Sep 25 2006
The many perils of being a journalist
Amongst people who run a relatively successful site the story has become a cliché. I am talking about doing your job somewhere on a Beach in Paradise, using nothing but a laptop computer hooked up to a satellite.
Have you ever taken your laptop out on a sunny day? If you did, you probably noticed that LCD screens are of little use when the sun is shining.
That is the way things are arranged in the universe. Computers are meant to stay indoors. Those who accept that fact will live a long and healthy life.
Being a journalist has become an easy job since covering wars is done from the office by parroting propaganda. Asking yourself why an amateur crusader like Milošević had to stand trial for crimes against humanity while our Western leaders are being cheered for ‘killing more men than Cecil B. DeMille’, will get you fired in ‘the free world’. Some things are apparently better left unsaid. We have all seen the well-dressed anchor men on TV interviewing the few journalists on the scene.
Would you describe the situation as a full-blown Civil War?
Not at all! People are just living the many joys of democracy while ducking for random machine gun fire and exploding vehicles. We must understand that things will get worse before they get better.
Ever since marketing people have taken over the media to sell cat food, tampons and shampoo, journalists are hired for their ability to obey. An independent attitude has become a handicap in their profession and as a result our news media are littered with crapola written by mindless desk clerks. It is getting harder every day to distinguish good propaganda from mediocre journalism.
Journalists may often be absent in war; they are always present in large numbers whenever some mega sports event is taking place and it was at one of those events – I believe it was the Olympics – that they complained about their laptops becoming useless once the sun started shining.
Of course there is a company who claims to have the answer to all that misery. I believe it is the same firm who invented the Touch Pad or a similar device that has driven more computer users to insanity than any well designed worm or virus could have ever achieved. Although I have forgotten their site address, I can still see their shining logo ‘Design Matters’.
Before I closed my browser on that thought I could not resist stealing one of their promo images to post it here for your amusement.
I am aware that there are some adorable creatures around who believe in design as a high culture art form and I often agree with them. The gadget above is definitely more than design. The ‘Lenovo’ is a highly artistic metaphor for all that needs to be said about modern journalism.