Well said.

That's been my journalistic experience as well. The fact, unfortunate though it may be, is that a newspaper that people don't read (or a TV show that people don't watch, etc.) will not survive for long. And people don't want to read about stuff that works.

My first editor's word for what he wanted from me was "provocative." (At the time I was writing opinion columns, known in the trade as "op-ed" because they usually run on the page opposite the editorial page.) He wanted columns that would get readers stirred up, even indignant, but at least motivated to do something. A "see how nice X is, it works as it should" piece would not accomplish that.

So, much as dog breeders might regret the media fascination with dogs who bite people, and their lack of interest in dogs who don't bite people (unless they do something else newsworthy), they know they have to live with it. By the same token, we have to live with their equally unfair fascination with how FF programs don't work, usually ignoring the many ways in which they work quite well.

The good news is that, if the general public gets scared off trying to collect and redeem FF miles, it leaves more seats for us.

On that basis, Karen, go for it. Scare 'em off! Make sure nobody who reads your piece ever asks for an award seat I might want! Tell 'em we told you to, and tell 'em why!

I probably should have disclosed that I work in the media.. but i don't cover anything related to travel (I wish, that would be a sweet gig

I suppose I have covered aviation on very rare occasions (airplane crashes). That's where reporters can be at their worst...

I was a police reporter at the Detroit Free Press when TWA 800 crashed, there were 2 Detroiters on the plane. So they sent me out to Oakland County, where one of the families lived, and told me to camp out in their front yard (with crews from 4 TV stations) and knock on their door every hour until they talked to us.

This teenage girl kept answer the door in tears (it had been less than 24 hrs since the crash that killed her parents). Anyway, the TV reporters just had to get that girl crying on camera, and they used all the tricks when she opened the front door ("tell us about your parents, we've heard they were wonderful peoeple and we want to show our viewers that side of them" and "maybe it will make you feel better to talk about it," etc., etc.)

And the Free Press photographer who was with me was like "man, we are such vultures." This was local media - in a very competetive market, granted - but I can imagine the pressure to "get the story" is much greater on a national level.

I haven't been involved in any of the Sept. 11 coverage but maybe that was an exception, I don't know. I would guess that reporters were a tad gentler (but not out of the goodness of their hearts. Only because they had to show some compassion for political reasons - they couldn't descend on the victims like vulture so much because that would be incredibly bad PR)

Disclaimer: I think people who work for niche media and speciality publications for specific industries - that sort of thing - have higher ethical standards than reporters at mainstream national media organizations.

just one more thing - man I'm getting wayyy off the topic, feel free to yank me into the "reporters behaving badly" thread...

But I've gotta add that TWA 800 claimed another Detroiter - a well-known music director at the largest church in the city, Word of Faith on the Northwest side - and I was lucky enough to cover his funeral. We dealt very sensistively with his family and the funeral and all. This being Detroit, the 100-voice choir at this guy's 10,000-member church was absolutely incredible. Probably a few them had Motown recording contracts...

Anyway, just wanted to add that media isn't all bad - I just like to mention the dark side because most people don't see the cut-throat reporting that's done to get stories (unless they have the very unfortunate situation of losing someone in a tragic accident or crime) Those smiling anchor people who read the news kind of obscure the seemy side of the biz.

But Karen seems like a nice enough person

With 20+ years in the industry, I find it amazing so many FTers are journalists.

Provocative is great for Opinions (what we now call our op-ed, since op-ed is usually letters} but not for news. Unfortunately, I frequently hear our reporters setting out to "prove" something. Everybody has their own point of view. Good grief, we ran a puff piece in Business about an attorney who's firm is behind every class action suit ever filed. I personally would have run an article explaining how he's gotten rich at the expense of shareholders, like moi, in little companies that aren't really doing anything wrong.

Never had trouble redeeming miles, AA, Southwest, United. With FewMiles' advice I pulled off a trip to Paris gaining miles and status that my editor said sounded illegal. Not. But it was great fun.




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lili
shopping her way to first class

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jmartin:
[B] I probably should have disclosed that I work in the media.. but i don't cover anything related to travel (I wish, that would be a sweet gig

in reference to this part of your post, what if the travel section reporters are in a sense, making money for writing about the very things we all toil about to come up with in here and share?

This is a public forum so all they have to do is land that job, know a few things and then come here to ask us to more personally clarify what it is exactly that we did on XYZ promo or something and they have their story.

they make coin for the article, we get merely named (or blasted for this), and it goes on...

Not that Karen is doing this but man, we all should write for our local pubs, eh?
Maybe I will write a book on this stuff and copy/paste everything I like in here that relates to my own issues in order to do so--being certain, of course, to name names so as to unprotect the guilty! ha ha.

MM

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If speed is not your thing, distance may as well be. Enjoy and embrace it all!

Sorry, but I think reporters deserve a bit more credit than that. (I may be biased, but my work with the media doesn't cover much of my time in the work force and has never been my major source of income.) They get ideas and information from lots of places. Nobody can get an article by taking a bunch of FT posts, or bar-room discussions, or anything else, and piecing them together. What reporters get paid for (not very much, BTW) is finding interesting ideas, realizing that they'd make interesting articles, figuring out where they can find enough additional information to flesh them out, digging up that information (which nearly always involves asking people somehow), organzing it all into a coherent whole that makes a point and grabs readers while fitting into some predetermined word count, getting the grammar more or less OK (copy editors can usually finish that bit), coping with the editorial and other personalities they run into along the way...

Anyone who thinks a writer can make a living by lurking here or anywhere else on the Net, using copy/paste commands on random posts and shipping off the result, ought to try it for a while. I'd make sure your rent is paid a few months in advance before trying.

If you wrote a book though, wouldn't much of the useful information become dated by the time it was published?

Personally, I think you'd have to use a medium with great immediacy like the Internet. And then, you'd be looking at competition from people who already do it, sites "More Room Throughout," PGary's site, all the FlyerTalk forums and others.

BTW, if any of you journalists oversee education reporters, a quick advertisement for seminars put on by Columbia University Teacher's College (Hechinger Institute for Education and the Media) - they host seminars for education reporters and editors from major newspapers throughout the country.

Last time I flew, it was to a Hechinger seminar in Racine, Wisconsin. U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige was one of the presenters, got to visit with him a lot, not everyday I get to rub shoulders with a guy like that, you know. These seminars are first-rate, and most of the expenses are paid by Hechinger and various foundations so your newspaper only has pay a minimal amount for a reporter or editor to attend.