BoatBanter.com - To protect and serve

On 8/21/17 9:28 PM, Bill wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
On 8/21/17 12:49 PM, Bill wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
On 8/20/17 11:47 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 20 Aug 2017 18:31:50 -0400, Keyser Soze
wrote:

On 8/20/17 2:59 PM, wrote:

Yeah, I was a people person back then. You were a back room machine person.

I am sure I met more people in my average day than you did, fetching
coffee for the real news writers. I am sure if we could ask Truman who
he had lunch with that day, your name would not come up. He might
remember there was a "gofer" there but I doubt he would remember much
more. Did you read him something someone else wrote, like you do here?

Heheheh. What a little mind you have.

You certainly seem to keep your intelligence under a box.

That you think I was a "gofer" at The Star is hilarious. I was a
full-fledged reporter from my first day at the paper, and after my short
indoctrination to learn the paper's style book, I spent my time there as
a street reporter, general assignment reporter, and feature story
writer. My last year there, after my reportorial assignment work was
done for the evening, I moved over to the copy desk, where I edited and
marked up copy for typesetting, and in my last six months, before I was
recruited by the Associated Press, I was acting World News Editor
because the actual World News Editor had taken a year's leave and
suggested to the managing editor of the paper that I fill in in his
absence. I was an AP Newsman and then an AP Chief of Bureau. I met
interesting people throughout my news career and, of course, afterwards.

I don't bother to do much enterprise writing here. It's a waste of
effort, what with the plethora of no-nothings and what-about-itis
posters like you.

They must have had low standards to hire an untrained person as a full
reporter.

Where did you get the idea I was "untrained" as a reporter? I needed to
learn the paper's style book, which had a number of Star peculiarities,
such as never referring to a car as anything but a "motor car," and at
least 100 more of those kinds of descriptors. I'd been a "stringer" for
the paper for almost a year, and was recommended for the summer job by a
journalism professor who was pretty well connected at the paper, even
though I had only taken a couple of courses in the j-school because my
majors were in the college of liberal arts. As soon as I got to the
paper, I started writing under the tutelage of the assistant night
editor, who helped me get started on the right foot. By the end of that
summer, I was offered a regular full-time job tailored to my remaining
college class schedule. I worked five nights a week, from 4:30 pm to
12:30 am, with Wednesday and Saturday off, on the morning Star which,
for convenience sake, was called the Kansas City Times. Funny thing was,
the circulation of the Times back then was greater than that of the Star.

Whatever the standards were, I'm sure they were higher than whatever
standards you faced for your first professional job. Every summer, the
paper got hundreds of applicants for the two summer jobs. I got one of
them. The other guy was hired by the PM paper...we shared a desk,
typewriter, and, of course, spittoon.

Here's a picture of The Star building...

http://tinyurl.com/y73a322k

The presses used to be on the building on the right, but they've been
moved to another facility.

You even admit you did not have a journalism degree. As to a style book,
does not make a reporter. As to professional qualifications, mine were a
lot higher than yours.

The ability to be nosy, to be able to research, and the ability to write
are the usual requirements for a new reporter. A journalism degree is
neither required nor necessary. The first day on my job at The Star, the
day city editor told me to "forget anything you learned at
J-school...we'll teach you our way." Fortunately, I had taken only a
couple of courses at journalism school, one of which, typography, was of
no use at the paper, but useful later in life, so there was little to
forget. I took the J-school courses to be closer to my sweetie at the
time, a delicious redhead who did graduate from j-school.

What was that saying at the engineering school...oh, year... "Yesterday,
I couldn't spell engineer, but today I are one."