coast to coast

jbm · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 12:26 am

Here's a question for you veterans:When I interned on the East Coast, some coworkers would sometimes start their advice to me thusly: "If you want to break into East Coast journalism ..."What? Is there some substantial difference between "East Coast" journalism and "Midwest" or "West Coast" journalism? Or is this a question of perceived prestige (or "East Coast snobbery")?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 12:35 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jbm:
Here's a question for you veterans: Is there some substantial difference between "East Coast" journalism and "Midwest" or "West Coast" journalism? Or is this a question of perceived prestige (or "East Coast snobbery")?<hr></blockquote>There is no discernible difference in the trade as practiced on the East Coast, except that the Midwest is "off the radar" of papers here. That's why no one from the Post or New York Times can write about Chicago without calling it "hog butcher for the world." That said, whoever you were talking to was either joking or is an idiot.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 11:07 am

Regional journalism. What will they think of next?I spent a few years at a large paper in the Midwest. The only difference I noticed was that there were more idiots there, but that was simply a matter of proportion. The publisher of the 86,000-circulation I left to go there told me to look around the newsroom on my way out the door, and that the only difference I would see when I arrived at my new job would be that there would be three each of the exact same people...especially the idiots.I laughed about this until I got to the new place and, within a very short time, realized he was spot-on right.The concept of "East Coast journalism" is ridiculous. OK, so there was a regional difference between 52nd Street bebop and the jazz that was being played on Lexington Avenue in Harlem or in New Orleans. That was an art form. This is a great business, but I'd hardly call it art.Sorry for being windy. Put I guess posting on this site means you never have to say you're sorry. Or something.

dmfugitive · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 1:51 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
That's why no one from the Post or New York Times can write about Chicago without calling it "hog butcher for the world." <hr></blockquote>Amen. I've been riding this hobby horse since I moved to Washington five years ago. In my paper's colorful pages, everything between the Appalachians and the Rockies becomes the "heartland," with the attendant descriptions of the inhabitants as decent, simple, sturdy, etc. That is "East Coast journalism."

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 3:01 pm

In Port Angeles, Washington, we practice West Coast journalism, in which we ruthlessly patronize our immediate surroundings and look wistfully at everything east of us as "the big city" or as a "more developed area" or "higher density urban area." There's other code words, too, like "higher degree of sophistication," "more refined tastes," "first-run movies," "indoor plumbing," "sex with people other than blood relatives," etc. It's totally unconscious, and often has to be edited out ....

jmcg · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 7:19 pm

The trend worth noticing is journalism that
lacks any place, or even defies it. Too many editors at too many papers haven't any sense at all about the cities or surrounding regions or states where they live and collect a paycheck. Notice how many prominently played stories are lame-ass attempts to "localize" the same wire service(s) that every paper gets. An oxymoronic stunt when you think about it. Then there's assigning stories off the calendar -- Christmas shopping, of course, but also pre-April 15 tax filings, pre-Election Day checks of voter registration and projected turnout in an election campaign the same paper hasn't really covered, New Year's resolutions made and broken, "zero tolerance" for boozing it up at this year's senior prom (right), buying back-to-school clothes and supplies etc. These stories fill one paper after another because the editors in charge of assigning stories either don't trust their beat reporters, can't think of anything better or both. Take a look at the city desk/metro desk/local desk of your paper today and tell me if there isn't at least one editor playing New Orleans jazz in a downtown metal band, and another ready to do a story, sidebar and graphic on how Des Moines is the hog butcher for the world.[ December 10, 2002: Message edited by: jmcg ]

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Dec 10, 2002 10:33 pm

Mystery solved???Conference focuses on news coverage of Western issuesBOISE, Idaho (AP) â€” East Coast-based news organizations have trouble covering Western issues such as public land use
and endangered species because they don't understand the territory, journalists and political leaders said at a conference
Dec. 6. Just as a small-town police beat reporter from Montana or Idaho would struggle if he suddenly had to fly to New York City and
file a story about gangland violence, a general-assignment journalist based in Atlanta or Washington, D.C., would likely have
little knowledge about wolf recovery in Wyoming. "There is a vastness left of the 100th meridian that you folks don't understand," former Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus told
more than 1,000 participants at "Dateline: The West," sponsored by the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State
University. The symposium assessed the national media coverage of Western policy on land, water, endangered species and even its
culture. "There's a culture here that is different than Manhattan," said Andrus, Idaho's only four-term governor. ABC anchorman Peter Jennings said that too often the national media look for stereotypical stories about the West and
western issues. "The West is complicated, fascinating and a great story. But it isn't always a story people want us to tell. It's a story about
internal immigration; it's a story about water; it is the story of new cities," Jennings said. Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson pointed to the recovery of grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park as
one example of policy dictated by Easterners who don't understand the on-the-ground ramifications of their decisions. "The grizzlies aren't just in Yellowstone anymore â€” they're all over the place," Simpson said. "You literally have to take your
grandson fishing with a 9-milimeter Glock," he said.

Finn DeSiecle · **Posted:** Thu Dec 12, 2002 4:47 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>"You literally have to take your
grandson fishing with a 9-milimeter Glock," he said.<hr></blockquote>
As long as we're speaking "literally" here, wouldn't you want at least a Glock .45 if you're planning to take on a grizzly?Or is the 9 mm for the fish?

Testy Copy Editors

coast to coast

Who is online

What They're Saying

Useful Links