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POLITICS DECEMBER 8, 2008

Write Now

BY MARK I. PINSKY

Barack Obama sounds like he wants to reach back to the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration to jump start the economy with an economic stimulus proposal featuring infrastructure repair. If so, it may be time for the man who would be FDR to take a look at another successful--but largely forgotten--jobs program from the Depression era: the Federal Writers Project.

 

America’s newspaper industry has been imploding in the last few years, a development that predates the Wall Street collapse but has been hugely accelerated by the economic meltdown, forcing thousands of journalists onto the street. Hundreds more have now joined them from retrenching magazines and faltering websites, bringing the year-to-date total to 14,683, according to the tracking website Paper Cuts. Every day the journalism clearinghouse Romenesko links to stories of layoffs and downsizing--Gannett has been cutting 2,000 jobs across the chain, and Newsday has just announced another five percent in the last week alone. Any federal effort to put back to work the hundreds of thousands thrown out of work in the nation’s hard-hit industrial, construction, airline, and financial sectors should consider displaced news media workers--including those newly laid off from the publishing industry--as well.

 

The Federal Writers Project operated from 1935-1939 under the leadership of Henry Alsberg, a journalist and theater director. In addition to providing employment to more than 6,000 out-of-work reporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers, and creative craftsmen and -women, the FWP produced some lasting contributions to American history, culture, and literature. Their efforts ranged from comprehensive guides to 48 states and three territories to interviews with and photos of 2,300 former African-American slaves. These are preserved in the seventeen volumes of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.

 

Less overtly political and thus less controversial than the Federal Theater Project, the FWP nonetheless included some groundbreaking projects among more than 250 books, documenting the lives of racial minorities, factory workers, and sharecroppers, titles like These Are Our Lives, The Negro in Virginia, Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales, Bibliography of Chicago Negroes, and Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies Among the Georgia Coastal Negroes. Each participating state project had a staff of editors that commissioned, approved, and supervised young field researchers who worked for about $80 a month.

 

Gifted FWP alumni who went on to distinguished literary careers include John Steinbeck, John Cheever, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and African Americans Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright. The recent death of Studs Terkel-- a FWP veteran who went on to use the skills he developed in the program to chronicle the working- and middle-classes on his long-running radio show and in his Pulitzer Prize-winning books--is a reminder of how valuable this kind of experience can be. Ellison used his FWP research in Invisible Man, and Steinbeck and John Gunther relied on the FWP state guides for Travels With Charley: In Search of America and Inside U.S.A., respectively.

 

Today, there are many dislocated “old media” journalists from newspapers, radio, and television on the street--here I declare my personal interest, as one of them--who could provide a skilled pool to staff a new FWP. But since these journalists represent only a fraction of the larger displaced workforce, it is fair to ask what the public benefit would be of money spent.

 

This time, the FWP could begin by documenting the ground-level impact of the Great Recession; chronicling the transition to a green economy; or capturing the experiences of the thousands of immigrants who are changing the American complexion. Like the original FWP, the new version would focus in particular on those segments of society largely ignored by commercial and even public media. At the same time, the multimedia fruits of this research would be open-sourced to all media, as well as to academics. As an example, oral history as a discipline has made great strides in the past 70 years, and with the development of video techniques, the forum of the Internet could make these multi-media interviews widely available to schools and scholars, as well as to average Americans.

 

How would it work? Administering the new FWP as an individual grant program through community colleges and universities could minimize bureaucracy and overhead. In consultation with the Obama administration--perhaps through the National Endowment for the Humanities--and Congress, guidelines could be established and a small staff assembled in Washington to oversee the projects, in the form of grants, rather than hourly wages. Projects could be pitched locally to colleges, or suggested and posted by them, vetted preliminarily and then approved or rejected by the national staff.

 

Like Detroit’s troubled Big Three automakers, federal intervention to save the newspaper and magazine industries are highly problematic, at best. Ink-on-paper periodicals are never coming back, and it may be some time before the web can provide well-paying jobs with health benefits--if it ever will. Until then, providing some way to provide young journalists a way to get started, or displaced media workers a way to transition to new occupations, or to retirement, might help--and serve the nation in the process.

 

Mark I. Pinsky, former religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, is at work on his fourth book.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

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83 comments

A bailout for intellectually bankrupt liberal academics? Cool! Forthcoming volumes: The Goodness of Joseph Stalin by the New York Times Book Collective Fonts for Forgers by Mary Mapes and Dan Rather Trig is NOT Sarah Palin's Son, and Other Breathless Essays by Andrew Sullivan I Am Not a Big Fat Crybaby by Al Franken The Mendacity of Hype: How We Implemented the Soros Plan by Team Obama

- thaprof

December 8, 2008 at 7:47am

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Man, you need to find your way to the nearest methadone clinic...fast.

- Hookers have a Licence

December 8, 2008 at 10:21am

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Great idea! Let's keep the ultra liberal media iconoclasts on the public dole until the economy picks up. PLEASE! Get in touch with reality!

