NewspaperAlum

Murphy's Law: ``Change is a Great Catalyst for New Opportunities.’’

Caryle Murphy with her nephews at Yellowstone National Park

Murphy interviewing Islamic scholar Ahmed Bin Baz in Jeddah

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Though no longer reporting for a major daily newspaper, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Caryle Murphy [See her personal website ]is still plying her trade both in the U.S. and abroad.

Skeptical about the durability of the newspaper industry, Murphy accepted a company buyout from the Washington Post in 2006 to begin freelancing and pursue stories near and dear to her heart, especially in the Middle East, a troubled region raging with complexity and conflict, conditions, in other words, always appealing to an inquisitive journalist like herself.

Besides, as Murphy told me, ``I believe that change is a great catalyst for new opportunities.’’

So soon after taking her four nephews on the mother of all camping trips, which included a spectacular trip down the Green River in Utah and then to Yellowstone, she requested a visa from the Saudi government to work in the kingdom as a free-lance journalist.

She was pleasantly stunned to learn she had been approved by the government. But then again, timing is everything. ``Fortunately’’ Murphy said, ``I asked for a visa at a time when the Saudi government was trying to attract foreign correspondents to reside in the kingdom.''

Beginning in 2008, then, Murphy took up residence at a compound in Riyadh for foreign residents of the kingdom, where she remained for the next three years, mingling and blending with families from around the world, including ones from Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, Spain, and India. Her yoga instructor was from Iran.

Murphy made it clear to me the foreign families weren’t forced to live in the compound; it was their choice largely because it provided more of a secular environment and came equipped with a number of amenities, including restaurants, a swimming pool and a gym without the strict gender segregation that is the custom in Saudi Arabia. And neither was Murphy required to wear a black robe over her clothes (like she did) when she left the compound during the day.

While in Riyadh, she reported for a number of news organizations, principally the Globalpost, the Christian Science Monitor and the National in Abu Dhabi.

Did she encounter any government-imposed restrictions interviewing local residents? `` For the most part, I was able to move around freely, meet Saudis with relative ease and report without interference’’ Murphy told me.  Approaching government officials, however, remains a huge problem for most foreign journalists. The Saudi government, Murphy said, remains excessively secretive, making interviews difficult to land.

Fortunately, she found an abundance of gripping and newsworthy stories to report on without having to rely on government officials. She did this mainly by keeping her ear to the ground, listening closely to the concerns and pent-up anxieties of the residents, especially as violent protests erupted in countries all around them.

Back on American soil in 2011, Murphy became a public scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C.; a place that has long been considered a journalists best friend, especially for those who want to write books. It was at the Center where she researched and wrote her latest book, ``A Kingdom's Future: Saudi Arabia through the Eyes of its Twentysomethings.'' . Her residence at the Wilson Center ended in 2012.

Murphy tells me she’s not sure what’s she’ll do next, though it will almost certainly involve writing, hopefully in the journalism field, though she remains cynical about the industry’s future especially when she reads dim-witted headlines like  the one she noticed the other day on Yahoo News, speculating as to who the next Bachelorette will be. ``Part of me’’ Murphy says,`` thinks that our civilization is passing through a technological-robotic-digital transformation whose destination we don’t yet see and that will change us in fundamental ways.’’

Before reporting full-time for the Post, Murphy was a free-lancer in the West African country of Angola, where she worked for Newsweek, the Sunday Times of London, and the Washington Post. After being hired by the Post full-time, she served as foreign correspondent during the tumultuous 1970's amid the Soweto student uprising and police murder of black leader Steve Biko, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. During the 1990’s she had a tour of duty as the Post’s Cairo Bureau Chief, responsible for covering the Arab world.

And as a crowning achievement to her courageous reporting, she was awarded a Pulitzer-Prize in 1991 in the category of International Reporting for her dispatches from occupied Kuwait, some of which she filed while in hiding from Iraqi authorities. She was also a recipient of the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting for her coverage of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and subsequent 1990-91 Gulf War.

In addition to her book she wrote on Saudi Arabia during her residence at the Wilson Center, she also authored ``Passion for Islam’’  , which explores Islam's contemporary revival and the roots of religious extremism in the Middle East.

When not covering hot spot overseas, Murphy’s domestic assignments for the Post included U.S. immigration policy, U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Va. and religion. A year before accepting a company buyout (2006) she reported from Baghdad for three months. Outside of the newsroom, Murphy was the 1994-1995 Edward R. Murrow Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Raised in Massachusetts, she is a graduate of Trinity University in Washington, D.C., and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

Murphy is single and lives in Washington D.C.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
March 11, 2013

Finally, A Dictionary for Deciphering the News

We have another first.

Just think of the hundreds and hundreds of specialized dictionaries there are on the market.

We have a ``Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English’’, a ``Dictionary of Obsolete English’’, a ``Dictionary of Catch Phrases’’, a ``Dictionary of Confusable Words’’, a ``Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address’’, a ``Dictionary of Euphemisms’’, and a ``Dictionary of Sports Idioms’’, but not one on Journalese; that is, until now.

