Giving Up

I was reading a book from the library ("American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media") when I was surprised by the appearance of the name of a former New Mexico newspaper reporter, Mark Hummels. The author, Neil Henry, as associate professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, cited Hummels as an example of a young reporter who became frustrated by the limitations of journalism and left the business.

Henry writes: "Hummels wrote that it was terrific and engaging work, but that over time he became frustrated by both the `game’ mentality of daily political reporting and the mediocre standards of the newspapers he worked for. `I came to realize,’ he explained, `that government officials are so well-trained in obfuscation and spin that it’s next to impossible to get a real answer to most questions you ask them. This continues to drive me absolutely nuts with people in general, and with people in positions of trust especially. I came to think of reporting `both sides of the story’ as either 1) reporting `both’ sides of the octagon, or 2) giving `equal time’ for the Republicans and Democrats to tell their lies...’

Henry tells us that Hummels left the business, went off to law school, and now practices his profession as a husband and father of two. Again, Henry gives us Hummels’ comments about the low pay in journalism: "`...It wasn’t that I didn’t have enough money to live on, more that I felt the salary was an indication of my worth to the company. This was underscored by the fact that I knew ad-sales reps making five times more money than me.’
In time, one man who did recognize the value in hardworking, idealistic, and skilled but poorly paid young political journalists, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, began offering jobs to the reporters to use their writing and broadcasting skills to work for him instead. His office raided New Mexico’s newspapers, radio, and television stations luring some of the state’s best news reporters by offering better-paying work as public relations officers for the Richardson administration. Such is the lure, power, and triumph of public relations in American society today that more than twenty journalists in 2004 alone took Richardson up on the offer."

An interesting observation. But I don’t know if it was the lure and power of P.R. that attracted folks so much as it was the fact that one Albuquerque paper was in danger of folding and reporters wanting to stay in the state were on the lookout for other jobs. Or that their particular job situation was making them unhappy for certain personal reasons. And, while some pretty good reporters did go over to the Richardson administration, a whole lot of "the state’s best news reporters" stayed at their jobs and kept chipping away tirelessly at the dreck coughed out by the administration in the guise of news.

A tip of the hat to them. Keep at it.