- SGK

December 8, 2008 at 10:52am

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This is a great idea, although probably impossible politically. A better solution might be for some private foundations to fund this sort of work. America learned more about itself through the FWP writers and FSA photographers than it has from much of the corporate media in the more than half-century since then.

- Write stuff

December 8, 2008 at 11:02am

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I have to say I don't quite understand the decline in book sales vis-a-vis the Recession. A book is a perfect prop with which to hunker down. It can provide hours of entertainment relatively cheaply, unlike going out for a night on the town.

- Marcy

December 8, 2008 at 11:16am

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Great idea! Let's keep all the ultra liberal iconoclastic media types on the public dole. Poor babies.

- SGK

December 8, 2008 at 11:20am

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I agree there should be a FWP, not just now but permanently, a Federal Bank of ground research and brains as it were, and also a training ground for those who would write about real life. However, this demand is dangerously timed: it can easily sound like yet some more people wanting a piece of the pie of handouts. Further, the proposition is good, its mechanics (how it would work) are not. Yet. Revise and resubmit. Journalists should also wonder if their jobs are threatened by the ability of the ordinary person to 'speak' for himself or herself through blogs and videos on the internet. Those who feel they can represent themselves may not want skilled writers to frame their thoughts. (Sad, and fallacious, because they wouldn't dream of not wanting lawyers to speak in legalese for them, but that's a minority opinion.)Long view.

- DB

December 8, 2008 at 11:26am

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This plan reeks. Like the automakers, the newspaper industry made their own bed. Now they can sleep in it. Newsworkers should've taken it upon themselves to retrain years ago. No bailouts for the dodos of news. www.davidrdowns.com

- David Downs

December 8, 2008 at 11:47am

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This is a fantastic idea. It will both employ a segment of our workforce that is in dire need of assistance and ensure that our era is documented in a way that is not slavishly dedicated to ratings and sales.

- Jessie

December 8, 2008 at 11:54am

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This is a great satirical piece. It is satire, right..?

- Brad

December 8, 2008 at 12:16pm

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This is the most ridiculous dribble. A writer writing that the President elect should find jobs for writers. Way to hedge your bets. How about being good at your job and gaining the trust of the American public rather than placing your own selfish political and social ideals first. I didn't see him writing years ago to save the 8 track tape or dot matrix printers, and print media is equally as outdated. I hate to see people lose jobs, but that is life sometimes, and government is not a panacea.

- Dave Wallace

December 8, 2008 at 12:16pm

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Wow, Mark, that's a real bold initiative. Steal taxpayer's money and give it to you. Bet you must have thought long and hard about that one. If people decide that they actually have any interest in reading what you or any other writer produces, they'll do so, and you'll see financial reward. If they don't want to read it, then deal with it. Not everyone who wants to be a writer can be. There's an over-abundance of "writers" in this nation as there is, we could do with a few less.

- Johnny

December 8, 2008 at 12:23pm

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Is this a serious suggestion? Who says being a "writer" has to be a paid profession? The first professional writer was James Fennimore Cooper, well into the 1800s. Less than 200 years of paid writing. What makes you so special? As for journalism, it has had a vibrant English tradition since Alfred the Great. If it's dead now, it's because this generation of journalists killed it. Why should I subsidize that, particularly for stories I have no interest in paying to read now?

- Ella

December 8, 2008 at 12:37pm

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Is this a serious suggestion? Who says being a "writer" has to be a paid profession? The first professional writer was James Fennimore Cooper, well into the 1800s. Less than 200 years of paid writing. What makes you so special? As for journalism, it has had a vibrant English tradition since Alfred the Great. If it's dead now, it's because this generation of journalists killed it. Why should I subsidize that, particularly for stories I have no interest in paying to read now?

- Ella

December 8, 2008 at 12:37pm

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So first off, there's the hilarious part that only a magazine as liberal as TNR could look at the explosion of blogging over the last decade and conclude that what we need is a federal program to subsidize writing about everyday stuff. But beyond that, this is revealing of how government action in a market that's changing can stand in the way of the change that will ultimately be most beneficial. We all know that the conventional models of lifetime employment at The Daily Snooze-Regurgitator are giving way to a world in which writers will have to make a living off their own blogs, etc. Put a zillion creative people out there desperately trying to find a way to survive doing that way and they'll invent all kinds of new exciting media models. Put them on the government tit and that kind of innovation will never happen. So if you think the government ought to freeze the dying media world of 1997 and the boring newspapers of 1967 in amber forever, this is a great idea. But if you'd actually like to see what new and innovative things come of the possibilities and freedom that the internet and the new media world offer... stay as far away from government paychecks and government bosses reviewing what you write as you can.

- Mgmax

December 8, 2008 at 12:41pm

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Do you see no problem with being a state-funded journalist?

