Tuesday, June 10, 2008

More than one month after I said I'd be done with said thesis, and I'm still not blogging. My apologies.

Please accept this posting as a token...of me.

Firstly, the thesis got itself an extension because advisers felt it was promising enough to broaden and refine towards a hopeful publishing. I will definitely keep all posted on the milestones of this progress.

And now...onwards.

Last week I had the good fortune to meet and interview Ms. Mariane Pearl, who in the course of our 12 minute interview managed to rekindle the inklings for why I first became so interested in journalism: to write to better the world and to reveal the goodness in this arena of media that is jaded by the belief that it doesn't sell if it doesn't bleed.

Ms. Pearl is a woman of incomparable strength and honesty.

"My husband having died as a journalist, I couldn’t just live as a journalist without having a purpose that was very clear to me. Breaking the news is not a purpose to me, and I make a very clear separation between the entertainment business and journalism."

"For me I had to define what would be worth it and I felt the one thing that I witnessed in the world is the need for hope. Nobody voices it, but it’s such a vital element that we need, we need it as much as we need oxygen."

Due to the nature of the Internet, I will not confess how this affected my career aspirations, but will suffice in saying that my current professional privileged position is part of a much larger puzzle, the pieces of which are to be many and angled in conspicuous ways.

And on that note, two websites that need to be read by more, more frequently:

ProPublica

Wikileaks

Also, if you haven't yet, you need to read or watch to Bill Moyers' keynote address at this year's National Conference for Media Reform. It exemplifies all that is good in journalism and all that needs to be heeded as the future beckons us forward.

I will leave you with this for now and shall return on a regular basis with more goodness for eyes that feast.

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