{"id":961,"date":"2006-03-14T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2006-03-14T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/?p=961"},"modified":"2006-03-14T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2006-03-14T19:00:09","slug":"letters-to-a-young-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/14\/letters-to-a-young-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to a Young Journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite professors from my Columbia<\/a> days, Sam Freedman<\/a>, is about to come out with his latest book: Letters to a Young Journalist<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

The following passage is from the end of the Introduction<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not trying to scare you off. I hope you find the challenges inspiring. When I was your age, the cachet of journalism attracted plenty of poseurs. One thing you can say about the present unpopularity of journalism is that it drives out all the uncommitted. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a true believer, if this is meant to be your life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work, then nothing and nobody can change your mind. Even in a bleak period for journalism, you can find signs of vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe astounding growth of NPR; the development of Salon and Slate on the Internet; the transformation of USA Today from an object of ridicule to a serious, successful national paper; the opening of twenty-four-hour cable news operations in local as well as metropolitan markets.<\/p>\n

So don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think journalism is going away. Delivery systems may change from paper to computer, and reporters may be renamed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153content providers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Revered and beloved publications may perish while reality-TV series thrive. But intellectual curiosity, vigorous research, acute analysis, and elegant prose will never go out of style. If anything, the shorter the supply, the more those traits will be valued.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, while writing a book about American Jewry, I came upon a famous essay reproaching Jews for their perpetual fear of extinction; it was wryly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ever-Dying People.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d During my years as a Times reporter, I covered Broadway, which for decades thought itself so close to demise that it was nicknamed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Fabulous Invalid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d One of the hit shows while I was on the Page 12 beat, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Chorus Line,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has a piquant moment you might appreciate. A dancer named Bebe has just been cast for a show, and naturally enough she feels like celebrating. Yet all around her the rest of the chorus members are complaining\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u0153no security in dancing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no promotion and advancement,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no work anymore.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d To which Bebe shoots back, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wanna hear about how Broadway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dying. Because I just got here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite professors from my Columbia days, Sam Freedman, is about to come out with his latest book: Letters to a Young Journalist. The following passage is from the end of the Introduction: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not trying to scare you off. I hope you find the challenges inspiring. When I was your age, the cachet of journalism attracted plenty of poseurs. One thing you can say about the present unpopularity of journalism is that it drives out all the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-columbia","category-journalism","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uks-fv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}