Maureen Dowd has a column in The New York Times about the atmosphere in old-time newsrooms. It’s a lament for things lost.
When I went to work at 14, I was told that the editor kept a bottle in the lower left hand drawer of his desk. That was by tradition. It’s what lower left-hand drawers were for. The drawer was opened only in emergencies.
The rogues of the press tell good stories about the old days, but the real loss is the loss of collegiality. I’ve heard the same lament, oddly, from scholars.
Where I remember a sports writer and a society columnist giving advice to a cop reporter on how to write a murder story, I’ve heard professors in the sciences recalling how they used to talk to specialists in history, philosophy and literature who knew something about their field. The conversations from different perspectives, different disciplines, were animated, often lengthy and sometimes spilled over into a bar.
People from different backgrounds learned from each other, and it was all great fun. But a lot of the fun seems to be in the past. People are too busy grading exams, publishing papers or chairing committees to talk.
I think the atmosphere in common places — especially places that deal in ideas — is vital. I also think it’s too soon to lament. These conversations have died in some places but live on in others.
It seems to be partly a question of values. Lively conversation occurs in places where it's valued.
If I were young again, I'd try to find a place where people were having interesting conversations and try to figure out how to work there.
• Source: Maureen Dowd, “Requiem for the newsroom”; The New York Times, April 29, 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html?smid=tw-share
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