A New Mission

I know I know – it’s been months since I’ve updated this blog. Here’s the thing. This is the first blog I’ve ever had and when I created it I had no idea the power of social networking. I hadn’t yet joined twitter and other than MySpace, which I only knew about through my children, I wasn’t familiar with any other blogging site. In fact, I really created this page as just a, “well I’ll blog if I have time,” kind of thing without any forethought into what it could mean for both myself and others.

Since then however, I have learned a lot and am now a proud member of Twitter, Blogger, Facebook and several other social networking sites. This includes MySpace, which I swore at one time I would never join since I thought anyone my age who had a MySpace really needed to get a life.  Yeah sorry about that.

So, here it is a few months since I’ve blogged last and I have finally, after all this time, managed to get comfortable with the online social world. And those feelings of awkwardness I once felt? Those passed a while ago.

In the last months while getting acquainted with the social side of the Internet I have been thinking about what it is I really want to do with this blog and I’ve made a few decisions.

I want this site to serve several purposes – and I may change this in the future as I learn more but for now, these are my plans.

I would like my blog to serve as a resource to journalists whether they are freelance reporters or working in the field full-time. Also, as this blog is called Bottles and Bylines I think it would seem fitting for it to be a site for mothers who are juggling families while working in the chaotic and insane media to come to and receive some support knowing others are in their same situation. Maybe they’ll even find some suggestions here that might help to make life run a little smoother.

Finally, I would like my blog to be a site of commentary and analysis of the media. As most know my politics are conservative however, as a journalist I have to make sure to always provide fair and balanced reporting.

It seems however, many people believe most of the press is biased and have even become spokespeople for our politicians. Some have even gone as far as to accuse us of hiding the truth and covering up facts and information from the public.

Whether that’s true or not I’m not offering any opinion at this point. What I would like to do however, is take a close look at the media in large and start discussing what’s really happening. Have they lost their ability to be fair and balanced? Is it their job to be objective and how realistic is that – they are human after all? Did they help to get President Obama elected and are they catering to his whims in assisting him to get “his” message out rather than hold him accountable to the people?

These are just some of the issues I’d like to analyze. And in doing so hopefully offer my readers an insight to the press they may not have while at the same time helping us, the media, to start looking at ourselves and asking whether or not we are doing are jobs. Finally, I would like to provide my readers with a historical view of the press.  

That all said, I don’t know how many of my goals for this site I’m going to be able to accomplish but at least I have something in mind which is more than I did when I started. So let’s get going and hopefully together we can make this an awesome blog where people will want to come.

Tomorrow . . . I will be blogging about the Washington Press and how many people are saying they are acting as the PR agents to President Obama.

I'm making progress

Okay, I managed to leave a couple of comments on web sites today, updated my twitter, sent some emails and took the time to actually post another blog the day after I wrote the last one. Yeah!

It may not be much but it's proof to me I can actually break out of my cyber shell. One particular email I sent today was to C. Hope Clark, the owner of http://www.fundsforwriters.com/ Hope is absolutely an awesome writer and really works hard to provide quality leads for writers on contests and markets.

I've wanted to email her for a long time just to thank her for the time she puts into her work for others but haven't had the courage. Today I did it. So maybe it's not the president but I'll get there. The president will probably be easier however, since I don't really care what he thinks. Anyway, it was a big leap for me in the way of getting over my fears.

I remember the first time I had to interview somebody for a newspaper story. I was a staff reporter for the college newspaper. I loved writing but was absolutely scared to death to ask anyone questions, which obviously you have to do when you're a reporter.

I was covering a story on the nuclear Downwinders in Utah who had just lost their court battle and were holding a candlelight vigil on campus. I couldn't bring myself to talk to them so the photographer who was with me jumped in and started the interview. That probably would have marked the beginning and ending of my journalism pursuits if it hadn't been for him.

While that was a long time ago I can still remember it like yesterday. The story I did on that event ended up in the congressional records as the Downwinders entered it as part of their testimony to congress. They chose my story over others that had been written on the same event because they felt it presented the most fair and balanced report about the Downwinders.

Now years later -- I don't think there's much that scares me when it comes to reporting. I've interviewed people from Vice President Dick Cheney to the homeless man on the street and I've loved every minute of it. Although I have to admit there are those times when I've done an investigative story and I know it's going to make people mad that I feel a little tied up in knots right before the story hits the stands and I get that first hate mail.

One of the ways I get through those moments is to say things like,"It's not my job to make people like me. I'm not in the customer service business or I'm not running a popularity contest or I'm not running a political campaign where I have to care whether the masses are pleased with me it's my job to cover the political campaign and make sure the masses know the truth." When I remind myself of this it seems to help keep my perspective on what it is I do.