Thanks to authors Paul Dickson and Robert Skole and the recent publication of ``Journalese: A Dictionary for Deciphering the  [Marion Street Press] this is the first dictionary devoted specifically to  ``Journalese.''

Dickson, by the way, is author of another recently released book: ``Words from the White House: Words and Phrases Coined or Popularized by America’s Presidents’’ .

 Journalese, for those not familiar with the term, is a code word for journalist jargon, distinguished by clichés, sensationalism, and triteness of thought, which usually appear in your local newspaper but is rarely spoken at the office water cooler.

The authors in their introduction make it clear, however, this dictionary isn’t intended to pass judgment, and neither is it meant to be a celebration of journalese. Rather, their objective is to ``describe and define it and, in the process, perhaps spike –or at least skewer-some of its more overwrought examples.’’

Any lover of words and newspapers will get a tremendous kick out of this A-to-Z dictionary. It’s a highly entertaining, light and breezy, and witty look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of newspaper buzzwords and phrases. Aside from its pure entertainment value, this is practically a mandatory book for any writer to have parked next to their computer or laptop-since it will undoubtedly serve as a handy and useful reference guide to prevent falling victim to some of the most worn-out and overused phrases in American journalism.

So how exactly did this book come about?

Paul Dickson, the co-author of this book and author of more than 60 books, including ``The Dickson Baseball Dictionary’’, ``The Congress Dictionary ‘’ (with Paul Clancy), and a ``Dictionary of the Space Age and Slang ’’, has been collecting journalese terms for years. Some of the terms, in fact, were so outdated they couldn’t be used in this book. So Dickson decided to team with Robert Skole, a Boston resident, who has worked as a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent. 

They previously collaborated on another book, ``The Volvo Guide to Halls of Fame: The Traveler's Handbook of North America's Most Inspiring and Entertaining Attractions.’’  The dictionary took about a year to compile as they scoured Google, Nexis, and a number of other databases that could search newspapers' use of specific words. Skole told me they found WoPular  , an aggregator of news, especially helpful. The New York Times’ historical archives was another helpful site in finding specific journalese words, such as with hackneyed examples of the word ``Many.’’ For their sidebar devoted to Bible phrases titled ``Gospel Journalese’’, the websiteThe Blue Letter Bible , an online resource packed with useful information and data of words used in the Bible was another gold mine.

As newspapers continue to plow forward with buyouts and the slashing of staff, with copy editors usually absorbing the brunt of these cuts-are journalese terms running amok in newsrooms today or slipping through the cracks (more often than they should) without the eagle eyes of experienced copy editors?

``Newspapers' cutting down copy desks has created a tsunami of journalese’’ Skole concedes.  ``Back when I went to the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism, any reporter using "many" in a story on the Daily Missourian would get it tossed back to him or her. ``Today’’, Skole points out, ``nobody cares. It's all the Journalese that fits in print.’’

For anyone fascinated by newspaper style and usage, the authors have created a Facebook page on Journalese,  which is most definitely worth a visit.

So to give readers a sense of (journalese, refer to page 81), an idea of some of the journalese terms defined in their book, the authors have given me permission to list some of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Arguably: Arguably gives reporters the freedom to draw conclusions they wouldn’t dare on their own. No one wants to say ``certainly’’ when such a useful fudge factor is available.

Claim:  We don’t believe what the person says, but here it is. A person who likes a source, never says he or she ``claims’’ something.  Instead, it is ``firmly stated.’’

Compelling: Book reviewer already used riveting.

Cycles of Violence: At least two crimes in two days.

Firestorm: At least two people protest or complain.

Fledgling:  A young and inexperienced person, but often used by fledgling reporters to mean faltering.

Frantic Search: The kind of search that people conduct when children are missing.  A level-headed search won’t do.

Frenzy: At least three guys arguing.

Hero: Just about anyone in uniform or someone who gets a cat down from a tree.

High-speed chase:  All police chases are at high-speed. It would be big news, such as O.J. Simpson, if the chase stayed within speed limits.

Highly respected:  One degree above highly regarded. His mother and father both boast about him.

Machiavellian:  Any actions by politicians the paper does not support. Politicians the paper does support are wise, savvy, strategic, shrewd or astute players of the political game.

Motion Picture: A very serious film the reviewer likes, and is often described as a ``major motion picture.’’  Otherwise, it’s a movie or film or flick.

Noted Authority:  Said of anyone on a reporter’s speed-dial or Twitter feed.

Presumably:  Codeword that the writer is about to take a wild-assed guess.

Punishing: Any storm, hurricane, tornado, flood, or other natural disaster. Also a military operation that the reporter doesn’t approve of.

Raw Data: Data that has not yet been cooked.

Sketchy: Reporter doesn’t know what the heck is going on.

Unconfirmed: It may not be true, but we want to print this before the opposition did.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
March 4, 2013

 

Even Press Photographers Were Wild About Harry

Right in the thick of his bruising presidential campaign, with the election less than six months away, The Los Angeles Times photography blog, Framework,  shared this truly historic snapshot of Harry Truman in June 14, 1948, posing with a gaggle of press photographers at Union Station, including staffers from The L.A. Times. Ray Graham to left of Truman, and Phil Bath on the right.