PressEthic

In an email response to one of my articles, one of my instructors asked that I “elevate” the piece that I’d written beyond a description of an eighth grade guidance counselor.

The following Tuesday in class, we looked at the tumble the circulation numbers at the top 20 papers had taken. What will save newspapers? “Good writing,” answered that same professor.

So take a look at this past Sunday’s New York Times Travel section and check out the cover story Going to a Spa? Mazel Tov!. It’s a bad title for a good article. It succeeds with the elevation that the professor was talking about.

Essentially, this is a piece about a woman’s trip to a few spas in Israel. There’s oil and massage, some mention of reflexology, and descriptions of the organic meals that were served. But this is in a place more noted for its anxieties than its capacity for relaxation. The author, Sarah Wildman, never forgets that.

Holistic offerings abound. Cultural perfomance evenings are common, and their informality feels like a distant echo of cultural nights from the heyday of kibbutzim. This is not a rejection of Israel, it is an antidote.

Ms. Wildman refers to the visitors who compare notes about their sons in the army and the intifada is always in the background. This story about spas is also about the living that happens in Israel, a look at something other than the death that, sadly, happens there too often.

Because this is an account of the author’s trip, it would’ve been easy for her to fall into a chronological minute-by-minute retelling of the things she did. But given the location, you can tell that Ms. Wildman wanted to take her topic a step further.

This is a digression, but in today’s paper, Judy Miller talks about her “decision” to leave the Times, her pride in tact because of her “accomplishments” – “a Pulitzer, a DuPont, an Emmy and other awards” – and her noble struggle for a federal shield law.

She says that she’s leaving because she has “become the news, something a New York Times reporter never wants to be.” Ms. Wildman was a part of her story, albeit a story without the same significance. Perhaps if Ms. Miller had approached some of her stories the way Ms. Wildman did this article, she wouldn’t have to quit her job.