Power of the Press

I saw the movie "Spotlight" with one of my favorite millennials. "It was a little slow," she said as we walked out, providing the perfect opening for a (groan) story.

Not that things were wonderful back in the days when you looked at old newspaper articles on microfiche (mine inevitably got jammed) and did research by looking at actual physical books (sometimes they actually physically were not there).

But watching the movie reminded me of the excitement of reporting a long, complicated story, something you'd immerse yourself in for weeks or months, something you'd begin to dream about or wake up thinking about.

It reminded me of the power of the press and the great profession of journalism, from which not only I (doing media relations at a law school) — but the whole country — has drifted. Few news organizations have the time and resources to devote to long-form investigative pieces. It's a sound-bite world, and we're all the poorer for it.


(Web offset printer, courtesy Wikipedia)