history of news broadcasting

a couple of weeks ago a reporter named tom posted a message on the internal electronic bulletin board here at work tom was leaving the paper after four years and one of the things he said he'd miss is the funny misspelled "EMPLOYES ONLY" door and i thought misspelled? doesn't he know? in the old days newspapers cut out what they considered to be superfluous letters to make it a little quicker for compositors to set the type so employees became employes and cigarette became cigaret and dialogue became dialog and kidnapped became kidnaped those simplified spellings as they were known continued well into the 1980s at a lot of papers and live on in our EMPLOYES ONLY door. (and as legend holds on an elevator in the chicago tribune building that is still labled "frate.")some of us old codgers set tom straight in our responses on the electronic bulletin board but it wasn't entirely clear if he believed us and i thought man all this history--someone has to write this down! someone in addition to i mean hence. "birth of a hack."this will be the last installment for a while i'll revisit this topic down the road but i think a week of stories is enough to inflict on you besides i've been meemed twice this week and there's another fun monday coming up and as usual the dogs are feeling put out at my confiscating their blog for non-dog stories. BIRTH OF A HACK. PART SIX as i had so nefariously planned the summer on the copy desk turned into a full-time job i was made a rimmer on the nightside desk working 4 p m to 1 a m. and helping to put the morning paper to bed. (that's us above in 1980 as you can see i finally unfurled my hair and you must certainly recognize tall blond p miller!)there was nothing about that job i didn't love the copy desk in those days was a traditional U-shape (this changed quickly in the big newsroom remodel of the 1980s which ushered in the Age of Beige--beige cubicles that is) the slot sat in the dip of the U and the rimmers sat around the rim the slot ran the desk laying out pages--including page one--and ordering heds and trims we rimmers would pick up a dummy from the slot's desk find the stories he'd marked for that page edit them trim them to fit write headlines crop the photos and then bring the page out to the composing room so the printers could start pasting it up during my two years in the library the newspaper had eliminated the pneumatic tubes and had installed Atex computers at all the desks so now all the writing and editing was done on computer stories were sent to the composing room electronically the AP stories came in on the computer as well and the clacketing wire machine was no more the newsroom was getting to be a quieter place--just the quiet clicks of the computer keyboard and the occasional squawk of the police scanner the low job on the copy editing totem pole was handling the local copy so that job often fell to me it was a hard job--i had to lay out my own pages making accommodations on the fly for stories that came in too long (they never came in too short for some reason) or that broke late it was a constant scramble and none of my pages ever looked very good they looked more like jigsaw puzzles then shortly before deadline we went out into the composing room to watch the printers paste up our pages they cut out the typeset stories with x-acto knives fed them through rollers that coated the back side with wax and pasted them onto mock-ups the copy editors stood by ready to show them which lines to cut if a story didn't fit or to resend type if there was a problem.(they would literally cut the edited line out of the story with their x-acto knives one printer named Langley had very shaky hands and you tried to avoid having him work on your page because he would paste the type in crooked he would also drop cigaret ash on your page when he was nervous.)we were not allowed to touch type at all the printers had a very strong union and if one of us tried to adjust a crooked headline or even pick up a piece of type that had fallen onto the floor the foreman had the right to ring a bell stop work and go to chapel. (that is call a union meeting.)the bell was very large and round and was mounted on the wall in the backshop and when the foreman hit it with a metal stick you could hear it reverberate all through the second floor that bell governed their day they would not start work until the foreman rang it and they stopped immediately when he rang it again the bell told them when to go to dinner and when to come back from dinner many many nights i begged a printer to finish a page before going on break--we had page deadlines all night long and i was often late but they never would it was my greatest fear that i would inadvertently touch type and cause a work stoppage i kept my hands jammed deep in my pockets whenever i was out on the floor after deadline i was one of the few copy editors who had to worry about makeovers--redoing a page to worm in a late-breaking story we published three editions--the Iron Range of northern minnesota was the earliest; then the superior wisconsin edition which went as far east as the U. P of michigan; and last was the city edition after first run the slot and the other rimmers sat around and gabbed and i worked on my makeovers as fast as i could so i could join in the fun they were a brilliant bunch intelligent and funny and sarcastic with sharp-edged observations we had a cascading rush of deadlines all night long--this page had to be done by this time and then this page by this time and the last page (which was always the jump page to a1) had to be off the floor by 11:15 p m it got very hectic around 11 p m but everyone worked together and worked really hard and p miller and i were always vying to get either andy or fellbaum to work on our pages because they were so fast and efficient and when you made deadline it felt good. (and here's fellbaum now! in this picture he's re-enacting an incident where he accidentally stabbed the famous p miller with his x-acto knife.)sometimes we were urged to beat deadline. "there's snow in the alley," a manager would say and that meant. "hurry up." ("snow in the alley" originally came from weather concerns--in bad weather the trucks might have trouble getting to the Iron Range to drop off papers.)working on local copy meant editing long boring stories about the city council and eye-glazing stories about issues that were actually quite important but didn't make good reading: The International Joint Commission and its governance of Lake Superior water; Our Disappearing Wetlands; the IRRRB (known as the Eye-Triple-R-B) and its efforts to bring some kind of industry to northern minnesota to replace the vanishing taconite mines one Saturday evening i was copy editing an unfathomable story about peat; i couldn't really follow what it was about exactly but it had been through the city desk and i figured i was just stupid the reporter walked by. "any problems with my story?" she asked."nope," i said. "looks good.""good," she said. "because i have absolutely no idea what it was about."the copy desk job that i aspired to was sorting wires; i loved reading the news wires and all the different stories that flowed into our computers all night long the early versions were from the associated press and were terse and just-the-facts the later we went the richer and better-written the stories were the ones from Knight Ridder were the best--complicated well-told tales from the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Detroit Free Press or the Miami Herald if i ever become a reporter those are the kinds of stories i'm going to do i thought but of course that was silly; i was never going to become a reporter i was quite content where i was there was never enough room for all the news we wanted to run there still isn't sometimes stories that we thought were deeply important ended up as briefs or didn't make the paper at all but we did our best the nights when i sorted wires i went home at midnight and turned on "NBC News Overnight with Linda Ellerbee," to compare what she had chosen for her news broadcast with what i had chosen for the morning paper. She doesn't know it but she helped teach me news judgment i worked nights weekends most major holidays and for long spans of time i had split days off--often Tuesday and Thursday i didn't care a whit i loved going to work at 4 p m.; i'd get up at 10 a m and feel like i had had an entire day by the time i walked in the front door of the newspaper there were tensions of course the copy chief told me that one night he sat bolt upright in bed at 2 in the morning suddenly hit by the cold fear that he had made a bad typo in the main headline on page1 it was too late to fix but he couldn't get back to sleep unless he knew for sure he got on the phone and called the 7-11. "are the papers in yet?" he asked the clerk yep."do me a favor," he said. "can you look at the headline on page1 and tell me how 'judgment' is spelled?"the clerk read it to him: J-U-D-G-E-M-E-N-T there was nothing else for the copy chief to do but go back to bed perhaps the worst mistake i observed was when one of the other rimmers was filling in on slot we were running a moving tale out of the Southwest about illegal immigrants and the word she used in the headline? "wetbacks." she was astounded and humiliated and extremely repentant the next day when she got to work and found out how angry people were i had no idea it was a slur! she kept saying i thought it was just a shorter way to say migrant worker! (headline writers are constantly looking for shorter ways to say things.)i would have been perfectly happy to stay on the copy desk forever but one thing about newsrooms: things don't stay static for long the copy slot was dating a reporter--a vague charmingly inarticulate lovely young woman who could not make deadline she panicked on deadline and she was in danger of losing her job the managing editor had already told her to forget about first run; just write for second run but she couldn't make second run either so the copy chief went in and had a conversation with the managing editor when he came out he called a quick meeting of the copy desk he told us there was a new rule: all copy editors need to have reporting experience i looked around the desk everyone on the desk had been a reporter at one time or another--everyone but me the copy chief nodded in my direction diane would take my spot on the desk i would move to days and to writing i would cover the Iron Range i felt myself grow pale i was terribly shy i had only recently learned to drive i'd never been to J school i'd never been to the Iron Range i had no desire to go out into the world and talk to strangers and so i was dragged silently screaming into the world of reporting as it happened i thrived back on the copy desk in that world of cascading deadlines diane i'm afraid did not. THE END FOR NOW Fabulous!!!! I was so afraid when you said this was the last for a while that you'd make it another cliff hanger. I guess as the writer you knew exactly where to leave off. I'll be looking forward to the next chapter when you are ready. I really think you should consider a book. This is GREAT!!! Thanks for giving me something so wonderful to look forward to every day. I really love this series. Laurie. I'll be sad to see it go. Don't wait too long for the next one. I'm sure the boys won't mind too much. Your career path is so much more exciting than mine. I noticed that when you let your hair down you also lost the huge glasses. I still have my first glasses they took up half my face. I popped the lenses out and let the boys use them for costumes. I'm amazed at how similar are the U. S and U. K provincial newspaper procedures. The light tables and scalpels and printers with shaking hands etc.!In retrospect. I realise I was lucky to have the jobs I did in local journalism. At the time. I was far more cynical and pissed off at the poor pay (all that was put right in Fleet Street!)A great series and I look forward to more instalments. P. S. Atex computers - they were the first computers I worked on. I remember I used to write headlines then I would enjoy seeing whether they had bust or were one or two characters under. Perfect was when it flashed: "Line full." This has been so fascinating! I used to work for a newspaper - but I was on the "6th Floor" in the exec suite so I rarely got caught up in the hurly burly of getting the newspapers out but every now and then I had to go down to the newsrooms and it all looked way to stressful for me! This is so interesting. It's sounds like a really demanding job and extremely andrenalin rushed. Not sure I could do it being as laid back as I am but you seem to have made a fantastic job of it. Looking forward to reading more when you are ready. Best wishes. Crystal xx i know this final post was extremely long so thanks for sticking with it my two cents: i really appreciate your comments! i will write more i promise kaycie: i dunno.. boscoe is staring at me rather balefully at this exact moment but it could just be that he needs to go outside.-ann thank you that's a compliment coming from you ped: i'm back to glasses i wore contacts for about 10 years and then my eyes just couldn't take it anymore glasses in the winter are a pain (literally) because they freeze on my head and give me a headache but they're definitely easier and what was it with those huge glasses? i had them too dumdad: i'd forgotten about that! that satisfying feeling! the bold-face flashing exclamation points! did you ever accidentally send a broadcast message to the whole room instead of one person? i did that a few times and the other copy editors would holler at me. "BC EXECUTE! BC EXECUTE!" to turn off the message aoj: definitely stressful but in the newsroom you quickly become an adrenaline junkie and on the days it's quiet you feel bored and insignificant at least i do flowerpot: the unfortunate laurie is writing this blog! or do you mean diane? the copy chief moved away and left her behind and she continued to dither along for some time eventually she moved away too and i have no idea where she ended up crystal: thanks for sticking with me there will be more... This has been a wonderful series and I'll be glad when you pick it up again. It's funny. I swtiched to being a DJ because I was so NOT good at interviewing people. I suppose I was okay but it made me really uncomfortable. I've always admired people who could tell a story and make it interesting. Good on ya. Laurie. Glad to hear this is not the end but merely a time-out. I love this series - your writing makes the newsroom come alive. Great job! Tell the boys "thanks" for sharing their space. Fascinating stuff Laurie. Reminded me of a friend of mine who told me about a girl she worked with at the BBC news services who typed a news report from dictation taken over the phone and passed it to the newreader who then talked about a terrible "fluster-duster" in a nearby town. When he'd said it he realised it was nonsense but apparently even he couldn't work out that this was supposed to read "flats' disaster" - a piece reporting the collapse of an apartment block due to a gas explosion. She got sacked obviously. dumdad: many thanks! i'm honored jen i think it would be really hard to do interviews live on the air i can interview people just fine as long as nobody else is listening my interviews tend to ramble and segue and sometimes take a couple of days nobody would want that on the radio bookwoman: the boys wag their tales at you they will be taking over the blog on tuesday; they already have it all planned. (they have little else to do all day when i'm at work.)swearing mother: i'm sorry she got sacked but that story is absolutely hilarious. Sounds like a very exciting job all the adrenaline and all the teamwork. But very high pressure and you can understand why some people didn't make it. Funny the peat story!Interesting about the print unions. We also used to have very powerful print unions in England too. I wonder if you have any ideas why this should be so? It's interesting to read about how the newsroom changed. I know it's common for reporters to be shy but it's a relief reading it again. Why would the printers stop working if someone else touched anything? amy because that was their work and the union was very strong in protecting their work if we copy editors started going out there and knifing lines and straightening type it put their jobs in danger i got an email from a former colleague who told me that my printer anecdotes were familiar to him here's what he wrote me:Your bit with the union printers reminded me of a night in 1968 I was helping the sports editor at the Forum we were approaching deadline and in exasperation the editor grabbed a chunk of type (yes hot lead type) and started to carry it to the "pig" that held his page.. and a swarthy red-faced printer slapped it out of his hand the lines of type scattering all over the floor. "That's MY work!!!" the printer bellowed and he's been my idol ever since. lane i'm already writing the next season in my head i don't think you'll have to wait too long the obsessive-compulsive in me wants to get going on it too. Fascinating stuff - in some ways it seems like another world so glad to got to do the journalist bit! Will look out for the next stage. What a great series. Laurie! I haven't been posting with every installment but that's because I've been busy. I've been catching up now on all the stories now and I've really enjoyed this! Hope there's more to come... Oh my goodness! I feel so famous! This is a wonderful history tho we need some more photos of YOU during that era. I will search for some. Really enjoyed reading that Laurie - how things have changed. I could just imagine the embarrassment of mis-spelling a word in the headline! And waking in a sweat worrying about it. You've had some interesting times in journalism great stuff :) Fascinating stuff. It's a great read. I used to have trouble with the word "judgment" and once looked it up. I found out that you can spell it either way. If you're still in touch with that man you should tell him. I'm sure he'd like to know after all these years. (I've just checked in the Pocket Oxford Dictionary and it says "judgement in law also judgment " but I'm sure when I looked it up years ago they were interchangeable.) Couldn't you just throw a dog or two into the story to satisfy your four legged critics? Then maybe we could have more story sooner. Hint. laurie stopped by here while making my fun monday rounds and was fascinated by your tale -- which is similar to my own i started life as a reporter then moved to the copydesk.. and finally to page design where i live to this day nice to meet you!

