Hey Mtv, I've got a reality show for you...
Shortly after my last post I headed to the Oracle, where I found that apparently the world can spin even faster than I can manage to multitask. I was flipping through the tbt* as I wandered down into the newsroom, but before I could even step into the Oracle's office Jordan (our 6'5" opinion editor -- he makes me feel small, which is completely irrelevant, but whatever) grabbed me by the arm and pulled me aside. He immediately launched into what seemed like 20 different incoherent fragments of stories, so I crinkled my eyebrows and just stared at him, trying to piece together words like "football," "lawsuit," and "dead." After about thirty seconds he stopped speaking and his eyes widened and jaw dropped, like he just saw some kind of demented spirit glaring back at him.
No demented spirit, just complete naivete. "You honestly have no idea what's going on, do you?" he asked. Somehow I had bypassed the radio reports and news crews all over campus, and no one at the Oracle had bothered to call me (which doesn't offend me at all). It was then that I learned that Keeley Dorsey, a freshman running back, had had a seizure and died while working out in the gym today. I also learned that we were being sued twice over for libel.
I have to admit I was grateful that Jordan updated me on everything before I entered the Oracle, because the newsroom was an absolute madhouse! Everyone was pooling together their resources to contact anyone who'd be willing to comment or provide further information regarding Dorsey's passing, and we were scrambling to figure out how we could get out of the double lawsuit that had been waged on us that morning. (That day's front page was titled, "Uncivil Unrest," and detailed how a war of words between an evangelical extremist and student on campus soon turned into a physical fight. The story said that the student choked the extremist, but the student argues that he only tugged on the extremist's tie, and that we defamed his character by making the situation seem more violent than it actually was. He also intends to sue Jordan for his editorial on the whole ordeal. Oh yeah, and the extremist is trying to sue us because he feels that he really was choked by the student, BUT he only called the student's girlfriend a 'slut' and various other derogatory terms AFTER being choked, not before.)
That night Tristan (the Montage editor; I'm the assistant Montage editor) was ready to punch through walls (He's really sick of...just about everybody we work with), and I really wanted to go home, so we ran an interview with Sophia Bush that garnered us some minor reprimanding because we let Sophia "ramble for far too long." I knew that portions of her interview should've been cut (the girl talked for 20 minutes about why she never saw the original version of The Hitcher!), but I was so ready to leave that night and so annoyed that our other writer had submitted complete garbage, that I allowed for the entire piece to run as-is. Whoops. This really didn't look good since the day before (little to my knowledge) Tristan got publicly reemed for a horrible Montage that day. It turned out "Sojourn" in the headline was spelled "Soujourn," and we wrote "Castillian" instead of "Castilian" in the sub-head. We NEVER screw up like this, but boy, did we do it big time. Oh, and in a minor victory for our ruthless Associate Editor, Lawrence sided with Allison on our choice of pictures (strike three for Montage that day), but that's a whole 'nother story. I guess we can't be the praised section every day, huh? Anyway, I hate falling below my own standards, so it really frustrated me that this happened.
That's when I decided that I needed an attitude adjustment. This is not just my current job -- it's my future. This is where I learn so that I don't make these critical, rookie mistakes in the real world of journalism. When I accepted the job I vowed never to become one of them -- an editor who has no friends/life outside of the Oracle, so he/she will do everything in his/her power to elongate his/her time spent there. In the process though I lost sight of trying to be innovative and working for the sake of learning -- of perfecting my craft. I have an opportunity that other people would kill for, and yet I'm acting like it's a waste of my time. Like I can't wait to get out of there and get on with my life. I'm not sure if I'm accurately representing my feelings here, but essentially I need a paradigm shift, where I try to work with my co-workers, instead of purposefully excluding myself.
Jouralism's a strange, lonely creature built on competition and deadlines, but it doesn't have to be.
