joanna's the best journalist in the world!!

So, in this chapter the old lady kind of seemed like she was bragging a lot. :) Ha ha. I'm sorry, but it was just like one thing after another, "I got to do this, I got to talk to this guy, blah, blah, blah." However, she did have some good points about how certain aspects of journalism have changed. If a journalist tried to go out one morning for a stroll with the president like they did in the old days, they would most likely get shot. I also agree with her that newsroom are different now. Not to say that the old newsroom weren't professional, but they seem to have been more fun and family like (from what I've seen on tv and movies). Honestly, I don't know how that lady, what's her name...Helen Thomas...enjoyed her job at all. Wouldn't it get really boring to stay at the White House like all the time and only write about stuff happening there?? I would think she would want to get out in the world sometime and write about something other than who the president was sleeping with. It's true that some of the best scandals have come out of the White House and from the President, but there are other scandals way more interesting than the presidents scandals all over the world. I don't want to be a journalist who sticks to one area or on specific topic. In fact, I don't want to have a beat at all. I want to write about the most interesting things that are going on. Whether it be news, features, even sports, as long as it's interesting, I'll write it! Ok, I need to go write my opinion piece for class tomorrow. :)

Thomas ch 2

In chaper two of the Thomas novel, Thomas talks a lot about the different scandals that have taken place in the journalism world. She talks about Jason Blair and other reporters who were not loyal to the journalistic standard of telling the truth. It seems like almost every journalist that has been famous has done something unethical in their careers. I think she even mentioned Geraldo Riveria or however you say his name. That's crazy. I never would've thought of him doing anything wrong.

I don't even see why anyone would want to be a journalist if all their going to do is be untruthful. If telling the truth is supposed to be a journalist's main characteristic that they are supposed to have pride in, then why do so many of these journalists lie? I know that I would never make up stories or people in the stories or the facts in my stories. That's just insane.

Thomas chapter 1

In chapter one of the Thomas novel, a lot of stuff that she writes completely relates back to what we've been talking about in class. First of all, Thomas talks a lot about reporters who lied and fabricated stories and so on. In class, we've been talking about how a journalists first obligation is to the truth. It's true that journalism has changed for the worst like Thomas said. More reporters have lied, made up stories, made up people, made up qoutes, etc. than ever before.

Also in class, we talked about the reporters keeping their independence from the ones they report on. In the Thomas novel, she also talks about instances where reporters were like team members with people of authority, like policemen, while writing a story when they should've kept their independence from them. She also talks about reporters being paid by people in the government to report or not report on certain things. That is definetely not keeping independence.

It's really sad that journalism has become this way. When I become a journalist, I want people to be able to look up to me and respect me because they know that I'm telling the truth and will always report only the truth.