Angry journalist?
There's a new website, angryjournalist.com, in which news types around the country post remarks about their work. Not a happy lot, it would appear. Me, I'm happy as a clam. And I know everyone who works with and for me would have nothing but warm praise for me.
Mostly, the comments don't carry any identifying marks, which takes a lot of the fun out of it. But that's not the case on one post there today, #1345. Jay Grelen of the Democrat-Gazette makes an appearance. Heavens, no, he's not bashing the boss.
The post on angryjournalists.com
Please print my name:
Here’s how the newspaper industry solves problems:
Mate: Cap’n! There’s a huge hole in the bottom of our ship.
Cap’n: Quick, fetch me that jackhammer and let me fix it.Jay Grelen, columnist (glorified feature writer)
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Family owned and privately held
Little Rock
Jay Grelen's further explanation in response to my inquiry:
Yes, that's me. I'm referring to the industry in general, not the
Democrat-Gazette.To wit:
The braintrust at Gannett Louisiana discovers a hole in the ship: "Oh my! Our Sunday circulation is dropping."
The braintrust at Gannett Louisiana asks for a jackhammer and "fixes"
the hole by making it bigger:
"Here. Hand me a jackhammer. I can fix that hole. Let's shrink our
Sunday comics, the franchise of the Sunday paper, the one thing that
most everybody reads, to half their size so that they are illegible.
That will attract more Sunday readers."To their credit, after a few weeks, the folks at the Town Talk (I'm
not sure about the other papers) returned the comics to regular size.jay
Comments
I like this one:
Angry Journalist #1132:
I'm angry at editors that don't edit very well.
I'm also angry at some "journalists" that can't spell. It's not hard to spell a word like "appel" its a green, sometimes red, edible round ball of appley goodness.
Also don't make up words - you aren't beyonce with your bootilicious making the dictionary.
Go make more photocopies. Better yet, get me a coffee.
And this one:
Angry Journalist #1034:
I'm angry because my editor gave me an "important" assignment (a faxed press release), but neglected to give me anything beyond the cover sheet. Then he had the nerve to ask why I wasn't finished yet. Uh, because I'm still poking around the recycling bins for pages 2 and 3. Dumbass.
That site is hilarious...
Posted by: rosso![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 4, 2008 03:28 PM
Sweet Tea's comment is as insipid as his columns.
In the comment that rosso quoted above (Angry Journalist #1132), it's particularly funny that a person who complains about bad editors doesn't know when to use "who" and when to use "that," creates a tremendous run-on sentence, and spells the contraction for "it is" as "its" instead of "it's." For people who make their livings with words, a lot of journalists simply cannot write well.
Posted by: Gaddis![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 5, 2008 08:57 AM