FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Re: TWRA article

[James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>]

After 15 years with my newspaper, I finally have the photographers and 
the outdoor editor coming to me for identity whenever they have a bird 
photo. There have been many stupid captions leading up to that point, 
largely due to the fact that editors don't care about a bunch of birds.
General assignment reporters might have to interview people about 10 
different subjects a week and they cannot possibly be an expert in 
everything. That's why their training in journalism requires them to ask 
for spelling on anything, when they are not sure about it. This works 
well with people. After only a little time in the profession one learns 
there are unexpected ways of spelling Jon Smyth, but the sad fact is 
that we are poorly paid on small town dailies and weeklies. The good and 
conscientious reporters soon move on, or more likely start their careers 
higher up the ladder in the first place.
The holy grail of journalism is objectivity, but in practice management 
seems to feel that the best way to obtain objectivity is to assign 
reporters to subjects they know little or nothing about, and keeping 
them away from subjects they care about. On average I get to do about 
one story per year on birds, and about one story every couple of months 
on aviation. Smart reporters learn the interests of their editors and 
suggest feature ideas in these areas. That's why golf is on the sports 
page.
Magazines that hire free-lancers look for expertise in their subject 
area, and if they make mistakes that get in print they are unlikely to 
see their names in that magazine's pages again. I suspect that will be 
the outcome on the TWRA article.
James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN



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