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a couple of weeks ago a reporter named tom posted a message on the internal electronic bulletin board here at work tom was leaving the paper after four years and one of the things he said he'd miss is the funny misspelled "EMPLOYES ONLY" door and i thought misspelled? doesn't he know? in the old days newspapers cut out what they considered to be superfluous letters to make it a little quicker for compositors to set the type so employees became employes and cigarette became cigaret and dialogue became dialog and kidnapped became kidnaped those simplified spellings as they were known continued well into the 1980s at a lot of papers and live on in our EMPLOYES ONLY door. (and as legend holds on an elevator in the chicago tribune building that is still labled "frate.")some of us old codgers set tom straight in our responses on the electronic bulletin board but it wasn't entirely clear if he believed us and i thought man all this history--someone has to write this down! someone in addition to i mean hence. "birth of a hack."this will be the last installment for a while i'll revisit this topic down the road but i think a week of stories is enough to inflict on you besides i've been meemed twice this week and there's another fun monday coming up and as usual the dogs are feeling put out at my confiscating their blog for non-dog stories. BIRTH OF A HACK. PART SIX as i had so nefariously planned the summer on the copy desk turned into a full-time job i was made a rimmer on the nightside desk working 4 p m to 1 a m. and helping to put the morning paper to bed. (that's us above in 1980 as you can see i finally unfurled my hair and you must certainly recognize tall blond p miller!)there was nothing about that job i didn't love the copy desk in those days was a traditional U-shape (this changed quickly in the big newsroom remodel of the 1980s which ushered in the Age of Beige--beige cubicles that is) the slot sat in the dip of the U and the rimmers sat around the rim the slot ran the desk laying out pages--including page one--and ordering heds and trims we rimmers would pick up a dummy from the slot's desk find the stories he'd marked for that page edit them trim them to fit write headlines crop the photos and then bring the page out to the composing room so the printers could start pasting it up during my two years in the library the newspaper had eliminated the pneumatic tubes and had installed Atex computers at all the desks so now all the writing and editing was done on computer stories were sent to the composing room electronically the AP stories came in on the computer as well and the clacketing wire machine was no more the newsroom was getting to be a quieter place--just the quiet clicks of the computer keyboard and the occasional squawk of the police scanner the low job on the copy editing totem pole was handling the local copy so that job often fell to me it was a hard job--i had to lay out my own pages making accommodations on the fly for stories that came in too long (they never came in too short for some reason) or that broke late it was a constant scramble and none of my pages ever looked very good they looked more like jigsaw puzzles then shortly before deadline we went out into the composing room to watch the printers paste up our pages they cut out the typeset stories with x-acto knives fed them through rollers that coated the back side with wax and pasted them onto mock-ups the copy editors stood by ready to show them which lines to cut if a story didn't fit or to resend type if there was a problem.(they would literally cut the edited line out of the story with their x-acto knives one printer named Langley had very shaky hands and you tried to avoid having him work on your page because he would paste the type in crooked he would also drop cigaret ash on your page when he was nervous.)we were not allowed to touch type at all the printers had a very strong union and if one of us tried to adjust a crooked headline or even pick up a piece of type that had fallen onto the floor the foreman had the right to ring a bell stop work and go to chapel. (that is call a union meeting.)the bell was very large and round and was mounted on the wall in the backshop and when the foreman hit it with a metal stick you could hear it reverberate all through the second floor that bell governed their day they would not start work until the foreman rang it and they stopped immediately when he rang it again the bell told them when to go to dinner and when to come back from dinner many many nights i begged a printer to finish a page before going on break--we had page deadlines all night long and i was often late but they never would it was my greatest fear that i would inadvertently touch type and cause a work stoppage i kept my hands jammed deep in my pockets whenever i was out on the floor after deadline i was one of the few copy editors who had to worry about makeovers--redoing a page to worm in a late-breaking story we published three editions--the Iron Range of northern minnesota was the earliest; then the superior wisconsin edition which went as far east as the U. P of michigan; and last was the city edition after first run the slot and the other rimmers sat around and gabbed and i worked on my makeovers as fast as i could so i could join in the fun they were a brilliant bunch intelligent and funny and sarcastic with sharp-edged observations we had a cascading rush of deadlines all night long--this page had to be done by this time and then this page by this time and the last page (which was always the jump page to a1) had to be off the floor by 11:15 p m it got very hectic around 11 p m but everyone worked together and worked really hard and p miller and i were always vying to get either andy or fellbaum to work on our pages because they were so fast and efficient and when you made deadline it felt good. (and here's fellbaum now! in this picture he's re-enacting an incident where he accidentally stabbed the famous p miller with his x-acto knife.)sometimes we were urged to beat deadline. "there's snow in the alley," a manager would say and that meant. "hurry up." ("snow in the alley" originally came from weather concerns--in bad weather the trucks might have trouble getting to the Iron Range to drop off papers.)working on local copy meant editing long boring stories about the city council and eye-glazing stories about issues that were actually quite important but didn't make good reading: The International Joint Commission and its governance of Lake Superior water; Our Disappearing Wetlands; the IRRRB (known as the Eye-Triple-R-B) and its efforts to bring some kind of industry to northern minnesota to replace the vanishing taconite mines one Saturday evening i was copy editing an unfathomable story about peat; i couldn't really follow what it was about exactly but it had been through the city desk and i figured i was just stupid the reporter walked by. "any problems with my story?" she asked."nope," i said. "looks good.""good," she said. "because i have absolutely no idea what it was about."the copy desk job that i aspired to was sorting wires; i loved reading the news wires and all the different stories that flowed into our computers all night long the early versions were from the associated press and were terse and just-the-facts the later we went the richer and better-written the stories were the ones from Knight Ridder were the best--complicated well-told tales from the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Detroit Free Press or the Miami Herald if i ever become a reporter those are the kinds of stories i'm going to do i thought but of course that was silly; i was never going to become a reporter i was quite content where i was there was never enough room for all the news we wanted to run there still isn't sometimes stories that we thought were deeply important ended up as briefs or didn't make the paper at all but we did our best the nights when i sorted wires i went home at midnight and turned on "NBC News Overnight with Linda Ellerbee," to compare what she had chosen for her news broadcast with what i had chosen for the morning paper. She doesn't know it but she helped teach me news judgment i worked nights weekends most major holidays and for long spans of time i had split days off--often Tuesday and Thursday i didn't care a whit i loved going to work at 4 p m.; i'd get up at 10 a m and feel like i had had an entire day by the time i walked in the front door of the newspaper there were tensions of course the copy chief told me that one night he sat bolt upright in bed at 2 in the morning suddenly hit by the cold fear that he had made a bad typo in the main headline on page1 it was too late to fix but he couldn't get back to sleep unless he knew for sure he got on the phone and called the 7-11. "are the papers in yet?" he asked the clerk yep."do me a favor," he said. "can you look at the headline on page1 and tell me how 'judgment' is spelled?"the clerk read it to him: J-U-D-G-E-M-E-N-T there was nothing else for the copy chief to do but go back to bed perhaps the worst mistake i observed was when one of the other rimmers was filling in on slot we were running a moving tale out of the Southwest about illegal immigrants and the word she used in the headline? "wetbacks." she was astounded and humiliated and extremely repentant the next day when she got to work and found out how angry people were i had no idea it was a slur! she kept saying i thought it was just a shorter way to say migrant worker! (headline writers are constantly looking for shorter ways to say things.)i would have been perfectly happy to stay on the copy desk forever but one thing about newsrooms: things don't stay static for long the copy slot was dating a reporter--a vague charmingly inarticulate lovely young woman who could not make deadline she panicked on deadline and she was in danger of losing her job the managing editor had already told her to forget about first run; just write for second run but she couldn't make second run either so the copy chief went in and had a conversation with the managing editor when he came out he called a quick meeting of the copy desk he told us there was a new rule: all copy editors need to have reporting experience i looked around the desk everyone on the desk had been a reporter at one time or another--everyone but me the copy chief nodded in my direction diane would take my spot on the desk i would move to days and to writing i would cover the Iron Range i felt myself grow pale i was terribly shy i had only recently learned to drive i'd never been to J school i'd never been to the Iron Range i had no desire to go out into the world and talk to strangers and so i was dragged silently screaming into the world of reporting as it happened i thrived back on the copy desk in that world of cascading deadlines diane i'm afraid did not. THE END FOR NOW Fabulous!!!! I was so afraid when you said this was the last for a while that you'd make it another cliff hanger. I guess as the writer you knew exactly where to leave off. I'll be looking forward to the next chapter when you are ready. I really think you should consider a book. This is GREAT!!! Thanks for giving me something so wonderful to look forward to every day. I really love this series. Laurie. I'll be sad to see it go. Don't wait too long for the next one. I'm sure the boys won't mind too much. Your career path is so much more exciting than mine. I noticed that when you let your hair down you also lost the huge glasses. I still have my first glasses they took up half my face. I popped the lenses out and let the boys use them for costumes. I'm amazed at how similar are the U. S and U. K provincial newspaper procedures. The light tables and scalpels and printers with shaking hands etc.!In retrospect. I realise I was lucky to have the jobs I did in local journalism. At the time. I was far more cynical and pissed off at the poor pay (all that was put right in Fleet Street!)A great series and I look forward to more instalments. P. S. Atex computers - they were the first computers I worked on. I remember I used to write headlines then I would enjoy seeing whether they had bust or were one or two characters under. Perfect was when it flashed: "Line full." This has been so fascinating! I used to work for a newspaper - but I was on the "6th Floor" in the exec suite so I rarely got caught up in the hurly burly of getting the newspapers out but every now and then I had to go down to the newsrooms and it all looked way to stressful for me! This is so interesting. It's sounds like a really demanding job and extremely andrenalin rushed. Not sure I could do it being as laid back as I am but you seem to have made a fantastic job of it. Looking forward to reading more when you are ready. Best wishes. Crystal xx i know this final post was extremely long so thanks for sticking with it my two cents: i really appreciate your comments! i will write more i promise kaycie: i dunno.. boscoe is staring at me rather balefully at this exact moment but it could just be that he needs to go outside.-ann thank you that's a compliment coming from you ped: i'm back to glasses i wore contacts for about 10 years and then my eyes just couldn't take it anymore glasses in the winter are a pain (literally) because they freeze on my head and give me a headache but they're definitely easier and what was it with those huge glasses? i had them too dumdad: i'd forgotten about that! that satisfying feeling! the bold-face flashing exclamation points! did you ever accidentally send a broadcast message to the whole room instead of one person? i did that a few times and the other copy editors would holler at me. "BC EXECUTE! BC EXECUTE!" to turn off the message aoj: definitely stressful but in the newsroom you quickly become an adrenaline junkie and on the days it's quiet you feel bored and insignificant at least i do flowerpot: the unfortunate laurie is writing this blog! or do you mean diane? the copy chief moved away and left her behind and she continued to dither along for some time eventually she moved away too and i have no idea where she ended up crystal: thanks for sticking with me there will be more... This has been a wonderful series and I'll be glad when you pick it up again. It's funny. I swtiched to being a DJ because I was so NOT good at interviewing people. I suppose I was okay but it made me really uncomfortable. I've always admired people who could tell a story and make it interesting. Good on ya. Laurie. Glad to hear this is not the end but merely a time-out. I love this series - your writing makes the newsroom come alive. Great job! Tell the boys "thanks" for sharing their space. Fascinating stuff Laurie. Reminded me of a friend of mine who told me about a girl she worked with at the BBC news services who typed a news report from dictation taken over the phone and passed it to the newreader who then talked about a terrible "fluster-duster" in a nearby town. When he'd said it he realised it was nonsense but apparently even he couldn't work out that this was supposed to read "flats' disaster" - a piece reporting the collapse of an apartment block due to a gas explosion. She got sacked obviously. dumdad: many thanks! i'm honored jen i think it would be really hard to do interviews live on the air i can interview people just fine as long as nobody else is listening my interviews tend to ramble and segue and sometimes take a couple of days nobody would want that on the radio bookwoman: the boys wag their tales at you they will be taking over the blog on tuesday; they already have it all planned. (they have little else to do all day when i'm at work.)swearing mother: i'm sorry she got sacked but that story is absolutely hilarious. Sounds like a very exciting job all the adrenaline and all the teamwork. But very high pressure and you can understand why some people didn't make it. Funny the peat story!Interesting about the print unions. We also used to have very powerful print unions in England too. I wonder if you have any ideas why this should be so? It's interesting to read about how the newsroom changed. I know it's common for reporters to be shy but it's a relief reading it again. Why would the printers stop working if someone else touched anything? amy because that was their work and the union was very strong in protecting their work if we copy editors started going out there and knifing lines and straightening type it put their jobs in danger i got an email from a former colleague who told me that my printer anecdotes were familiar to him here's what he wrote me:Your bit with the union printers reminded me of a night in 1968 I was helping the sports editor at the Forum we were approaching deadline and in exasperation the editor grabbed a chunk of type (yes hot lead type) and started to carry it to the "pig" that held his page.. and a swarthy red-faced printer slapped it out of his hand the lines of type scattering all over the floor. "That's MY work!!!" the printer bellowed and he's been my idol ever since. lane i'm already writing the next season in my head i don't think you'll have to wait too long the obsessive-compulsive in me wants to get going on it too. Fascinating stuff - in some ways it seems like another world so glad to got to do the journalist bit! Will look out for the next stage. What a great series. Laurie! I haven't been posting with every installment but that's because I've been busy. I've been catching up now on all the stories now and I've really enjoyed this! Hope there's more to come... Oh my goodness! I feel so famous! This is a wonderful history tho we need some more photos of YOU during that era. I will search for some. Really enjoyed reading that Laurie - how things have changed. I could just imagine the embarrassment of mis-spelling a word in the headline! And waking in a sweat worrying about it. You've had some interesting times in journalism great stuff :) Fascinating stuff. It's a great read. I used to have trouble with the word "judgment" and once looked it up. I found out that you can spell it either way. If you're still in touch with that man you should tell him. I'm sure he'd like to know after all these years. (I've just checked in the Pocket Oxford Dictionary and it says "judgement in law also judgment " but I'm sure when I looked it up years ago they were interchangeable.) Couldn't you just throw a dog or two into the story to satisfy your four legged critics? Then maybe we could have more story sooner. Hint. laurie stopped by here while making my fun monday rounds and was fascinated by your tale -- which is similar to my own i started life as a reporter then moved to the copydesk.. and finally to page design where i live to this day nice to meet you!

