That was the question a planning meeting facilitator asked about 15 of us earlier this week. The meeting topic was the future of worker safety. Being the only journalist in the room, I of course was first to speak up. Journalists are notorious whiners, wailers, cynics, and combative critics. Last thing a self-respecting journo wants to be called is any kind of cheerleader for a cause or an industry. They call that going over to the dark side and practicing the dark arts of public relations.
So the meeting facilitator opened the door, so to speak, and I waltzed through, thinking and speaking off the top of my head, with no editor to save me from my own excesses (which is the bulk of what editors do with reporters’ egos).
That was the question a planning meeting facilitator asked about 15 of us earlier this week. The meeting topic was the future of worker safety. Being the only journalist in the room, I of course was first to speak up. Journalists are notorious whiners, wailers, cynics, and combative critics. Last thing a self-respecting journo wants to be called is any kind of cheerleader for a cause or an industry. They call that going over to the dark side and practicing the dark arts of public relations.