On a practical level I'm a TV producer and storyteller who's gone about as long as you can go without achieving a mass audience.
It's been said that no man is a hero to a newspaperman, and I spent too many years as an ink-stained wretch.
While I think storytelling is a meaningful way to spend your life... it does feel a little bit secondary or off-point.
One of the sad things about contemporary journalism is that it actually matters very little. The world now is almost inured to the power of journalism. The best journalism would manage to outrage people. And people are less and less inclined to outrage.
There are two Americas - separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to our society, are being devalued and destroyed.
It seems that in Baltimore, one of the most violent cities in America, jurors are far more reluctant to convict criminal defendants than in the suburban enclaves that ring the city.