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a couple of weeks ago a reporter named tom posted a message on the internal electronic bulletin board here at work tom was leaving the paper after four years and one of the things he said he'd miss is the funny misspelled "EMPLOYES ONLY" door and i thought misspelled? doesn't he know? in the old days newspapers cut out what they considered to be superfluous letters to make it a little quicker for compositors to set the type so employees became employes and cigarette became cigaret and dialogue became dialog and kidnapped became kidnaped those simplified spellings as they were known continued well into the 1980s at a lot of papers and live on in our EMPLOYES ONLY door. (and as legend holds on an elevator in the chicago tribune building that is still labled "frate.")some of us old codgers set tom straight in our responses on the electronic bulletin board but it wasn't entirely clear if he believed us and i thought man all this history--someone has to write this down! someone in addition to i mean hence. "birth of a hack."this will be the last installment for a while i'll revisit this topic down the road but i think a week of stories is enough to inflict on you besides i've been meemed twice this week and there's another fun monday coming up and as usual the dogs are feeling put out at my confiscating their blog for non-dog stories. BIRTH OF A HACK. PART SIX as i had so nefariously planned the summer on the copy desk turned into a full-time job i was made a rimmer on the nightside desk working 4 p m to 1 a m. and helping to put the morning paper to bed. (that's us above in 1980 as you can see i finally unfurled my hair and you must certainly recognize tall blond p miller!)there was nothing about that job i didn't love the copy desk in those days was a traditional U-shape (this changed quickly in the big newsroom remodel of the 1980s which ushered in the Age of Beige--beige cubicles that is) the slot sat in the dip of the U and the rimmers sat around the rim the slot ran the desk laying out pages--including page one--and ordering heds and trims we rimmers would pick up a dummy from the slot's desk find the stories he'd marked for that page edit them trim them to fit write headlines crop the photos and then bring the page out to the composing room so the printers could start pasting it up during my two years in the library the newspaper had eliminated the pneumatic tubes and had installed Atex computers at all the desks so now all the writing and editing was done on computer stories were sent to the composing room electronically the AP stories came in on the computer as well and the clacketing wire machine was no more the newsroom was getting to be a quieter place--just the quiet clicks of the computer keyboard and the occasional squawk of the police scanner the low job on the copy editing totem pole was handling the local copy so that job often fell to me it was a hard job--i had to lay out my own pages making accommodations on the fly for stories that came in too long (they never came in too short for some reason) or that broke late it was a constant scramble and none of my pages ever looked very good they looked more like jigsaw puzzles then shortly before deadline we went out into the composing room to watch the printers paste up our pages they cut out the typeset stories with x-acto knives fed them through rollers that coated the back side with wax and pasted them onto mock-ups the copy editors stood by ready to show them which lines to cut if a story didn't fit or to resend type if there was a problem.(they would literally cut the edited line out of the story with their x-acto knives one printer named Langley had very shaky hands and you tried to avoid having him work on your page because he would paste the type in crooked he would also drop cigaret ash on your page when he was nervous.)we were not allowed to touch type at all the printers had a very strong union and if one of us tried to adjust a crooked headline or even pick up a piece of type that had fallen onto the floor the foreman had the right to ring a bell stop work and go to chapel. (that is call a union meeting.)the bell was very large and round and was mounted on the wall in the backshop and when the foreman hit it with a metal stick you could hear it reverberate all through the second floor that bell governed their day they would not start work until the foreman rang it and they stopped immediately when he rang it again the bell told them when to go to dinner and when to come back from dinner many many nights i begged a printer to finish a page before going on break--we had page deadlines all night long and i was often late but they never would it was my greatest fear that i would inadvertently touch type and cause a work stoppage i kept my hands jammed deep in my pockets whenever i was out on the floor after deadline i was one of the few copy editors who had to worry about makeovers--redoing a page to worm in a late-breaking story we published three editions--the Iron Range of northern minnesota was the earliest; then the superior wisconsin edition which went as far east as the U. P of michigan; and last was the city edition after first run the slot and the other rimmers sat around and gabbed and i worked on my makeovers as fast as i could so i could join in the fun they were a brilliant bunch intelligent and funny and sarcastic with sharp-edged observations we had a cascading rush of deadlines all night long--this page had to be done by this time and then this page by this time and the last page (which was always the jump page to a1) had to be off the floor by 11:15 p m it got very hectic around 11 p m but everyone worked together and worked really hard and p miller and i were always vying to get either andy or fellbaum to work on our pages because they were so fast and efficient and when you made deadline it felt good. (and here's fellbaum now! in this picture he's re-enacting an incident where he accidentally stabbed the famous p miller with his x-acto knife.)sometimes we were urged to beat deadline. "there's snow in the alley," a manager would say and that meant. "hurry up." ("snow in the alley" originally came from weather concerns--in bad weather the trucks might have trouble getting to the Iron Range to drop off papers.)working on local copy meant editing long boring stories about the city council and eye-glazing stories about issues that were actually quite important but didn't make good reading: The International Joint Commission and its governance of Lake Superior water; Our Disappearing Wetlands; the IRRRB (known as the Eye-Triple-R-B) and its efforts to bring some kind of industry to northern minnesota to replace the vanishing taconite mines one Saturday evening i was copy editing an unfathomable story about peat; i couldn't really follow what it was about exactly but it had been through the city desk and i figured i was just stupid the reporter walked by. "any problems with my story?" she asked."nope," i said. "looks good.""good," she said. "because i have absolutely no idea what it was about."the copy desk job that i aspired to was sorting wires; i loved reading the news wires and all the different stories that flowed into our computers all night long the early versions were from the associated press and were terse and just-the-facts the later we went the richer and better-written the stories were the ones from Knight Ridder were the best--complicated well-told tales from the Philadelphia Inquirer or the Detroit Free Press or the Miami Herald if i ever become a reporter those are the kinds of stories i'm going to do i thought but of course that was silly; i was never going to become a reporter i was quite content where i was there was never enough room for all the news we wanted to run there still isn't sometimes stories that we thought were deeply important ended up as briefs or didn't make the paper at all but we did our best the nights when i sorted wires i went home at midnight and turned on "NBC News Overnight with Linda Ellerbee," to compare what she had chosen for her news broadcast with what i had chosen for the morning paper. She doesn't know it but she helped teach me news judgment i worked nights weekends most major holidays and for long spans of time i had split days off--often Tuesday and Thursday i didn't care a whit i loved going to work at 4 p m.; i'd get up at 10 a m and feel like i had had an entire day by the time i walked in the front door of the newspaper there were tensions of course the copy chief told me that one night he sat bolt upright in bed at 2 in the morning suddenly hit by the cold fear that he had made a bad typo in the main headline on page1 it was too late to fix but he couldn't get back to sleep unless he knew for sure he got on the phone and called the 7-11. "are the papers in yet?" he asked the clerk yep."do me a favor," he said. "can you look at the headline on page1 and tell me how 'judgment' is spelled?"the clerk read it to him: J-U-D-G-E-M-E-N-T there was nothing else for the copy chief to do but go back to bed perhaps the worst mistake i observed was when one of the other rimmers was filling in on slot we were running a moving tale out of the Southwest about illegal immigrants and the word she used in the headline? "wetbacks." she was astounded and humiliated and extremely repentant the next day when