The World's Laziest Journalist has always welcomed news tips. Our past columns on the Pascua Lama gold mining and Germany's Pirate Political Party were spawned by news tips.
This kid wouldn't give his name so that we could attribute
the Cal Daily news decision to him, so we used our best "don't take "no' for an
answer" reporter's assertive attitude and continued our efforts until we were
speaking to the editor. The editor took
down the contact information for the lawyer from the East Bay Community Law
Center and promised to
look into the potential trend spotting value of the news tip.
We had to use our best "refusal conversion" debating style to get the audience with the editor and assume that most other potential tipsters would be cavalierly brushed aside by the receptionist (who looked old enough to drive but too young to purchase alcohol). Now one fumbled news tip won't be fatal to American Journalism, but if the trend in America is to disregard new tips . . . that would appear to be more like a major gash than a small nick with a razor blade type cut.
In the past, we have learned that the New York Times' Public
Editor does not want to concern himself with criticism of missed stories, and
the New York Times Letters to the Editor editor does not publish letters about
news that was not covered by the Great Gray Lady. They obviously have a different attitude than
the one this columnist was taught by the Independent Journal's managing
editor.
If the event that occurred on the night of Thursday May 24-Friday May 25, was one of a series of examples of police brutality, then a sensationalist might put the story with a headline that offers this opinion: "Kristallnacht for Berkeley's homeless."
On the Memorial Day Weekend, Jalopnik, the web site for car
enthusiasts, ran a story about Police in the USA seizing cash and then (like the
line in the Jerry Reed song) keeping all that money for evidence. (Google hint to learn more: http://jalopnik.com/5913416/cops-can-confiscate-money-and-property-from-law-abiding-citizens?popular=true )
Should someone call Fox News and give them a news tip about the arrest of Andy Coulson?
Why doesn't the world's laziest journalist do all the work
necessary to write the "Are the Police in the USA out of control?" story?
The only possible motivation for such a labor intensive project would be self-satisfaction. If writing a column about potential police misconduct didn't get a bit of police harassment in return, the best this writer could hope to get would be a noteworthy example of mass indifference to online content. Think along the lines of a soliloquy by Travis Bickel given to himself in his own home.
Do it gratis for humanitarian reasons? We can only quote a crusty old Santa Monica
Outlook city editor who used to growl:
"No good deed goes unpunished."
The payoff choice runs the gamut from nasty stealth political paybacks
to massive public apathy and that bleak spectrum of rewards is supposed to
provide the motivation? If this
columnist is going to provide his own self-satisfaction, it will be by
selecting assignments that are ipso facto fun to cover. It would be much easier to write a column
that lived up to the headline:
"Austerity measures will continue until prosperity returns."
Getting from Berkeley to the Presidio in San Francisco takes a bit of time, but seeing United States Navy history occur, seemed worth the effort. Getting good photos was just part of the self-satisfaction aspect of the work. Doing the extra work to use photos to augment this weekend roundup column will be a "fielder's choice" type decision.
If Freedom of the Press is actually in the process of dying
the death of a thousand cuts, what's the worst that could happen? The Amalgamated Conspiracy Theory Factory's R
& D Department is working on just such a prediction. Here is a preview: What if the Republican front runner gives a
triumphant victory cry the weekend before the Republican's National Convention,
the last week in August, and (what if) the press (like a trained seal) issues a
unanimous assertion that the fellow (just like it happened to Howard Dean) has suffered
a complete mental breakdown and is unfit to receive the nomination? We'll keep you posted on future developments
regarding this potential item in the Conspiracy Theory world.
If, on the other hand, Journalism in America is in robust health, what is the harm in letting the World's Laziest Journalist post some idle speculation to the contrary?
If the Republican National Convention were happening in
Great Britain, there would be a possibility that some of the delegates would be
vulnerable to some extortion and blackmail via the News of the World style
wiretapping, but since it is happening in the USA It can't
(as Upton Sinclair would confirm) happen here. (But if it could . . . what's the worst that
could happen?)
If Euripides was assigned to rewrite a new shooting script of Ben Hecht's "Front Page," would he turn in a story that portrayed America's Free Press as being blindsided by fascism and use the word "hubris" to explain it all?
If police ever start to invade newsrooms to beat up
reporters, who will the reporters call to give a news tip for that story?
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