the new york times

I grew up reading a local newspaper and watching the local news. I was never particularly interested in what they had to say; my experiences are epitomized by the "milk truck" incident, in which a good twenty minutes of programming was spent reporting on an overturned milk truck - I swear they played the video of workers righting it three times.

And then, for some reason or other - probably due to my being on my high school's forensics team - I started reading The New York Times. It was like a whole new world in terms of depth of analysis, issues covered, and so forth. Going back to my local paper, it all suddenly seemed terribly shallow and trivial.

But it wasn't until some time later that I really understood what journalism is about. This was during the Judith Miller incident:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/politics/07leak.html
"Reporter Jailed after Refusing to Name Source"
by Adam Liptak
July 7, 2005
The New York Times

Basically, a government investigated askeed Miller to reveal the identity of a confidential source; she (and the Times) refused. As a result, she was thrown in jail and the Times was assessed a significant daily fine. (As it turned out, Miller was released and the fine removed after the source identified himself). What struck me here as terribly odd was the idea that a reporter would go to jail over this. It made me realize that maybe journalism is a calling, not just a job - that maybe there's something tremendously important about having a free press in a democratic society - that printing newspapers is more than a business; it is a civic duty.

As it happens, Miller is no angel:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EED8133FF930A15753C1A9639C8B63&n=Top%2FOpinion%2FThe%20Public%20Editor&scp=2&sq=judith%20miller&st=cse
"THE PUBLIC EDITOR; the Miller Mess: Lingering Issues among the Answers"
by Byron Calame
October 23, 2005
The New York Times

While it turns out that this incident isn't the best one for revealing the ideal of journalistic integrity, it was the one that first opened my eyes to that possibility - to understanding what the point of the news is.