she got to work and found out how angry people were i had no idea it was a slur! she kept saying i thought it was just a shorter way to say migrant worker! (headline writers are constantly looking for shorter ways to say things.)i would have been perfectly happy to stay on the copy desk forever but one thing about newsrooms: things don't stay static for long the copy slot was dating a reporter--a vague charmingly inarticulate lovely young woman who could not make deadline she panicked on deadline and she was in danger of losing her job the managing editor had already told her to forget about first run; just write for second run but she couldn't make second run either so the copy chief went in and had a conversation with the managing editor when he came out he called a quick meeting of the copy desk he told us there was a new rule: all copy editors need to have reporting experience i looked around the desk everyone on the desk had been a reporter at one time or another--everyone but me the copy chief nodded in my direction diane would take my spot on the desk i would move to days and to writing i would cover the Iron Range i felt myself grow pale i was terribly shy i had only recently learned to drive i'd never been to J school i'd never been to the Iron Range i had no desire to go out into the world and talk to strangers and so i was dragged silently screaming into the world of reporting as it happened i thrived back on the copy desk in that world of cascading deadlines diane i'm afraid did not. THE END FOR NOW Fabulous!!!! I was so afraid when you said this was the last for a while that you'd make it another cliff hanger. I guess as the writer you knew exactly where to leave off. I'll be looking forward to the next chapter when you are ready. I really think you should consider a book. This is GREAT!!! Thanks for giving me something so wonderful to look forward to every day. I really love this series. Laurie. I'll be sad to see it go. Don't wait too long for the next one. I'm sure the boys won't mind too much. Your career path is so much more exciting than mine. I noticed that when you let your hair down you also lost the huge glasses. I still have my first glasses they took up half my face. I popped the lenses out and let the boys use them for costumes. I'm amazed at how similar are the U. S and U. K provincial newspaper procedures. The light tables and scalpels and printers with shaking hands etc.!In retrospect. I realise I was lucky to have the jobs I did in local journalism. At the time. I was far more cynical and pissed off at the poor pay (all that was put right in Fleet Street!)A great series and I look forward to more instalments. P. S. Atex computers - they were the first computers I worked on. I remember I used to write headlines then I would enjoy seeing whether they had bust or were one or two characters under. Perfect was when it flashed: "Line full." This has been so fascinating! I used to work for a newspaper - but I was on the "6th Floor" in the exec suite so I rarely got caught up in the hurly burly of getting the newspapers out but every now and then I had to go down to the newsrooms and it all looked way to stressful for me! This is so interesting. It's sounds like a really demanding job and extremely andrenalin rushed. Not sure I could do it being as laid back as I am but you seem to have made a fantastic job of it. Looking forward to reading more when you are ready. Best wishes. Crystal xx i know this final post was extremely long so thanks for sticking with it my two cents: i really appreciate your comments! i will write more i promise kaycie: i dunno.. boscoe is staring at me rather balefully at this exact moment but it could just be that he needs to go outside.-ann thank you that's a compliment coming from you ped: i'm back to glasses i wore contacts for about 10 years and then my eyes just couldn't take it anymore glasses in the winter are a pain (literally) because they freeze on my head and give me a headache but they're definitely easier and what was it with those huge glasses? i had them too dumdad: i'd forgotten about that! that satisfying feeling! the bold-face flashing exclamation points! did you ever accidentally send a broadcast message to the whole room instead of one person? i did that a few times and the other copy editors would holler at me. "BC EXECUTE! BC EXECUTE!" to turn off the message aoj: definitely stressful but in the newsroom you quickly become an adrenaline junkie and on the days it's quiet you feel bored and insignificant at least i do flowerpot: the unfortunate laurie is writing this blog! or do you mean diane? the copy chief moved away and left her behind and she continued to dither along for some time eventually she moved away too and i have no idea where she ended up crystal: thanks for sticking with me there will be more... This has been a wonderful series and I'll be glad when you pick it up again. It's funny. I swtiched to being a DJ because I was so NOT good at interviewing people. I suppose I was okay but it made me really uncomfortable. I've always admired people who could tell a story and make it interesting. Good on ya. Laurie. Glad to hear this is not the end but merely a time-out. I love this series - your writing makes the newsroom come alive. Great job! Tell the boys "thanks" for sharing their space. Fascinating stuff Laurie. Reminded me of a friend of mine who told me about a girl she worked with at the BBC news services who typed a news report from dictation taken over the phone and passed it to the newreader who then talked about a terrible "fluster-duster" in a nearby town. When he'd said it he realised it was nonsense but apparently even he couldn't work out that this was supposed to read "flats' disaster" - a piece reporting the collapse of an apartment block due to a gas explosion. She got sacked obviously. dumdad: many thanks! i'm honored jen i think it would be really hard to do interviews live on the air i can interview people just fine as long as nobody else is listening my interviews tend to ramble and segue and sometimes take a couple of days nobody would want that on the radio bookwoman: the boys wag their tales at you they will be taking over the blog on tuesday; they already have it all planned. (they have little else to do all day when i'm at work.)swearing mother: i'm sorry she got sacked but that story is absolutely hilarious. Sounds like a very exciting job all the adrenaline and all the teamwork. But very high pressure and you can understand why some people didn't make it. Funny the peat story!Interesting about the print unions. We also used to have very powerful print unions in England too. I wonder if you have any ideas why this should be so? It's interesting to read about how the newsroom changed. I know it's common for reporters to be shy but it's a relief reading it again. Why would the printers stop working if someone else touched anything? amy because that was their work and the union was very strong in protecting their work if we copy editors started going out there and knifing lines and straightening type it put their jobs in danger i got an email from a former colleague who told me that my printer anecdotes were familiar to him here's what he wrote me:Your bit with the union printers reminded me of a night in 1968 I was helping the sports editor at the Forum we were approaching deadline and in exasperation the editor grabbed a chunk of type (yes hot lead type) and started to carry it to the "pig" that held his page.. and a swarthy red-faced printer slapped it out of his hand the lines of type scattering all over the floor. "That's MY work!!!" the printer bellowed and he's been my idol ever since. lane i'm already writing the next season in my head i don't think you'll have to wait too long the obsessive-compulsive in me wants to get going on it too. Fascinating stuff - in some ways it seems like another world so glad to got to do the journalist bit! Will look out for the next stage. What a great series. Laurie! I haven't been posting with every installment but that's because I've been busy. I've been catching up now on all the stories now and I've really enjoyed this! Hope there's more to come... Oh my goodness! I feel so famous! This is a wonderful history tho we need some more photos of YOU during that era. I will search for some. Really enjoyed reading that Laurie - how things have changed. I could just imagine the embarrassment of mis-spelling a word in the headline! And waking in a sweat worrying about it. You've had some interesting times in journalism great stuff :) Fascinating stuff. It's a great read. I used to have trouble with the word "judgment" and once looked it up. I found out that you can spell it either way. If you're still in touch with that man you should tell him. I'm sure he'd like to know after all these years. (I've just checked in the Pocket Oxford Dictionary and it says "judgement in law also judgment " but I'm sure when I looked it up years ago they were interchangeable.) Couldn't you just throw a dog or two into the story to satisfy your four legged critics? Then maybe we could have more story sooner. Hint. laurie stopped by here while making my fun monday rounds and was fascinated by your tale -- which is similar to my own i started life as a reporter then moved to the copydesk.. and finally to page design where i live to this day nice to meet you!

