Why are you angry today?
Tell us what’s making you upset at your journalism job.
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10,095 Responses to “Why are you angry today?”
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Pages: « 505 … 409 408 407 406 405 [404] 403 402 401 400 399 … 1 » Show All
February 16th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
#8072: Not only was I shocked, but I couldn’t believe that someone actually appreciated the work I do and acknowledged the big help I am.
#8073: That you admit it must mean that you’re still at least a half-decent writer. In my college journalism class, those with me had no concern about how they wrote, yet claimed they could write, and their work proved otherwise. Same with the newspaper I worked for. I couldn’t believe that the people near me at their workstations could be funny and insightful, yet when the articles appeared, you’d think the workforce had been replaced by people who had never read a book in their lives.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
This post includes special journalist translations:
Why do newspaper (Gannett) executives (evildoing idiots) think that the way to build revenue (profits and bonuses) is to cut staff (dedicated, overworked, underpaid journalists) and replace real news (enterprise reporting; meaningful, relevant coverage) with fluff (giant front-page spreads with multi-photo jumps about the new reading program at the childrens library)? Do they think their readers (both of them) want less for their money (what’s left of it) not only in print (rags) but also online (digital rags)?
Let’s see (ponder this) … what business model (Wall Street) like that (assumes the consumer also is an idiot) has worked?
Possible answers:
– The U.S. Postal Service (going more postal next month)
– Banks (lying nests of vipers)
– Detroit (the city and the automakers)
– Defense contractors (money pits)
– Congress (see “banks” above)
Hmmmm (more pondering) … what do all those organizations (gatherings of idiots and kleptomaniacs) have in common that newspapers do not have? No, it’s not smarter management (idiots with business degrees). It’s government subsidies (our money).
Perhaps Gannett executives (scumsuckers) should go to Washington (huge nest of lying snakes) and ask to be rewarded (bailed out) for their business model (winging it). It’s as sound as any (net value: zero) followed by the other companies in the news (except in Gannett papers; no room for news — must run big spread on new roadside rest) today.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
I have worked at a daily in Oklahoma for about 18 months as a police reporter. The chief of police’s secretary threatened me not to publish that there was a suicide in the city jail. I did any way and now i have been blacklisted.
The last police reporter died and now they are calling him gay.
We have gone through 8 police reporters in 3 years.
The police demand nothing but soft features and when you try to do your job they slander your name.
Not enough back from editorial.
February 16th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I was angry when I first got laid off. I felt like the circumstances surrounding the decision to let me of all people go were bullshit. I didn’t even use my company’s health insurance and they paid me far less than anyone in that place. So for them to get rid of me felt like a thinly veiled personal attack due to the fact they couldn’t fire me for performance because I did a good job. I dreamt of quitting and felt like they got the satisfaction of firing me and it bugged me.
But now I feel lucky that I’ve escaped a job that made me feel like a rundown, unappreciated slave. Now I’m in a position to collect unemployment while I try to find out what it is I really want to do. I don’t want to be a newspaper reporter and at least I learned that now. Maybe they will replace me. Maybe they won’t. But they are going to stay miserable, stay overworked and the newsroom will stay a warzone of unsupportive jerks who just want to bring one another down.
I love writing, but I didn’t love being a newspaper reporter. Even though we’re in a recession and sometimes I worry that months could go by and I still won’t have a job, I feel boundless hope. Anything is possible and I can make something great happen for myself.
Now, I just got to get off this damn website and do it…
February 16th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Stack the deck with unskilled suck-ups; fire the quality and try to ruin their reputations: That’s how a bunch of has-beens at one southern daily remain overseers on the plantation.
February 16th, 2009 at 9:15 am
“It is really unbelievable that the Press & Sun-Bulletin not only reduced the size of the paper on Monday and Tuesday but now they have issued a price increase for home delivery. How many will cancel now? Has anyone noticed how many advertisers are no longer running ads, especially in the Good Times section.”
From local bitch and moan bulletin board.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Because I have to work on a Sunday night. Well, every Sunday night. In addition to a normal work week.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I can’t write. That is all.
February 14th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
So, is there anyone else out there who left journalism and is actually shocked to discover that your new employer actually treats his/her staff with decency, kindness and respect?
