A lot of my fellow jilted journalists -- or as my newest fellow unemployed journalist-turned-blogger calls himself, eliminated journalists -- are a lot better about filing blogs daily or nearly daily. Especially Ralph Z., you know who you are, who always has lots to say.
So I am starting out writing without a real point but I am feeling strongly about fellow one-time colleague Tom Moran, lately of PSE&G of New Jersey, who left "the burning building of journalism," as The New York Times called it, a while ago only to champ at the bit terribly. The problem was he couldn't stand, as it turns out, needing a committee to decide whether to go to the bathroom. He felt trapped behind the glass window while life passed him by. He missed being out on the streets, in the trenches, digging up dirt and sharing his opinions in his role as a political columnist.
Never at a loss for words, Tom felt stifled. The Newark Star-Ledger has laid off 40 percent of its staff since Moran fled to the safety of a high salary and a company that would not soon go out of business. But Moran can't be a sell out. As long as there is a job for him at The Ledger, as long as there is a door open and a newspaper hits the streets, he wants back in.
It reminds me how much I love journalism and reporters with hearts as big as Tom Moran's. Tom and I go way back, to when we were both young and hungry and striving at The Record of Hackensack, breaking stories to get our bylines on the front page.
He said he missed the adrenaline rush and riding the wave of a breaking news story. I do too, Tom. I do too.
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Laurie,
ReplyDeleteFunny that you should mention this topic, and that I got the blog notice today. I was at work this morning on an investigative project -- dipping my feet into reporting again after a long break, while also, of course, still doing my editing job, god forbid we should get 'time' to do something important. not that i'm bitter. uh-oh, i'm digressing, wasting words, not editing myself....OK, I'll stop.
Anyway, got an email with some details relating to followup of big continuing story, and I knew as the editor of original series, I was the only person in the newsroom who could do this story and post it pronto. And after 28 years, IT IS STILL A RUSH! Anyway, here's the link. And the link will take you all the way back to 2004 series that kicked off this whole adventure with a guy in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/sep/16/silk-plant-citizens-committee-chairman-says-some-d/news/
Hey, I made your blog again!
ReplyDeleteI just have a lot to say because I don't see it being said a lot among our journo friends. Just trying for a little "fair and balanced" opinionating, you know!
-R.