We Want Media

Hey, J-School kid! Put down the Starbucks, pick up that scotch, light that cigarette and get back to work...or don't if you want to stay employed.

Do you like to work out, maybe have a Jamba Juice while checking notes? No wonder you're a poor journalist! Well, maybe.

In fact, Tony Dokoupil at CJR Daily decided to examine Professor Doug Underwood's recent article, "Depression, Drink and Dissipation:"

[p]ublished in the winter 2007 volume of Journalism History, [it] finds that almost half of the best people to ever push a noun against a verb in newsprint were debilitated by depression, serious anxiety, or bipolar disorder; over a third were titanic drunks, pill-poppers, or opium-addicts; nearly a third were serial philanderers, and a sizable bunch were misogynists, man-eaters, or violent bullies.

Perhaps this explains the NYU J-Dept move to Cooper Square, so there can be "happy" office hours. But Dokoupil notes that there are some discrepancies, since Underwood also brings in people loosely associated with the news industry. Not to mention with niche blogs obsessed with gossip, it's a little harder to be a raging drunk without someone running the photos. But all writers are tragic figures who seemed to have inspired the current crop to keep it clean and especially hide their demons better.

But even then, the stories can be hilarious.