If you're a good journalist, what you do is live a lot of things vicariously, and report them for other people who want to live vicariously.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Journalism makes you think fast. You have to speak to people in all walks of life. Especially local journalism.
A journalist enjoys a privileged position. In exchange for not being able to participate in the rough-and-tumble issues of a community, we are given license to observe it all, based on the understanding that we'll tell everyone what happens fairly and squarely. That's harder than it sounds.
I am a hard-news journalist. That is what I do.
I think the key to being a journalist is getting your subject to feel comfortable enough to talk about stuff they want to talk about and the stuff they like and don't like, and still feel comfortable about it.
The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journalist as I can possibly do.
You can't expect that because you find a story and report it out that your newspaper and broadcasting company is going to want to publish and broadcast it - and you're going to be a hero.
Journalism is a flawed profession, but it has a self-correcting mechanism. The rule of journalism is: talk to everybody.
Journalism is a craft that takes years to learn. It's like golf. You never get it right all the time. It's a game of fewer errors, better facts, and better reporting.
Best I can do for them is to give them every piece of information I can find and let them make the judgments. That's just my basic view of my function as a journalist.
You have to go where the story is to report on it. As a journalist, you're essentially running to things that other people are running away from.