I've worked with trash-can kickers, tobacco spitters, computer punchers, cussers, chain smokers and heavy drinkers. And those were just the religion writers. By golly, I am not gonna sit in front of the TV and ogle a bunch of bikini-clad women for an hour every Wednesday night. That's just ridiculous. I work on Wednesday nights.
Food writers get to look at new recipes before they're unveiled.
Entertainment writers get peeks at movies and samples of songs before they're released. And the real serious journalists, like myself, sometimes get their hands on advance copies of speeches by politicians. Amid all of the stories about Palestinian riots, Florida recounts and local job losses, several big stories were overlooked by the media in the year 2000. The Ledger-Enquirer tried to compensate by asking readers what they thought were the biggest stories of 2000, but they apparently overlooked the top stories of the year, too. It was the best of times.