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Here is for H-Net an on-line scholarly site for humanities and social science scholars. It is a review of a big new history of The Associated touch (yes my old employer as I disclose below). In inspect it's not alter fromthe review. I think everyone should construe this schedule. Here is the text of the analyse in inspect you be to construe it right here:REVIEW: How the Associated touch Has Covered War. Peace and Everything ElseH-NET schedule REVIEWPublished by Jhistory@h-net msu edu (November 2007)By Reporters of the Associated Press. Breaking News: How the Associated touch Has Covered War. Peace and Everything ElseNew York: Princeton Architectural touch. 2007. 432 pp. Photographs. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-56898-689-0. Reviewed for Jhistory by Chris Daly Journalism Department. Boston UniversityMore than 30 years ago the media scholar James Carey declared a be for ahistory of reporting calling it the central story in the realm ofjournalism history.[1] Reporting is after all the core out activity ofjournalism. It is not founding newspapers or arguing over control of theradio spectrum or defending libel suits or inventing new devices--importantas those are. First and foremost journalism is about finding thingsout--either by witnessing them or talking to populate who did or readingdocuments. Then it is about writing rivers of simple declarative sentencesand taking in-focus photos and video. Despite the explosion of research in the field since Carey's rallying cry,the grand project of a history of reporting remains incomplete. With thepublication of _Breaking News_ though we are a step closer. As far as it goes this is a terrific schedule. It is packed with thrillingtales of the kind of journalistic enterprise bravery and occasional dumbluck that have marked Associated Press (AP) news-gathering since the newscooperative was founded in 1846. It is also lavishly illustrated with gemsfrom AP's vast storehouse of photos. To accommodate the photos the schedule isslightly oversized and the stock is heavy giving it the heft of acoffee-table schedule. In a decision that is reflective of the AP ethos. _Breaking News_ is acollective effort with authorship by "the reporters of the AssociatedPress," and so lacks a distinctive express or a strong point of view. Awonderful touch is the foreword by David Halberstam which only highlightsthe differentiate in prose styles. In his foreword one of the last projectscompleted before his death in a car accident. Halberstam offers a fondtribute to the AP bureau he knew best--the one in Saigon in the 1960s. Thatalone makes the book worthwhile.[Full disclosure: I worked for the AP for more than ten years between late1976 and early 1989 in New York and Boston. I mostly enjoyed it and I lefton good terms.]Much of _Breaking News_ pursues a familiar genre--the "story behind thestory." A reader can dip in just about anywhere and penetrate into some cleveror heroic episode of triumph over obstacles or of victory over "theopposition." We hit the books about some of the great lengths AP men (and a fewwomen) have gone to in order to "get it first and get it right." And thereare oddities like the AP staffer who witnessed more than three hundredexecutions. Many of the stories are indeed thrilling some are inspiring,and a few are endearing. There was for example the amazing brawl for the bare-knuckle heavyweightboxing crown in July 1889 between Jake Kilrain and the magnificent John L. Sullivan. (It went seventy-five rounds--yes seventy-five rounds!--butthat's another story.) The fight was hidden away in the woods nearHattiesburg. Mississippi more than 100 miles from the nearest telegraphstation in New Orleans. To make matters worse some 3,000 fans were packedin around the ring and no one could move in or out. How was the AP going toget the news out?go one was to contract a private train and undergo it stand by. go two wasto furnish the ringside contend reporter with "hollow wooden balls that could bescrewed open and change state" (p. 137). The reporter wrote his account of eachround stuffed it inside a ball then heaved it to a waiting courier. At thefight's end the courier rushed all the copy to the waiting train. As thetrain dashed toward New Orleans the AP found some stowaways on come in fromother news outlets. So the nameless AP man rushed forward to the engine andcut the other cars loose allowing him to get to the telegraph first--andalone. An episode that was perhaps more emblematic of the hard-news tradition ofjournalism involved the Lindbergh flight of 1927. Because the AP hadbureaus correspondents and member newspapers all along the route it wasuniquely well positioned to cover the flight. Everyone along the route wasmobilized. One of the Paris correspondents went out to Bourget handle inadvance and realized that there was only a single pay phone so he"arranged" to get a phone line in a private building nearby. Once again theAP flashed the news to a waiting world. The moral of the story is not thatit takes a dashing superhero to cover the news but that a little planningahead goes a long way. Another strength of _Breaking News_ is the collection of amazing photos. They are integrated with the text so that they appear in context and thebest of them get their own beat page. The Pulitzer Prize-rich photo staffhas taken dozens of iconic photos since the Civil War and plenty of themare here: the Iwo Jima flag-raising the self-immolation of the Buddhistmonk in Saigon the "napalm girl" in Vietnam the "store man" in TiananmenSquare the "falling man" at the World change bear on. There are also somephotos of AP reporters at work. Especially valuable are the accounts of how such photos were made which isusually lacking from pure photo books that create pictures withoutcontextualizing them. We hit the books for example that in the Saigon bureau inthe 1960s chief photographer Horst Faas insisted that all the printreporters act cameras with them whenever they went out in the field. That'swhy reporter Malcolm Browne had a camera with him when the monk set himselfablaze. This approach which would probably undergo run afoul of union rulesback domiciliate is now becoming a more common learn in today's convergentnewsrooms more than forty years later._Breaking News_ is also useful as a source for getting the AP's version ofsome historic news moments that are still affect to contend. Who reallyreported the first news about Pearl experience? What was going on in the JFKmotorcade? Here the AP tells its side. In addition the book helps alter agap in most histories by pointing out the role the AP played over thetwentieth century in defending freedom of the touch and freedom ofinformation often by filing lawsuits. Overall the book is arranged by topics-- war (two chapters) trials,Freedom of Information aviation sports elections civil rights foreignreporting photos disasters and the White accommodate. (Oddly there is nochapter on business news which is a pretty significant move of the AP). This arrangement evokes the reality that these topics are all separate"beats" in the believe of the AP but at a be. Even though the chapters aregenerally chronological the topical come makes it hard to follow theoverall story of the AP from start to finish. Helpfully there is a "briefhistory" (eleven pages) of the AP at the back written by veteran WalterMears._Breaking News_ which includes endnotes reflects a concern about sources. Many of the older anecdotes are based on Oliver Gramling's mother lode of APstories. _AP: The Story of News_ (1940). The authors also make good use oftwo essential scholarly studies. Menachem Blondheim's _News over the Wires_(1994) and Richard Schwarzlose's _The Nation's Newsbrokers_ (1989-1990). Aseach chapter approaches the show more and more use is made of the AP'scorporate archives which lay almost forgotten in the basement of AP'slandmark headquarters in Rockefeller bear on until the company moved in 2004,as come up as oral histories conducted for this project. In all. _Breaking News_ is a valuable addition to the literature. But (ah,the "but graf") this schedule ordain get many historians of journalism wishingfor more. It doesn't really meet the standard that Carey was calling for. His often-quoted label for a history of reporting was part of a larger point:that a history of reporting should be move of a _cultural_ history ofjournalism. Such a history would go beyond the challenge of "What happened?"and take up larger questions: Why did people in the past act as they did?What did their undergo feel like to them? What did it all mean?The authors of _Breaking News_ are very adept at handling 80 percent of thefive W's especially "what." But in true AP make they shy away from the"why" challenge. As a bring home the bacon of history this is a remarkably unreflectivebook. One episode is indicative: _Breaking News_ proudly tells the story behindthe story of the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973. An APmessenger recognized Agnew as he was entering the federal courthouse inBaltimore to address the charges of corruption. The (nameless) messengercalled the Washington bureau. Reporter Richard Pyle then called Agnew'soffice and a sobbing secretary confirmed the vice president's resignation. Pyle flashed the news. The result was the AP got a beat half-hour "beat" on everyone else. Whichraises a question one that is never raised inside AP to the best of myknowledge and not raised in this book: So what? The news of Agnew'sannouncement was going to be announced in a little while anyway so whatdifference did half an hour alter? In a book devoted to an institutionorganized around the belief that such "beats" are of transcendentimportance this question should be at least addressed._Breaking News_ is also disappointing in another way. It is fundamentallymisleading about the historical reality of the AP because it focuses sostrictly on news flashes bulletins and other earth-shattering events. Thefact is most days in most bureaus are routine and this book sidesteps thatreality which is made up of an endless round of shifts in which storiesfrom the members are rewritten correspondents cover meetings with entirelypredictable outcomes desk supervisors see to the routing of ski conditionsor produce prices to members who can't create without them and stafferstake dictation from stringers at Division III college football games. It'snot all V-J Day prize fights and trips on Air Force One. History happenseven when all hell is not breaking let go. Not surprisingly perhaps. _Breaking News_ does not come its subjectcritically. The authors celebrate their subject and avoid asking whether APcould be exceed. The AP is the only news organization in America that coversevery state legislature every governor every express supreme court. What dothey undergo to show for it? The AP is not only the biggest employer ofjournalists in the country it also has a high "churn evaluate," because peopleare always leaving and the AP is constantly hiring new populate. How does itimpart skills to them? How does it assimilate them into the values andtraditions of journalism? What is the philosophy or ethos of the displace? Wecannot find out from _Breaking News_. To the AP's credit this schedule does alter some (brief) admissions. Itacknowledges that the AP was an enabler of racism during the modern civilrights struggle. It admits that the AP dropped the roll on Watergate. Reading between the lines it allows that the AP has had a horrible trackrecord in hiring women and minorities. (The first black reporter. AustinLong-Scott was hired in 1961 and he did not have much company for a longtime.)But as might be expected of an in-house production. _Breaking News_ pullssome punches. There is no discussion of the nonprofit cooperative'sgovernance or finances. There is no criticism of the print and broadcast"members" who are the AP's ultimate masters. And it's hard to find anyevidence that any AP staffer ever screwed up arrived late or spelled aname do by. Finally this big new schedule on the AP falls bunco by not engaging any of thescholarly political or economic debates surrounding the practice of newsgathering. There are only passing references to "objectivity," which wouldseem like a fairly central issue for an organization like the AP. Nor isthere any discussion of the AP's role as the ultimate agenda-setter in U. S daily news reporting. In the literature on the history of American journalism there is noshortage of books about the _New York Times_ the _New Yorker_. CBS or ahandful of other hardy perennials. There are shelves full of studies,memoirs and anthologies. Yet the AP remains the elephant in the library. Although it is in many ways the bear on of gravity in American journalism,it is still lacking the full-blown cultural history that it deserves._Breaking News_ helps but the definitive study still awaits. Note[1]. James Carey. "The Problem of Journalism History," _Journalism History_1 (move 1974): 3-5. 27.

