My old journalism school colleague, Sam Roe, won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for the Chicago Tribune’s investigative series on the hidden hazards in Chinese-made toys, car seats and cribs. The companies making the toys apparently knew that they posed choking hazards, as did the federal government, but no one did anything about it. Several kids died as a result.
In these days of gloom and doom in the newspaper industry, the Pulitzer Prizes serve as reminder of what journalism can do: that old adage, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Now people are looking first to the Web for their news content. Many newspapers are still turning out important stories but the ranks of decently-paid reporters are growing thinner.
Sam and I graduated from the Columbia Journalism School in 1986. Sam has been honing his reporting skills for 22 years. Experience counts. Not just the ability to throw up a quick blog post. (where, alas, I have landed.)
2 comments:
Not alas. There's room in the world for you and Sam and definitely for your blog!
Hi Frances,
Love, love, love your blog. It's such a perfect morsel of literary goodness. What a wonderful way to keep up with what's going on in the book world.
Natalie
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