They grumble, they gripe, they're angry journalists
by Laurent Thomet


WASHINGTON, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - They're angry at their demanding editors. They're angry about the mushrooming workload in shrinking newsrooms. They're even angry about other angry journalists.

But these angry journalists are happy they can now vent their frustrations to the rest of the world, courtesy of angryjournalist.com, a sort of online complaint board allowing ink-stained wretches to gripe anonymously.

Ironically, their anger is partly fueled by the Internet, which has forced newspapers and television networks to reinvent themselves with painful consequences for their staffs.

There's the veterans complaining about newsrooms stretched thin by executives requiring reporters to produce stories for old and new media.

"I'm angry because my company, just like the rest of the industry, wants me to do more with less. They've said, 'To hell with quality. Let's just fill the website with as much (expletive) as possible,'" gripes Angry Journalist #241.

There's also the young guns frustrated by the culture clash.

"I hate the fact that print and online can't work together! Come on, online is the future, so pease have some respect for the webeditors!" says Angry Journalist #700.

The website contains gripes ranging from existential musings about one's career to expletive-laced diatribes that trigger heated exchanges.

Angry Journalist #2559 seems to think that his or her newspaper serves for other purposes than informing readers: "Whatever I write ulimately (sic) either ends up as cage lining or as blankets for bums."

As one would expect at any other job, bosses get the brunt of the gripes.

"Our executive editor, the man who's supposed to be leading our newsroom, wanders around the building like he forgot where he left his coffee cup," writes Angry Journalist #2570.

The website was created by a former journalist who cut short his young career in the news business to work in political communications in Illinois. But he insists his decision to change paths was not driven by anger.

Kiyoshi Martinez, 23, who worked as Web editor for Chicago area community newspapers, said he was "disappointed" in his young journalism career about the direction of the industry.

In early February, the same month he quit journalism, Martinez launched his website after reading a study on burnout among newspaper journalists, which sparked his interest in knowing what was on reporters' minds.

Since then, his website has inspired an imitator, happyjournalist.com, which has much catching up to do with only about 100 "pieces of happiness" compared to the more than 2,600 gripes so far on angryjournalist.com.

"It's kind of depressing to see an industry treat its workers so badly," Martinez told AFP.

While venting about one's job is nothing new, Scott Reinardy, the journalism professor at Ball State University whose burnout study inspired Martinez, says angryjournalist.com provides a place for discussion about the direction of the news business in the age of the Internet.

"Angryjournalist is a tremendous site to allow journalists to vent," Reinardy said in a telephone interview.

"We're in a state of real transition and it's just going to take some time, it's going to take some pain before we can do it I'm afraid," he said. "The uncertainty is scary to people."

Steve Outing, a columnist for the trade publication Editor and Publisher, said news executives should pay attention to angryjournalist.com.

"Things get said on this website that otherwise would not get said -- other than perhaps at the neighborhood bar to co-workers or at home with a spouse," he wrote in his column last month. "I can't help but think that this is a good thing for the news industry."

Meanwhile, Martinez, who now works as a communications specialist for the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus, is happy to have left journalism, earning more money and more vacation in a better working environment.

"I'm having a blast," he said.

Angry Journalist #856 is also happier now: "I'm not angry anymore. I quit my ob."

lt/fgf



Lifestyle-US-Internet-media

AFP a

GetAFP 2.10 -- APR 2, 2008 08:51:14

The same executive editor has also "worked" in Indonesian newsrooms.

...until Piss lamped him

Yeah baby.

And what about Angry Journalist #56734, formerly from Indoneisa but now in the Salvation Army detox facility in Dunnydo.

"I used to get really angry when I turned up for work after a six-day bender and the editor asked me to turn off the porn and produce something other than a soiled tissue," he irrated.

Ha Ha Ha ha Ha

I do remember Angry Journalist 56735 lamping his boss after an afternoon on the bevvy!

I think we've established in the last week that Angry Journalist #56734 likes to "Blow his nose" in internet cafes. Really clean the old pipes out before heading to the office to file some top notch copy.

Bloody idiot broke a bone in his hand and later sliced his arm on a wingmirror as his motorcycle ricocheted off a car in the fastlane on Jalan Sudirman. Managed to hold on though.

The good thing was the 'paper' finally paid him the two months' wages he was owed.

And Dilli I think you are confusing journalist 56735 with another bloody idiot.

Journalist #56736 hasn't woken up yet for his Padang n Vegemite enema I see

Looks as though Gay Journalist #56738 is threatening to ghost-write another Metro Mad column for the Sunday Post.

Bruce?

The only ghosts are in my head. It's all the birds I've nobbed haunting me. My barely adequate psychic defenses are crumbling. Still there's always HQ69 over on my other tab. All in the comfort of my own home too without having to wipe a strange keyboard clean with Kleenex and then go to the front to pay the warnet man Rp.10,000 for my Sherman.

No one could ghost write that drivel

except if they'd been asleep on a table in Pappa's for 5 hours following a heavy Mark Rex session

I have no idea what you're talking about. Greek dinosaurs?

in a sense