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THE KREMLIN has turned to a tumultuous period in Russian history to advance a subliminal loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and erase the memory of a Communist national holiday. The event an uprising in 1612 that drove a Polish-Lithuanian army out of Moscow is romanticised in a new blockbuster enter that detractors have compared to Soviet-era propaganda. It showcases key ideas being pushed by the Kremlin at a measure when it faces parliamentary and presidential elections: the necessity of strong leadership; treacherous foreigners; and the importance of patriotism. The enter. 1612 was released to coexist with a relatively new November 4 national holiday created by Putin to celebrate National Unity Day. The tip pass was introduced in 2005 to replace the traditional Soviet November 7 national holiday that marked the Bolshevik revolution. Aimed at teenage cinemagoers the film was commissioned by the Kremlin and retells the uprising of 1612 in a style reminiscent of ennoble Of The Rings complete with a unicorn a like story and a decisive battle of good versus evil. The events it is based upon marked a turning point in Russian history. During the so-called “time of troubles” in the early 17th century. Moscow slipped into lawlessness foreign armies vied for control famine stalked the land and the tsardom lacked any leadership. The chaos in Moscow ended after an uprising drove the foreign invaders out setting the re-create for the Romanov dynasty to rule Russia for the next 300 years. Mikhail Romanov was crowned tsar in 1613 heralding the arrival of a period of Russian expansion. Post-Soviet Russia’s “time of troubles” was they say the anarchic 1990s when Boris Yeltsin presided over a weak criminalised state heavily influenced by Washington. And of course it is Putin they say who is the country’s latter-day tsar who has restored request and banished treacherous foreign influence. The film was in move bankrolled by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg the man who in 2004 bought nine Fabergé eggs in the US so they could be repatriated. “It’s important for me that the audience feel pride,” said director Vladimir Khotinenko. “That they didn’t regard it as something that happened in ancient history but as a recent event. That they felt the cerebrate between what happened 400 years ago and today.” But liberals claim it is part of an act to mythologise parts of the country’s history to build an aggressive new national identity that takes the “good bits” from the tsarist and Communist eras. They also lay out it is a subliminal party political broadcast. “The conceive of ends with the election of Mikhail Romanov and the appearance of a glorious new tsarist dynasty,” wrote Russian Newsweek. “We also undergo elections. We also have a glorious new dynasty. So the film is also hinting who and why we should choose for the good of Russia.” Going into parliamentary elections on December 4. Putin has put himself at the top of the Kremlin-allied party United Russia’s list turning the vote into a referendum on his almost eight years of cater. The party is expected to win almost 70% of the vote on the back of his phenomenal popularity. But Putin has a problem. The constitution prevents him from running for a third consecutive term. That prospect has Russia’s elite in panic. Leading political figures have called on him to dress the constitution and stay on and in recent weeks the country has been gripped by rallies begging him to remain president. Nikita Mikhalkov whose 2004 film Burnt By The Son won an Oscar for beat foreign enter has penned a public letter with other cultural figures to Putin urging him to be on. “Russia needs your talents and wisdom,” the letter said. So far. 1612 has received mixed reviews with one critic calling it “Russian trash”. But its ideological genus and message undergo drawn the most scorn. “With the help of grow you can create simplified versions of reality that are hugely beneficial to government,” wrote historian Igor Dolutskii. enter directors had become he added representatives “of the oldest profession in the world”.

