want, hon... they can't stop you. We have a lovely little thing called the Constitution.

 

Yes, yes yes! You're EXACTLY right! Media are supposed to be watchdogs of the government, but sadly, it hardly ever happens.

I wrote a small essay on this for my Mass Comm class. A "watchdog press" is essential to a democracy, and what do you know, we don't have a watchdog press. Hmm...

Wow, I think that you'll be a really great journalist some day.

 

I'm having the same problem! At my high school, you can not use the word "sex". Even if you are writing about sexual assaults and what to do when it happens! Its so insane.

 

Hmm, yeah, that makes no sense at all. Oh well...

 

Maybe I could write an article about that. But that would be an editorial/feature, that of which I am not the editor of and therefore I probably won't have the chance to write about it. Meh, I can always ask.

Well thank you. And I think that you'll make a really great whatever-you-plan-to-be some day.

 

Yeah, writing in a newspaper about the faults of media could be interesting.

Journalist.

 

Amazing!

 

i'm a journalist. i write in my journal all the time

 

We're all journalists.

Oh crap! J.J. Cale's on!

 

Heh, that is quite interesting, isn't it?

Hey, when you tell people that you want to be a journalist, do they ever say things like "Oh, you'll never get a job doing that," or "There's no money in that field" or even "Everyone thinks they can do communications?" I hate when people say those things to me. I just want to tell them to fuck the Hell off. Phew, ok.

Haha, ok.

 

What's a journalist?

 

They always tell me that there's no money in any writing business, and that the industry will drive me to the brink of insanity...

Heh. Shows how much they know.

 

Insanity is nessacary for good writing.


(That sentance is how I live with myself. )

 

Whoa. ME TOO.

 

My question was never answered you know. I was being serious.

 

A journalist is a superhero. Well, sometimes.

 

That helped.

 

what's yer problem?