February 14th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I’m angry because my paper just announced that all employees have to take two days off without pay this month. And it’s probably going to be a week for the next quarter (not that management said this – someone else gave me the rumor).
And it’s not that we’re taking days off. Hell, I’m all in favor of not having more layoffs. I didn’t bitch when they doubled coverage while cutting back on pay.
But I asked if lay-offs or cutting hours were expected this quarter back in January and the answer was no. Then THREE DAYS ago, I asked the publisher point blank if “extreme measures” were ahead and the answer was no.
And they are STILL not mentioning anything about that week next quarter. My landlord doesn’t give a shit that my paper is struggling and I can’t produce a week’s salary out of thin air.
GRRRRR.
February 14th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Reporters who use the space key instead of tabs.
And then copy editors have to go back and fix it. What’s so hard about hitting ‘TAB’ ONCE instead of SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE SPACE….
February 14th, 2009 at 7:44 am
A rival newspaper is running a giant poster of an emotional photo of survival taken from the country’s biggest national disaster. Guarantee sales will go up, but no mention they will donate any profits to the relief, even after cashing in on the tragedy. There’s something wrong with that.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
MY EDITORS SCREW UP MY STORIES!!!!! MY HIGH SCHOOL EDITORS DID A WAY BETTER JOB THAN MY UNIVERSITY ONES!
:(
February 13th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Today was my last day. Two weeks ago, I was laid off with the option to work a notice. I should be upset, seeing as it’s unlikely that I’ll continue a career in journalism. As a former true believer, I should feel terrible. But I am elated. I was so miserable. I wanted to quit but couldn’t. Now I can collect unemployment until I find a job. I’m heartbroken, but so, so happy. I’m glad to be gone.
February 13th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Corporate PR types disgust me. If I could believe that the person answering the phone really cared about United, or Taco Bell, or Ford, really felt strongly about the company, I could respect that, even if I couldn’t understand it. After all, sometimes I get annoyed at nonprofit PR people, but I respect them. They’re doing something they care about. Corporate PR is about shilling for the money, and it annoys me that, in the name of professionalism, I have to be polite to those people.
February 13th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I’m pissed off today because I just got a gripe session from one of my editors for not writing anything for the first section of the moronic progress edition that the paper is putting out to whore themselves out to the advertisers more than they usually do.
Nevermind that they gave me four stories for the second section of the stupid progress edition, which I did, that wrecked several stories of real importance that I was working on these past two weeks.
I guess they think I signed on to work for this paper 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Well, they can take their progress edition and shove it right up their ass.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:18 am
8051, it’s 8042 here.
“I’m discussing how to thwart text thieves who use search engines and not necessarily the search engines themselves.”
Indeed, but let me put it this way: If the search engines can’t find your articles (and they won’t) neither will people who use news aggregators like Google News. They won’t see your copy and they sure won’t see our ads.
What is a text thief anyway? You sound paranoid, and your paranoia could cause you to lose a lot of money from potential ad revenue.
“If I want my stories cataloged by a search engine so they’ll send hits my way to read my stories and SEE MY ADS, then I’ll gladly send them a feed of tags in whatever format they need. They all have back doors for that purpose.”
It doesn’t work that way. We’re no longer in the land of meta tags, my friend. Meta tags help, but search engines like Google (the big guy) put huge value in the text it can crawl. If there is no or little text on a page, it will throw said page out. Seriously, read up on this.
As for bloggers, who cares? In what world does someone read a typical blogger who reposts more than they read the actual news source from which information was taken? Typically, even if the blogger doesn’t offer a link back, people WILL go to the news site if they like what they’ve read and want more. As long as bloggers are citing where they got your stuff (as is a part of blog culture) then you’re fine.
If they’re not citing where they get their articles, that puts them in the minority.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I’m angry because the parent corporation that owns the online affiliate I worked for laid me off yesterday with no warning when really it should have been my deadbeat coworker who has been a consistent discipline problem.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I changed my major from journalism to education. It’s a good thing, too, because I was just laid off from the small newspaper for whom I write theater reviews. There was no warning and, worse, I won’t be paid for the review I wrote. Still, I consider myself luckier than those students who are still wasting their time and energy at the Cronkite School.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I fear for our country too:
Obama’s Press List
Membership shall have its privileges
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123431418276770899.html