Why are you angry today?
Tell us what’s making you upset at your journalism job.
Anonymity guaranteed. One rule: no real names.
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10,095 Responses to “Why are you angry today?”
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Pages: « 505 … 501 500 499 498 497 [496] 495 494 493 492 491 … 1 » Show All
November 25th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
The biggest problem in ‘journalism’ today? The whores want control of what they’ve never had control over before. Now, how many “marketing” or “advetorial” or whatever is part of the “news gathering” experience? journalism is dead. s-for-brains has replaced it.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I work my ass off for very little pay and come home and undergo tremendous anxiety because I know I still don’t make enough money to pay my bills. And I feel fear every time the phone rings because I’m afraid it’s a bill collector or a collection agency!
November 25th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Happy Thanksgiving all. There is always something to be thankful for.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Why must my editor publish every crappy, grainy, submitted photo he receives? It makes our paper look amateur.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I’m angry because I’m a reporter at a small town daily that has had multiple staff reductions over the past couple of years to the point that the newsroom barely has enough people to function, and today we’re trying to put out two multi-section papers and our advertising can’t get its collective shit together and get the ads in on time so we can meet deadline. These are the same people making twice what I make as a reporter (and paginator, and photographer, etc. etc.) and simply live for the chance to let us know what sort of bullshit complaint their clients have about the paper. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
November 25th, 2009 at 11:17 am
History will not be kind to journalist of this era.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am
The newspaper where I work got its 20 grand a year out of me a “long” time ago.
The new year will bring about some good changes!
November 25th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I’m new to the business, as I got out of school not that long ago. However, I’m asking myself already if this is a business I want to be in. They lured me in with promises of “You’ll work from 11 till 7, with minimal overtime”. Boy, that was a lie… I start around 12, mostly due to heavy traffic. Then I wait for texts to edit. At around 4, I’m still waiting. Everyone wakes up around 6, leaving me to rush the whole evening, so I can get out before 10. Then I have to commute back home. Compensation for all the overtime doesn’t exist, so I’m working for a minimum wage. Savings? What savings? Thank God for the weekend I’d say, but there is more. I have to work every two sundays, which leaves me completely knackered around Wednesday.
On top of it all: my relationship is in decline since I started working here. Boy, am I happy that I found a job that I love to do…
November 25th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Washington Post closing remaining U.S. bureaus
http://www.reuters.com/article/COMSRV/idUSN2431918320091124
November 24th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Anyone ever consider starting an organization to help struggling journalists handle their finances?
November 24th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
9901: After eight years, I take home $550 every two weeks. No joke – and I own a home, have a car payment and a student loan payment on top of the regular bills.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I am angry because a reporter who has been out of college and working in newspapers for six-plus years doesn’t see the value of getting the other side of the story – so I have to do it for her.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
9896 – Do you buy clothes made in India? From what locale does your television set, your silverware, or your toothbrush hail? You hire people to work 60-80 hour weeks who make less than $25,000 a year on a routine basis, only you do so by proxy. Where is your guilt?
What we do (or in my case did) is inform what others are doing, and unlike a teacher, in a manner that is only generically useful. If we want to learn, we hire teachers. If we want to investigate, there are detectives and lawyers. If we want advice, there are psychiatrists and consultants. There’s an oversupply of easy access information (enough of it of excellent quality that no individual could possibly read it all), and a surfeit of demand.
Get out. You can work your way towards being a manager at McDonald’s with less hours and the same pay. You’ll get paid about the same to dig ditches. There are no pretensions left in journalistic endeavor. The skill of “writing” without specialized knowledge has become less of a value-add to dead trees than toilet paper. At least Charmin is soft.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I wish I had listened to the people who told me a few years ago that declaring the journalism major was stupid. Now I’m a year from graduation and finally realizing what they were talking about. Well, shit.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I am angry because our sales reps are constantly trying to get me to write stories about potential sales leads, and those companies have nothing to do with our publications’ focus. Yet I’m expected to “bend the rules” for them. And I’m mad because the sales reps make far more money than I do. I do all of the work at my company, and my salary is the smallest.
I am angry because one of my associate editors, who is a friend of mine I hired to do some extra freelancing while his wife’s out of work, turns in stories that make my eyes bleed. He has a habit of saying, “XYZ company does not anticipate that the acquisition will impact its earnings this quarter.” Next sentence: “We don’t anticipate that the acquisition will impact its earnings this quarter,” John Smith adds. WTF!
I am angry that I am a professional writer, and I spend about 3/4 of my time doing layout, online posting, social media monitoring, marketing, etc. I DO THE WORK OF 5 PEOPLE AND DON’T EVEN MAKE A FAIR SALARY FOR ONE PERSON!
I’m angry that I spent umpteen hours last week entertaining PR pitches, yet now that I need certain items from PR people this week, they are nowhere to be found. Because THEY get to go on vacation.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am
The letter ‘W’ is my sworn enemy.
When writing headlines for online content, ‘W’ is the anal plug of the alphabet. It is by far the widest letter. Print headline writers can mess around with a font’s size and how narrow it is. Websites have a fixed amount of space slotted for headlines.
You’re on the list, ‘W’.
Some letters are cool. ‘I’ and ‘L’ are my boys! Although sometimes ‘L’ can be a capital jerk. ‘F’, ‘J’, ‘R’ and ‘T’, we can hang out. The other letters, you’re all right. Except you, ‘M’. I see the way you look at and flirt with ‘W’!
That’s it. ‘M’, you’re on notice.
Now where did I put my free sandwich?
November 24th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Angry Journalist #9896 says:
“I would have a guilty conscience if I hired people with college degrees (and student loans) to work for me for almost 60-80 hours a week and only paid them $25,000 a year (or less).”
The people who should have the guilty conscience, or better yet, put out of business due to fraud, are the J-schools who tell kids to take out all these student loans, to line the their pockets, all the while knowing there is almost no likelihood of career earnings comensurate with those student loans.
November 24th, 2009 at 6:36 am
My newspaper decided they weren’t going to use anything I had to offer. They didn’t even give me a chance to prove myself. They didn’t notice when I kicked ass and dug up cool stories. Now I figure using a company laptop with ready Internet access to apply for jobs after work, and occasionally copying clips at Kinko’s during work hours, is the least I can get for my troubles.
November 24th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Publish my investigative story. Stop dragging your feet. Stop publishing the big stories of people who started work here after I started looking into said story. Publish. The. Fucking. Story. You. Worthless. Slug. Of. A. Newspaper. That’s right. Get off your ass. MOVE, you slow, lumbering, arrogant, entitled dinosaur that is emblematic of why all major metros deserve to die. Your mismanagement of this story is worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records. When I started writing here, I viewed this story as the ticket to a promotion. Now I need you to publish the story so I can use it as a fucking clip.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:24 am
To #9865
Taking home $500 a week after two years? Try taking home $475 a week after 10+ years. Or $375 after two years. and NOT living with your parents.