THE bright-eyed journalism intern wanted the secret of being a good writer so I said reading lots of different authors but be careful what you read because it may make an impact on you which is why this column might resemble the novel I just finished called "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" by Terry McMillan who uses long rambling sentences to express herself. Columnists need to
get their groove backI met the intern last Thursday night when participating in a panel discussion with media attorney Jeffrey Portnoy and UH Journalism Professor Tom Brislin and KITV4 Vice President Wally Zimmermann. We were all invited by the Society of Professional Journalists to discuss the topic "Crisis in Confidence: The String of False Reporting and Its Impact on Our Business."
Moderator Christie Wilson who is the city editor of the Maui News specifically asked me about Boston Globe columnists Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle since they recently resigned after being accused of either making up quotes or entire columns.
And Wilson said so Diane as someone who is familiar with the pressures of weekly column writing can you tell us what might lead a columnist to commit such a heinous act and I thought to myself oh great now I am the representative of the wayward press and I had better say something intelligent.
I began with the caveat that I didn't know what the checking process was over at the Boston Globe newsroom but at the Star-Bulletin many editors look at a columnist's work before it gets into print and in my case at least three other experienced journalists see what I write before it gets published and they make suggestions or ask questions which is great because accountability is very important.
I added that sometimes journalists may get into trouble because they are motivated by winning prestigious awards so they might feel lots of pressure to come up with really good stories or columns which might lead to manufacturing quotes or characters.
Or if they spread themselves thin for example by performing their writing duties in addition to appearing on television it might result in journalists being a little bit sloppy about fact-checking and the like since they end up being pressed for time near deadline.
And as I said this I felt bad because columnists belong to the same brotherhood and sisterhood known as the news media and it's a hard job since you have to produce something interesting two or three times a week and then you put your work out there for everybody to see and critique and you can feel very vulnerable.
THEN I thought hey who am I to rap other columnists because this isn't easy and everybody's different and one of the reasons journalists aren't licensed is because that would defeat the purpose of free speech because we don't want government or anybody limiting what you can or can't say since the more opinions out there the better.
Then I worried that even now I may be committing some heinous journalistic crime by emulating the writing style of Terry McMillan in this column and omigosh maybe I'll get into trouble too.
That's when I realized that in journalism just like in life you do the best you can and learn from the successes of writers like McMillan and from the downfalls of columnists like Smith and Barnicle and always remember not to disappoint or betray the trust of readers or the bright-eyed intern who wants to do what you are lucky enough to do. Then all of a sudden I felt better and like Stella I think I've finally got my groove back too.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.