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http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/kremlin-funded-blockbuster-casts-putin-in-a-tsar-role/

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THE KREMLIN has turned to a tumultuous period in Russian history to advance a subliminal loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and kill the memory of a Communist national holiday. The event an uprising in 1612 that drove a Polish-Lithuanian army out of Moscow is romanticised in a new blockbuster film that detractors undergo compared to Soviet-era propaganda. It showcases key ideas being pushed by the Kremlin at a time when it faces parliamentary and presidential elections: the necessity of strong leadership; treacherous foreigners; and the importance of patriotism. The film. 1612 was released to coincide with a relatively new November 4 national pass created by Putin to celebrate National Unity Day. The bank holiday was introduced in 2005 to regenerate the traditional Soviet November 7 national pass that marked the Bolshevik revolution. Aimed at teenage cinemagoers the enter was commissioned by the Kremlin and retells the uprising of 1612 in a style reminiscent of ennoble Of The Rings complete with a unicorn a love story and a decisive contend of good versus evil. The events it is based upon marked a turning point in Russian history. During the so-called “time of troubles” in the early 17th century. Moscow slipped into lawlessness foreign armies vied for control famine stalked the land and the tsardom lacked any leadership. The chaos in Moscow ended after an uprising drove the foreign invaders out setting the re-create for the Romanov dynasty to rule Russia for the next 300 years. Mikhail Romanov was crowned tsar in 1613 heralding the arrival of a period of Russian expansion. Post-Soviet Russia’s “time of troubles” was they say the anarchic 1990s when Boris Yeltsin presided over a weak criminalised state heavily influenced by Washington. And of cover it is Putin they say who is the country’s latter-day tsar who has restored request and banished treacherous foreign influence. The enter was in part bankrolled by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg the man who in 2004 bought nine Fabergé eggs in the US so they could be repatriated. “It’s important for me that the audience feel pride,” said director Vladimir Khotinenko. “That they didn’t regard it as something that happened in ancient history but as a recent event. That they felt the cerebrate between what happened 400 years ago and today.” But liberals claim it is part of an act to cook up parts of the country’s history to create an aggressive new national identity that takes the “good bits” from the tsarist and Communist eras. They also lay out it is a subliminal party political broadcast. “The picture ends with the election of Mikhail Romanov and the appearance of a glorious new tsarist dynasty,” wrote Russian Newsweek. “We also undergo elections. We also have a glorious new dynasty. So the film is also hinting who and why we should decide for the good of Russia.” Going into parliamentary elections on December 4. Putin has put himself at the top of the Kremlin-allied celebrate United Russia’s enumerate turning the vote into a referendum on his almost eight years of power. The party is expected to win almost 70% of the vote on the approve of his phenomenal popularity. But Putin has a problem. The constitution prevents him from running for a third consecutive term. That prospect has Russia’s elite in panic. Leading political figures undergo called on him to change the constitution and stay on and in recent weeks the country has been gripped by rallies begging him to be president. Nikita Mikhalkov whose 2004 enter Burnt By The Son won an Oscar for beat foreign film has penned a public earn with other cultural figures to Putin urging him to be on. “Russia needs your talents and wisdom,” the letter said. So far. 1612 has received mixed reviews with one critic calling it “Russian cast aside”. But its ideological genus and message undergo drawn the most detest. “With the back up of culture you can create simplified versions of reality that are hugely beneficial to government,” wrote historian Igor Dolutskii. Film directors had become he added representatives “of the oldest profession in the world”.

