Scholarly Pursuits

PBS has gotten its hands on a previously unpublished essay by noted steamboat pilot and father of American fiction Mark Twain, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Shortly after “The Runaway General” resulted in the firing of Stanley McChrystal, the treachery of a JournoList member resulted in the resignation of ex-Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel, and the treachery of Twitter did in CNN’s Octavia Nasr, Twain has ended years of death-induced silence to grant us a treatise on the stupidity and evil of the journalistic interview.

“No one likes to be interviewed, and yet no one likes to say no; for interviewers are courteous and gentle-mannered, even when they come to destroy,” opines the long-deceased satirist.

At a time when trust has ended and we hate each other because of innovations in communication, Twain’s wise words remind us: Do not broadcast everything you believe; be wary of what you read and, above all, never trust a reporter.

People who find fault with the interviewer, do it because they do not reflect that he is but a cyclone, after all, though disguised in the image of God, like the rest of us; that he is not conscious of harm even when he is dusting a continent with your remains, but only thinks he is making things pleasant for you; and that therefore the just way to judge him is by his intentions, not his works.

The Interview was not a happy invention. It is perhaps the poorest of all ways of getting at what is in a man. In the first place, the interviewer is the reverse of an inspiration, because you are afraid of him. You know by experience that there is no choice between these disasters.

Check out the whole thing, with the scanned handwritten pages, over at PBS.

Presented without comment, via Reuters:

Andrew Breitbart published a screed on Big Journalism asking for anyone who has access to the JournoList listserv archives to come forth and, as it were, prosper.

Here’s his perfectly decent proposal: Breitbart, itching madly to part with $100,000 that’s been “burning” in his pocket for the past three months, will award said amount to whomever is able and willing to provide him with the full JournoList archive. He vows to keep the seller’s identity completely secret.

JournoList, you’ll recall, is the listserv founded by Ezra Klein through which former Washington Post contributor Dave Weigel suggested the world is a better place with a flaming Matt Drudge.

Breitbart’s reasons? He hopes that airing out the gossip and grievances of the listserv’s 400 former users will act “in the interests of journalistic transparency, and to offer the American public a unique insight in the workings of the Democrat-Media Complex.” Breitbart’s take on the Weigel debacle is that other JournoList members, when they were not busy consuming the flesh of unborn children, deemed him “not liberal enough” for, at times, siding with conservatives on certain issues.

Further explanation of Breitbart’s proposal, via Breitbart.tv, after the jump.

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5 questions about Business Journalism Survey 2010 from Reynolds Center on Vimeo.

A report commissioned by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism indicates that many business journos are optimistic about the future of their craft, have learned new skills and have increased their workload.

Andrew Leckey, president of the National Center for Business Journalism, found upside even among findings that might normally be taken as negative: Business journalists “have fewer copy editors to make sure their work is accurate. That means they have to know what they’re talking about,” said Leckey.

On the other hand, “some say they have less time to devote to investigative business pieces, says Leckey.

Respondents to the survey were veterans, averaging 20 years of journalism experience and 12.8 years of business-journalism experience.

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In a tough broad economy and amid significant upheaval in the publishing world, it’s perhaps not surprising that editors aren’t satisfied with the money they’re pulling in. But there may be signs of green shoots emerging in the fact that only a small proportion of editors expect their wages to decrease in 2010, according to a recent survey conducted by Readex research on behalf of Folio:.

Many editors would welcome a pay hike. Six percent of respondents feel “very well compensated,” while 35% said they receive no pay for their efforts.

In another bright spot, nearly half of editors (43%) claim to be “very satisfied” with their jobs. Only 14% of editors are actively looking for work. Folio: attributes this phenomenon to the fairly high job-satisfaction numbers.

Photo galleries and videos of cute animals are a well-known click-enhancing fixture of Internet publications from across the spectrum of reputability, but it comes as somewhat of a surprise that The New York Times, one of respectable journalism’s most powerful vanguards, has begun soliciting its readers for photos of comely creatures. Truer to form, though, is the Times‘ somewhat unique grasp of the meaning of Internet cuteness: It’s soliciting readers for their photos of Subway rats:

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Some questions have no answers. For instance: why is the Wall Street Journal, a paper that is Serious and Important despite the recent actions of their spokesperson, traipsing the un-Walled streets or our fair city with one Paris Whitney Hilton? And, also, why is Paris Hilton?

Yes, sure, she mumbles and coos about living in the Waldorf Astoria in her “medium” voice, a veritable Bar Mitzvah-hopping Eloise on uppers, but if you think Paris Hilton when you think New York, we might have to tie you to the roof of the 7 train and hit you like a piñata full of stupid, wrong thoughts.

Anyway. Try and see if you can make sense of this video, which The L Magazine calls “absurd” and “terrible.”

Mediabistro’s Travel Writing Boot Camp, which instructs students in crafting and selling travel writing for publication, still has space available. The class, taught by novelist and veteran journalist James Sturz starts tomorrow night. Prospective students who sign up using the exclusive promo code SMRSALE will save $150 off their tuition.

The eight-week class meets every Tuesday from June 8 to August 3, 6:45 to 9:45 p.m. in Soho.

More about the teacher: James Sturz spent three years on staff at Vanity Fair. In addition to his novel Sasso, set in southern Italy, he has written for more than 70 newspapers and magazines. James has also served as a guest editor for the adventure magazine Blue and as a contributing editor for Manhattan File and Lexus magazines and the website Leite’s Culinaria. Additionally, he is a PADI-certified divemaster, a panelist for National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations, and the winner of a 2008 Solas Award in travel writing.

Everyone should go check out the FishbowlNY Twitter, which is currently brimming with the furious note-taking, blistering satire and masterful hashtagging of co-editor Alex Alvarez as she navigates the Mediabistro Circus 2010.

Nowhere else on the Internet today will you find a gem like the following:

So go retweet, reply, and generally make merry.

Our sister site, FishbowlDC, has a hot tip on The Wall Street Journal‘s small-business editor Colleen DeBaise; she’s also a big-time blogger of all things curry-related.

Says FishbowlDC:

WSJ’s Manhattan-based Small Business Editor Colleen DeBaise was in Washington, D.C. this week to speak at a Chamber of Commerce conference. While here, the journo dined Monday night with WSJ SEC and financial reporter Kara Scannell at Spices in Cleveland Park.

[...]

At Spices, DeBaise sampled a delicious green curry dish and blogged about it on crackingcurry.com. Read it here. Read a delightful WSJ feature story she wrote on her cooking adventures in Thailand here.

Check out FishbowlDC for more Debaise action.