Washington Post cops reporter writes about own crack habit

Journalism --1. The work of gathering, writing, editing and publishing news as through newspapers and magazines or by radio and television. 2. Journalistic writing. 3. Newspapers and magazines collectively.

News --1. New information about anything; information previously unknown. 2. a) reports, collectively, of recent happenings, esp. those broadcast over radio or TV, printed in a newspaper, etc. b) any person or thing thought to merit special attention in such reports. 3. short for newscast.

-- Webster's New World

Look, I think you can argue that it's compelling writing, that you enjoyed it, even that you think newspapers ought to start publishing short stories and poetry to amuse their readers. Not everything that gets printed in a newspaper is journalism -- advice columns, comics. It just baffles me that journalism professionals would call it journalism.

My definition is a little more liberal than the dictionary's. I think writing about old stuff qualifies if it's hooked to and illuminates something currently in the news. Say, for instance, that Barry had been arrested again or had died of an overdose. I'd still think it's a stretch, but right now it appears that this story's only reason for being is that the writer wanted to write it. It is apropos of nothing, it contains no reporting, it offers nothing on the topic of drug addiction that hasn't been written elsewhere.

And, by the way, if you read the comments on The Washington Post's site, it appears readers are divided between liking it and WTF.

It moved you, fine. My personal opinion is that running something simply to draw an emotional response is a stunt, not journalism.

From "Broadcast News":

ON NEWSROOM

These watching struck -- perhaps embarrassed but riveted. Aaron
is aghast. Aaron approaches the set.

AARON
Can I turn on the news for a second?
...Oh, wait a minute. Sex -- Tears --
This must be the news.

Tom stares daggers at him as a public official appears on the
monitor.

ON MONITOR

PUBLIC OFFICIAL
I don't think you can overestimate it --
on any given Saturday night tens of
thousands of women are being attacked
and there isn't much they or we can do
about it...

TOM
(on monitor)
The victims often remain too terrified
to talk -- the police powerless and all
the social welfare groups can finally do
is monitor this epidemic of crime without
punishment. This is Tom Grunick in
Annandale, Virginia.

As his piece concludes.

NEWSROOM

Tom continues to glare at Aaron.

AARON
I'm in a pissy mood. I'm sorry.

TOM
What's wrong with it?

AARON
Nothing. I think you really blew
the lid off nookie.

 

Does any cop ever flunk a drug test?
If so, then my point obtains. We were talking about how a cops reporter could get hooked and I said for the same reason that cops do - namely, proximity to the life, the profits, and the product. You chose to turn my point around and engage in an anti-reporter rant. I suspect I know why.

 

I didn't get your point. People don't become addicted because of proximity, they get addicted because they have a personality/character flaw or chemical imbalance

 

When you started smoking cigarettes and became addicted, it had nothing to do with being around people who smoked?

 

This isn't really a good example, because this bit is completely anachronistic. If you get hook a newsyish angle on date rape, you can't really against its public value.

 

Frank, what of the newspaper feature that doesn't have a news hook? Those run every single day.

But I don't need to look up a word in the dictionary to know what's a story and what isn't. It's a gut thing.

 

In the movie, he had no hook. That's why Aaron Altman mocked it. Well, that and jealousy.

 

No. I smoked because of a physical/ psychological need and a physical/ psychological reaction. The nicotine satisfies. Alcohol doesn't. If I never had another drink of alcohol I would never miss it.

 

They do, but I certainly don't see them as journalism. They're just stories that could have been much better if they'd had some reason for being there.

That's true. My gut doesn't like it. You're free to disagree. But I don't think it's journalism any more than Oprah is journalism. That's not to say Oprah is meaningless or doesn't contribute to society. But we gotta draw that line somewhere, and to me that line is when it has no news in it.

 

Would this story be so controversial if he wrote about another addiction he had, maybe alcoholism or necrophilia? Are drugs a major issue on the story or is it that he wrote it about himself?

 

I still don't see why 'yab finds it so remarkable that cops and cop-reporters would findsimilar temptation and similar corruption in this particular milieu.