It was diffuse. The profession has been very fluid and I am not sure it for the better or it's survival.
I believe practicing in multi-media is fine, it reaches readership. But, the fluidity of the profession in the year 2007 has brought a casualness to it that I believe falls outside the practice. Accepted. Sure, but, is it really journalism or the dumming down of the profession.
Are there ethical reviews of journalists as in the practice of law? There probably should be with an increase and not decrease in the specialty of 'investigative' journalism. It's disturbing to find the profession is moving away from the venue.
Journalism requires honesty and good faith (click on title)
By ROSEMARY MCLEODIt's no surprise that Kevin McNeil, son of murdered Tokoroa teacher Lois Dear, would get death threats. We like to crush people who speak out.
McNeil has had malicious calls since his mother's death, he revealed last week. Such bullying would have silenced many people, but he refused to tone down his victim impact statement at the killer's sentencing in spite of them.
Admittedly his initial outbursts were a bit rugged. He said he wanted the killer to "swing off the nearest tree". But by the time he made the statement that really mattered, time had passed, and he'd become more reasonable.
Who are the people who make furtive calls like this? I suspect they come from the same pool as people who write mean-spirited letters to newspapers, and to journalists. The late great Frank Haden used to insist that they all live in boarding houses, taking pen (red biro) to paper on wet Sundays when they have nothing to do but brood. The most virulent usually don't sign their offerings, and write in capital letters. Now that they have the internet to rant on, you rather miss that red ink. It gave fair warning.
The casual malice of such mail still gets to me sometimes; it can overpower kind and reasonable correspondence on a bad day. I always imagine its authors' families, postmen, neighbours, and the local body politicians they surely harass over easement disputes and stray cats. Why don't they take up something useful, like canasta, and give us all a break?
Last week I confessed in this column that I'd wept over an unpleasant magazine article targeting people I knew.
