The Good Ones

What it takes to be a good -- or great -- journalist

Dedicated to those journalists in the Bahamas that work every day to be great.

~ejr~

It was June 1998. Jill Geisler was about to do the one of the most difficult things in her journalism career; say good-bye to her newsroom. Jill had worked at Milwaukee’s WITI-TV for 25 years. She had been news director since 1978. She had hired most of the people in her shop. Now she was leaving them to join The Poynter Institute. In saying good-bye to them, she wanted to leave them with a reminder of the values she tried to teach and the newsroom culture they shared. Her staff had often teased her about her concept of “teaching moments,” her term for mini-lessons in the newsroom or important points brought forward in news stories. Before her last day, she wrote a personal note to each of 100 employees. She also wrote and enclosed her tribute to them titled, “The Good Ones.”

They come to this craft for all the right reasons.

For the learn-something turn-around-teach-something dance done daily under deadline.

For the chance to do some good.

For the chance to use the voice…the clear strong voice that television provides us…and to speak up for the voiceless.

The good ones work wonders with words. They protect their power by keeping them simple and honest.

They “matchmake” words to pictures and sound, and celebrate the marriage. They are honored to be called “storytellers.”

The good ones arrive at the morning meeting with doughnuts and ideas. The doughnuts come from a box; the ideas start from scratch or from calling/checking/connecting, far beyond the day’s newsprint or wires. The ideas become enterprise stories. Like pastries, they are fresh and delicious.

The good ones make mistakes. But they make them so infrequently that they remember every one. Painfully. In excruciating detail. They take responsibility immediately…and move to right the wrong right now and for the future.

The good ones walk the ethics walk as daily exercise…and never let a deadline be the demon that breaks their stride. They have biases they keep in cages, far away from their stories. They will not use their status as journalists to get into or out of a place they should not be.

The good ones are fruitful and multiply. They work better in partnerships and best in teams. People want to work with them. They nurture a culture of quality and character that makes their workplace a warm place.

The good ones volunteer. They re-write their job descriptions to add the words “helps colleagues/helps the community for the sheer pleasure of it.” And it pleases them to do more than is asked because they see the big picture and it is filled with the faces of people who need them.

The good ones are responsible risk-takers, resolutely faithful to principle, but openly flirtatious with creativity. They fearlessly knock down walls and remodel knowing they build on a firm foundation.

The good ones are makers of memories–through the lessons they teach and the lives they touch. Through the heart they add to the wires and lights in the box.

They bloom where they are planted and sometimes they grow away. But they let distance define only miles, never mission. They keep connected; they comfort and they cheer. For they come to this craft for all the right reasons.

And for The Good Ones, the reasons never change.

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