For in this World I'm Bound to Ramble

Movie Poster (Yay Wikipedia!)

The title this week is from a song called "I am a Man Of Constant Sorrow" made famous in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? which I have yet to watch any more than the music video portion of it, which may I add is pretty interesting... (Warning: Profanity -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtgZ5fHOuU )  making me wonder why I've never heard of using a can as a microphone.

In researching this post to give accurate year information, I found that George Clooney is in the movie, and it's like a Romeo + Juliet (Bazz Lahrman Movie)-esque version (in modernizing it up to the 1920's) of the Odyssey apparently... Though I think it'd be a tad more interesting

Which brings me to another thing. Since I've been sick, I've done a whole lot of nothing productive. Though I do feel satisfied with what I have been able to accomplish.

BACKSTORY: So back on Election Day, a few days before we finalised the Election piece, I was sitting on the first floor of the Carnegie library on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I was flipping through a book simply titled Cronkite because A) I wanted to know more about the guy B) If you're going to be a journalist, you should see how it developed into what it is today and C) I was bored and the guy I was to conduct the interviews yet hadn't showed up yet.

I told this little story to my mom, who in turn told it to my aunt and uncle (the same ones that introduced me to KDKA, John Green, and WYEP) who bought me the book. And now I have something to reference that isn't his autobiography that I borrowed (am borrowing) from my father.

Source: Some News Guy's Blog:
http://dennishouse.wordpress.com/

I flipped once again today to the part I was skimming on that November day - the infamous JFK assassination broadcast.

I read about it, and what went on behind the scenes, and I realised: This is the dawn of the "Breaking News Bulletin" regarding national news for ALL THREE networks. I look at today's media coverage and think that it seems a tad flustered in the marathon coverage. If the creation of it was this event, so be it. But if they did it 'right' or at least less flustered than today's. I wanted to see also it in context. I've seen the thirty second video clip ten thousand times from ten thousand different instances, but I wanted to see the context. I then stumbled across a gem, two hours of the original coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Ry9-bpixM (roughly 56:32 for the "The Flash From Dallas - Apparently Official..."))

He did it better and more tastefully than what I had seen done less than three weeks ago with the Newtown Shooting. I say this not based on concrete study of the journalistic arts, or anything. I just say it as someone who watched both, and compared the two. It's not even that in 1963 they did it more 'right' or 'good', I just think there was a difference in what I saw, and the older footage - yikes, it turns 50 this coming year -

And I am reminded of why in the world I want to be a journalist: Because I think it's a way to make a difference in how people think, and how people view what goes on around them. I may be preaching atop the proverbial soapbox, or this may be like a fever dream in a blog post form, but I might be onto something.

I'm not sure what I am doing at this point, or exactly "what I want to be when I grow up" but I do know a few things: I want to write, I want to help people, and above all, I want to make a difference.

It's a cliche anymore, but I still like John Green's words in An Abundance of Katherines:

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try and do something remarkable?"

Or, In the words of Walter Cronkite (Which at press time I use as my quote at the end of my signature:

"I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got."