Word: journalitis
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...unable to repress giggles? That some Saigon soothsayers claim that President Diem died because canal diggers had chopped off the head of a dragon guarding his father's grave? The unlikely answer, as many of its more than 1,000,000 readers could verify, is the Wall Street Journal. It included those tidbits in recent front-page "leaders," the long, unhurried, magazinelike stories that make the Journal one of the nation's best-written and most readable newspapers...
...lure of the leader has enabled the Journal to attract bright young journalists, who find themselves exploring such fascinating topics as the revolt of black college students, prison homosexuality, the frustrations of life in urban ghettos, and inadequate U.S. medical care. The reporter may spend weeks on these assignments, travel widely, and wind up with a front-page byline. He also knows-and enjoys the idea-that his pay and promotion will often depend on how he handles such stories...
Lately, however, the bright young men have become very restless. At least 15 experienced reporters left the paper last year. The Journal pictured seven of its young reporters in a 1968 recruiting brochure aimed at college students; five of them have already quit the paper...
Boring Boards. The problem is that the Journal staff is suddenly being called upon to work harder at the paper's original reason for being: covering financial news. This may include intriguing stories about corporate competition and executive politics. More often, however, it involves checking out public relations handouts, tabulating financial statements and reporting boring board meetings. Journal reporters handle such items not only for the paper but also for its Dow Jones financial-news wire, which is facing serious competition for the first time. A similar wire opened last year by Reuters claims some 600 clients...
Their vehicle is the Chicago Journalism Review, a candid monthly critique of the city's press. It grew out of a feeling by many newsmen that their editors and publishers have been too cozy for too long with the city's dominant politicians and businessmen. "News management, news manipulation and assaults on the integrity of the working press," said the Review in its first issue, "are commonplace in this tight little city." Editors go along "through conspiracies of silence." Many newsmen, the journal added, are also guilty: "They learn not to rock the boat or they cultivate cynicism...