Hah, speaking of becoming "one of them," I'm considering joining the Society of Professional Journalists (dues are $50/yr. though -- yikes!) and I'm taking a pilates class with Amanda, another editor. I may also start taking a twice-a-week yoga class with Tristan, but I'm not sure. It's during Oracle work hours, and I'd really hate to set my work schedule back an hour and a half each night (esp. considering how I rarely make it out of the office before 11:45 as it is!).
No demented spirit, just complete naivete. "You honestly have no idea what's going on, do you?" he asked. Somehow I had bypassed the radio reports and news crews all over campus, and no one at the Oracle had bothered to call me (which doesn't offend me at all). It was then that I learned that Keeley Dorsey, a freshman running back, had had a seizure and died while working out in the gym today. I also learned that we were being sued twice over for libel.
I have to admit I was grateful that Jordan updated me on everything before I entered the Oracle, because the newsroom was an absolute madhouse! Everyone was pooling together their resources to contact anyone who'd be willing to comment or provide further information regarding Dorsey's passing, and we were scrambling to figure out how we could get out of the double lawsuit that had been waged on us that morning. (That day's front page was titled, "Uncivil Unrest," and detailed how a war of words between an evangelical extremist and student on campus soon turned into a physical fight. The story said that the student choked the extremist, but the student argues that he only tugged on the extremist's tie, and that we defamed his character by making the situation seem more violent than it actually was. He also intends to sue Jordan for his editorial on the whole ordeal. Oh yeah, and the extremist is trying to sue us because he feels that he really was choked by the student, BUT he only called the student's girlfriend a 'slut' and various other derogatory terms AFTER being choked, not before.)
That night Tristan (the Montage editor; I'm the assistant Montage editor) was ready to punch through walls (He's really sick of...just about everybody we work with), and I really wanted to go home, so we ran an interview with Sophia Bush that garnered us some minor reprimanding because we let Sophia "ramble for far too long." I knew that portions of her interview should've been cut (the girl talked for 20 minutes about why she never saw the original version of The Hitcher!), but I was so ready to leave that night and so annoyed that our other writer had submitted complete garbage, that I allowed for the entire piece to run as-is. Whoops. This really didn't look good since the day before (little to my knowledge) Tristan got publicly reemed for a horrible Montage that day. It turned out "Sojourn" in the headline was spelled "Soujourn," and we wrote "Castillian" instead of "Castilian" in the sub-head. We NEVER screw up like this, but boy, did we do it big time. Oh, and in a minor victory for our ruthless Associate Editor, Lawrence sided with Allison on our choice of pictures (strike three for Montage that day), but that's a whole 'nother story. I guess we can't be the praised section every day, huh? Anyway, I hate falling below my own standards, so it really frustrated me that this happened.
That's when I decided that I needed an attitude adjustment. This is not just my current job -- it's my future. This is where I learn so that I don't make these critical, rookie mistakes in the real world of journalism. When I accepted the job I vowed never to become one of them -- an editor who has no friends/life outside of the Oracle, so he/she will do everything in his/her power to elongate his/her time spent there. In the process though I lost sight of trying to be innovative and working for the sake of learning -- of perfecting my craft. I have an opportunity that other people would kill for, and yet I'm acting like it's a waste of my time. Like I can't wait to get out of there and get on with my life. I'm not sure if I'm accurately representing my feelings here, but essentially I need a paradigm shift, where I try to work with my co-workers, instead of purposefully excluding myself.
Jouralism's a strange, lonely creature built on competition and deadlines, but it doesn't have to be.
Hah, speaking of becoming "one of them," I'm considering joining the Society of Professional Journalists (dues are $50/yr. though -- yikes!) and I'm taking a pilates class with Amanda, another editor. I may also start taking a twice-a-week yoga class with Tristan, but I'm not sure. It's during Oracle work hours, and I'd really hate to set my work schedule back an hour and a half each night (esp. considering how I rarely make it out of the office before 11:45 as it is!).