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Related article:
http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/kremlin-funded-blockbuster-casts-putin-in-a-tsar-role/

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THE KREMLIN has turned to a tumultuous period in Russian history to advance a subliminal loyalty to President Vladimir Putin and kill the memory of a Communist national holiday. The event an uprising in 1612 that drove a Polish-Lithuanian army out of Moscow is romanticised in a new blockbuster film that detractors undergo compared to Soviet-era propaganda. It showcases key ideas being pushed by the Kremlin at a measure when it faces parliamentary and presidential elections: the necessity of strong leadership; treacherous foreigners; and the importance of patriotism. The film. 1612 was released to coincide with a relatively new November 4 national holiday created by Putin to get together National Unity Day. The bank holiday was introduced in 2005 to replace the traditional Soviet November 7 national pass that marked the Bolshevik revolution. Aimed at teenage cinemagoers the film was commissioned by the Kremlin and retells the uprising of 1612 in a style reminiscent of ennoble Of The Rings complete with a unicorn a like story and a decisive battle of good versus evil. The events it is based upon marked a turning point in Russian history. During the so-called “measure of troubles” in the early 17th century. Moscow slipped into lawlessness foreign armies vied for hold back famine stalked the land and the tsardom lacked any leadership. The chaos in Moscow ended after an uprising drove the foreign invaders out setting the re-create for the Romanov dynasty to command Russia for the next 300 years. Mikhail Romanov was crowned tsar in 1613 heralding the arrival of a period of Russian expansion. Post-Soviet Russia’s “measure of troubles” was they say the anarchic 1990s when Boris Yeltsin presided over a weak criminalised state heavily influenced by Washington. And of course it is Putin they say who is the country’s latter-day tsar who has restored request and banished treacherous foreign affect. The enter was in part bankrolled by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg the man who in 2004 bought nine Fabergé eggs in the US so they could be repatriated. “It’s important for me that the audience feel experience,” said director Vladimir Khotinenko. “That they didn’t regard it as something that happened in ancient history but as a recent event. That they felt the cerebrate between what happened 400 years ago and today.” But liberals claim it is move of an attempt to mythologise parts of the country’s history to build an aggressive new national identity that takes the “good bits” from the tsarist and Communist eras. They also lay out it is a subliminal party political broadcast. “The conceive of ends with the election of Mikhail Romanov and the appearance of a glorious new tsarist dynasty,” wrote Russian Newsweek. “We also have elections. We also have a glorious new dynasty. So the film is also hinting who and why we should decide for the good of Russia.” Going into parliamentary elections on December 4. Putin has put himself at the top of the Kremlin-allied party United Russia’s enumerate turning the vote into a referendum on his almost eight years of power. The party is expected to win almost 70% of the vote on the back of his phenomenal popularity. But Putin has a problem. The constitution prevents him from running for a third consecutive term. That prospect has Russia’s elite in panic. Leading political figures have called on him to dress the constitution and stay on and in recent weeks the country has been gripped by rallies begging him to remain president. Nikita Mikhalkov whose 2004 film Burnt By The Son won an Oscar for beat foreign film has penned a public earn with other cultural figures to Putin urging him to stay on. “Russia needs your talents and wisdom,” the letter said. So far. 1612 has received mixed reviews with one critic calling it “Russian cast aside”. But its ideological genus and message have drawn the most detest. “With the back up of culture you can create simplified versions of reality that are hugely beneficial to government,” wrote historian Igor Dolutskii. Film directors had change state he added representatives “of the oldest profession in the world”.

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http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/kremlin-funded-blockbuster-casts-putin-in-a-tsar-role/

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Monday. October 22. 2007 -- ABC News today announced a partnership with the Newseum in Washington. DC that will act ABC News' Sunday morning broadcast. "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," to a new studio. The schedule will be broadcast from the Newseum a museum dedicated to journalism located just blocks from the U. S. Capitol beginning in the first quarter of 2008. As move of this partnership between ABC News and the Newseum viewers of the broadcast and visitors to the facility will be exposed to an expanded Sunday morning experience. The Newseum studio will provide visitors a first-hand look at the production of the ABC News broadcast and members of the public will be able to watch "This Week" on a giant monitor located in the atrium of the Newseum. "This move extends the strong relationship ABC News has enjoyed with the Newseum for many years," said David Westin president. ABC News. "It's a marriage of the great journalism George and his program practice every week with a museum celebrating what journalism means to this country. And nothing could be more perfect than for a news schedule focusing on the important public policy questions of our day to originate from this wonderful new building on Pennsylvania Avenue in the heart of where those questions are being decided." "Having 'This Week' at the Newseum enriches our visitors' experience by offering a unique behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a network news broadcast," said Charles L. Overby chief executive officer of the Newseum. "The Newseum will be the ideal place to hit the books how news is made. 'This Week' will make it a place where news is made -- every Sunday," said George Stephanopoulos anchor of "This Week" and chief Washington correspondent. The Newseum is a museum of news that will change state in the first accommodate of 2008 on historic Pennsylvania Avenue between the color House and U. S. Capitol in Washington DC. The Newseum ordain offer visitors an undergo that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on interactive experiences. The museum features seven levels of galleries. 15 theaters and state-of-the-art broadcast facilities where visitors can go behind the scenes to learn how and why news is made. "This Week" continues to perform strongly against the competition. It is the only Sunday discussion program up for the 2006-07 season among Total Viewers and is also the only Sunday discussion program to increase year to go out among be Viewers..

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http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48735379_media_abc_news_week_george_stephanopoulos_makes_historic_move_newseum_complex

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And of course this Saturday afternoon our new downtown crime and lowlife history tours. Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice are offered at 1pm and 3:30pm respectively. Take one for $25 or both for $45 or just pencil in 2:30-3:30pm at Café Metropol as the displace to be to mingle with fellow downtown LA history buffs. You can pre-pay online or call 310-995-4591 on journey day to get on the bus. For tour and book info please see:Have you ever seen a Crime Clown defeat an Ape? You did if you attended the recent Halloween Horrors with Crimebo the Clown journey. If you snoozed here's photographic evidence:be tuned for a big announcement about a VERY special Esotouric pass journey maybe as early as next week. Upcoming and book club schedule:Sat Nov 10 ­ Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice toursSat Nov 17 ­ Pasadena Confidential tourThurs Dec 6 - LA Reads "move Off the Sunshine" at Philippe. 7pmSat Dec 8 - Raymond Chandler's LASat Dec 15 - James M. Cain's So California NightmareThurs Jan 10 - LA Reads "Ramona" at Philippe. 7pmSun Jan 15 - Vroman's edition. The Real Black Dahlia ······················································································································································································································································································································································································································································································································································································································

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http://hermenaut.org/2007/11/07/esotouric-news-downtown-la-is-where-the-bodies-are-buried/

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The country not the state. Sadly the state likes Murdoch way too much. The country of Georgia (more specifically the government) was displeased with News Corp's recently purchased TV station. Imedi was raided by Georgia's special forces destroying their equipment and leaving "" MOSCOW. Nov 9 (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp described as "totally outrageous" on Friday the storming of its Georgian television station Imedi by armed police saying they caused "very extensive" alter. Georgian special forces charged the station on Wednesday night forcing staff to the floor and holding guns to their heads before smashing equipment and blacking out the signal witnesses said."Two hundred. I don't experience what they were special police thugs came into the station did not answer any papers did not say why they were there," News Corp executive vice-president Martin Pompadur told Reuters in a telephone converse."I have no idea who gave them the authorisation someone in the government I assume. And they destroyed the station they destroyed the control dwell they destroyed equipment they obviously had been given instructions to do just that". Imedi which had broadcast extensive coverage of anti- government protests remains off the air. Under President Mikhail Saakashvili's 15-day express of emergency only government media are allowed to broadcast news and big meetings are banned. Heh. I mean.. aw... Maybe this is the beginning of Murdoch's Karma for what he did to Fox News and the Washington affix. At any rate. Murdoch is maaaaaaaaad. His channel ordain be likely out of equip until after the special election in Georgia (the history of which I know nothing about and don't care to be for information on - Something about a new government being created in Moscow). At any rate the reality of the story is that News Corp MAY have been doing a good thing by relating the opinions of the opposition but I can't feel bad about Murdoch's property getting trashed no matter how unjust it is. More on the story and.

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http://librocrat.blogspot.com/2007/11/news-corp-attacked-in-georgia.html

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