 Journalism: Why We Do It
It's been a long week for our staff - and a new baby in our editor's house, the horrendous news of the McCutcheon decision by the Supreme Court, and the shooting at Ft. Hood didn't make it any shorter.
When you add in stories from this week about pure political stupidity - like Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King's latest affront to immigrants willing to give their lives in the U.S. military, or the insanely stupid idea of "Cuban Twitter" attempted by the USAID organization - we sometimes wonder why we fight so hard to work in the media.
We draw cartoons, write, edit, publish, and produce at least five days a week, and someone on our staff is usually working 18 hours of every day. Even in our off time, we're often thinking of what we'll do next, reaching out to professional contacts, working for our next contract, or practicing and improving our skills.
So when we read about a talented media figure like David Letterman retiring in 2015, our initial reaction is usually, "Well done," often followed closely by, "Must be nice to retire." Retiring, however, is different than losing your job because some corporate executive idiot somewhere has absolutely no idea how to run a media business.
As we read yesterday afternoon, 167 more members of the media, are facing unemployment at the Newark New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper and their nationally-known news website, nj.com. As Paul has of lampooned in multiple cartoons over the years, editors who know how to write and do layout had better learn to draw and take photos too...
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