Warning! This blogger is not responsible for any slips of profanity and expletives in the course of this rant. Readers are advised to exercise caution when reading this rant. Anyone who reads this do so at their own risk. This blogger is not responsible for any corruption of innocent minds and shall not be liable for any legal suits arising from this post.
First and foremost I would like to clear the popular misconception that journalism is a glamourous job. As a full time journalist for the past decade or so, let me tell you in no uncertain terms that journalism is NOT all about glamour!
Honestly, I do not know where these absolute morons get this stupid, moronic, idiotic idea in their tiny, closed minds! Must be a constant diet of watching the idiot box (otherwise popularly known by its two initials, TV) which tends to glamourise anything and everything.
I mean it is bad enough having to put up with the stress of this peanut-paying job what with having to deal with morons and idiots which range from politicians to government servants to even annoying NGOs on a daily basis. But to have strangers and even acquiantances coming up to me and going all green with envy over my so-called 'glamourous' job and preaching me about 'looking beyond the glamour to help people'. That absolutely takes the cake.
Well, excuse me for choosing this job. Oh, I am all for helping people but let me ask one question, what in the f*&% has my job got to do with 'helping people'? Writing sob stories of poor unfortunate people to be published in the paper, you say? Well, again, excuse me but do I look like I own the damn newspaper? Do I look like I have any say in what I am suppose to write or what articles gets published? If in fact I do own the newspaper, do you think I'd be a lowly paid overworked journalist???? If you are so stupid to believe that, then so be it!
Let me say this to you instead, being a journalist is just like any other job and we ALL still have to answer to our bosses who ultimately answer to the MD / GM / directors / shareholders. So, if you want your sob story published (regardless of whether it is about the gigantic hole the size of a mouse in front of your house or about the faulty lamp post two streets away from your house), go talk to the editors and the newspaper owners. Not us, the journalists, who are only paid to do our jobs according to our company's visions and missions. Kapish? Understand?
And where the heck does 'glamour' fit into the whole scheme of journalism anyway? Even watching the idiot box should educate you on how journalists were treated especially at crime or accident scenes. You call being chased away with a broom, having a door slammed in our faces, being called all sorts of names in all sorts of languages, being treated to the 'beautiful' scene of blood and gore as a result of human's evil deeds and many such things glamourous??? Really, is it all that glamourous? Is it glamourous to stand outside a mortuary waiting for the post mortem result of a murder? Is it glamourous to call umpteenth people and go through tonnes of red tape in order to get a response over some issue? Is it glamourous to be accused of misquoting a certain person just because the person wants to retract his statement? Is it glamourous to be paid mere peanuts for the amount of running around and stress we have to undergo each and every day to meet deadlines and come up with news? So what if my byline appear in national newspapers? It is not as if I get paid for each and every byline that appears in the paper. I still get paid on a fixed monthly salary that is reviewed every year end with only a minimal increase each year. (For the less enlightened, bylines refer to the single line with the journalist's name tagged onto any article in the newspaper)
Enough said, the next person who comes up to me and tell me that I 'should look beyond the glamour of my job' should know that I will not be responsible for any bodily harm afflicted on him or her.
Rant over.
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