If the breaking news story had to do with hard news, politics specifically, I had a lot to do with it. If it had to do with music, Kurt Loder was more involved.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I can't think in terms of journalism without thinking in terms of political ends. Unless there's been a reaction, there's been no journalism. It's cause and effect.
I couldn't imagine what it's like to be a journalist talking about music. You're left with empty descriptions; you probably have to make up a sort of weird cocktail of band influences and references to other music to get your point across.
I was not so interested in night-after-night coverage of Michael Jackson's death or Britney Spears' latest breakdown - topics that were 'breaking news' at the time.
All the great political music was made at the height of political confrontations.
It's no secret that the media has fragmented in recent years, that audiences have been cut into slivers, and that more and more people get their news from ever narrower outlets.
One reason I left local news was that I was tired of the constant musical chairs among news directors.
Reporters now are better educated than the crowd I knew when I broke in. We still had guys shaped by Prohibition and the Depression, so the news business still had badly paid people who loved it for the life, because every day was different.
That crossover of whether it's entertainment or news is the biggest crock of b.s. in television today, because it's all entertainment.
In journalism I can only tell what happened. In fiction, I can show it.
It turned out I really didn't like journalism. I wanted to make up stories, not cover real events.