Enough Now: On Bulls and Bullshit Two attached links brought to mind that old Kingston Trio send-up of “The Streets of Laredo.” “I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy, “I can see by your outfit that you’re a cowboy, too. “You can see by our outfits that we are both cowboys, “Get yourself an outfit and be a cowboy, too.” Not a bad metaphor, the difference between bull riding and bullshit. Two attached links make clear why it is now so important that we understand what real reporting takes – and has always taken. The first is a noble endeavor called Connecting, which Paul Stevens curates for retired Associated Press people. Note the first item. In 1944, Joe Morton told the Rome bureau chief he was headed out after the greatest story of his life. He did not get to tell it: the Nazis executed him. Morton’s widow wrote Kent Cooper, AP’s modestly paid general manager (way before CEO days), I cannot end this letter without writing of Joes deep love for The Associated Press. Its name was synonymous with the best reporting and it was always with pride that Joe said, I am with The Associated Press. We could use a Kent Cooper today, as evidenced by the second Connecting item. Look what the Obama Administration is getting away with. As though anyone needs a reminder, the United States is the First Amendment nation. If news executives demanded access, we’d have it. If we demanded action from news executives… Instead, we get a sanitized “reporting” by government flacks. The second is from the Agence France-Presse global news director, a thoughtful analysis and a clear result of hard deliberation. AFP does not send staff into rebel-held Syria and will “no longer accept work from freelance journalists who travel to places where we ourselves would not venture.” Surely human concern underlies that decision, but, also, big media see that casualties cost heavily in hard cash and public criticism. AFP, like the new AP that Cooper would not recognize, is a business, run by managers who seek to limit their exposure. One posted comment touches the essence: “Blaming freelance journalists for doing their jobs and preventing them from doing their jobs is not the answer to this problem.” Climate chaos and other crises threaten the only planet we have. If we dont understand them, in detail and in broad scope, how can we confront them? When the Kingston Trio spoofed that song, I had just got my reporter’s outfit to join “the press corps.” Press is a temporal term. We used hot type then, a passage twixt berry juice on parchment and Google glasses. The operative word was “corps.” We belonged to a roughly organized structure. If we got something wrong, our competitors mopped up floors with us. Today is different, both better and worse. Gutsy independents work cheap and take ungodly risks for crucial brush strokes. But large organizations must provide the framework. No story is worth dying for, but danger out there is nothing new. If a Joe Morton or a Jim Foley makes the calculated decision to go, we need to support them when they succeed and honor them if they don’t. Yet again, the mantra: If they’re not there, neither are we.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:41:41 +0000