- disappointed

December 8, 2008 at 1:03pm

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Oh, my--I thought initially, "Surely, this is a joke," but then gradually realized the fellow is serious. Two reasons come to mind immediately for why this is such a bad idea: (1) making the news industry dependent upon "workfare" programs directed specifically to the benefit of journalists is hardly conducive to a free and independent press; (2) the news industry has been undergoing a transformation for years now as a result of the Internet's ongoing shakeup of traditional media, and while the current woes facing the industry may be exacerbated by the economic downturn, many of these layoffs are a symptom of the former phenomenon--which this proposed program does not and cannot address; (3) good grief, when will we start asking the question of which industry should *not* be entitled to some sort of government bailout?

- Ronny

December 8, 2008 at 1:14pm

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"focus in particular on those segments of society largely ignored by commercial and even public media." You mean the segment of the population that didn't buy a house they couldn't afford, and prudently saved in good times to last through a recession?

- Brian

December 8, 2008 at 1:32pm

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This is one of the finest pieces published in TNR all year . . . unless, of course, it's not satire.

- Mig the Merciless Siamese Cat

December 8, 2008 at 1:58pm

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I will personally pony up $80/month for Mark Pinsky to write a sequel to Gumbo Ya Ya!

- mamajambalaya

December 8, 2008 at 2:13pm

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The collapse of the newspaper industry is due to the public's lack of trust. Journalist have stop doing investigative reporting or fact checking or even given the slightest pretense of being impartial therefore they lack credibility. The public realizes they would be just as well served watching ET or flipping through porn magazines than enduring the likes of andrew sullivan or reading articles from the nyt that digs through face book for gossip on Cindy McCain. The newspaper industry no longer provides a service that benefits the American public and I for one say good riddance.

-

December 8, 2008 at 2:18pm

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typical liberal response, nothingness

-

December 8, 2008 at 2:19pm

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Let's see...I don't want to buy their silly scriblings, so let's get the government to FORCE me to buy it via taxes and government programs. If newspapers and journalists want an income, let them start producing a product people want to buy. And if they can't or won't do that, let 'em starve.

- EBV

December 8, 2008 at 2:31pm

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You have GOT to be kidding.

- shank

December 8, 2008 at 2:45pm

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Make work for writers? Absolutely. Give 'em shovels, and tell 'em to dig ditches.

- Occam's Beard

December 8, 2008 at 2:50pm

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I have a better idea. Instead of another bailout we need job retraining for writers and journalists in preparation for one of those millions of new green jobs that Obama has promised to create. Perhaps windmill installer, electric car mechanic or even community organizer.

- Brian Welker

December 8, 2008 at 2:55pm

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This has to be one of the most narcissistic things I have ever read.

- Jason jordan

December 8, 2008 at 2:56pm

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brilliant! Sign me up.

- M

December 8, 2008 at 3:08pm

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I think it is a great idea. Maybe the members of the writer's project can teach people, especially governmental workers, how to write(i. e. communicate!).

- Mari

December 8, 2008 at 3:21pm

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I can't work out if this is Swift-level satire or bleating panhandling. If the former: well played Sir! If the latter: get bent.

- David Gillies

December 8, 2008 at 3:29pm

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Hookers: yeah, Pinsky is obviously a pinko, but to suggest that the author should find his way to the nearest methadone clinic, that's putting it a little strongly.

- bill

December 8, 2008 at 4:13pm

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How do you keep a news organization fair and objective when the government subsidizes them? How can media be the watchers of government when they become the government's dependent? That is not to suggest the media is fair, objective, or disinterested. I'm sure most journalists would be proud to have their current propagandizing paid for by their heroes with the knowledge that no matter how biased they become their broken business model will never suffer market consequence. This may have been precisely why we saw such bald bias this past election. The print media knew they had become Mesozoic; that they were falling apart and dying. Collectively the major media made one last ditch effort to assure the election of the guy they thought just might bail them out. Journalists reduced to begging for a handout - that's the epitome of independence. That's surely speaking truth to power.

- JDW

December 8, 2008 at 4:59pm

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Is this a parody? Please, tell me it is a joke?

- Carlo

December 8, 2008 at 5:11pm

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Seconded, by a longtime admirer of Pinsky's writing. I recently learned from an Irish friend who's a playwright that artists there aren't taxed up to the equiv of something like $250 k. And Ireland, relatively speaking in the global economy, has been doing great. Because of its support for writers and artists? Of course not. But a society that values creativity tends to be more creative. And it produces ideas, texts, and images that endure. Check out the Library of Congress's online collection of COPYRIGHT free New Deal photographs of just about everything by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and many others. Chances are that if you have an image of the 1930s in your mind, it's from that program.

- Jeff Sharlet

December 8, 2008 at 5:54pm

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Hard to Administrate, but a brilliant idea. I say start it now. Part of our problem is poort reporting by the News Orgainzations. Dont' stop with writing and photos, through a few billion at PBS Documentaries. Our Newspapers are the worst and in a few years Rupert Murdoch will own the whole market. A few pet provisions that I hope they sneak into the bill. A special Archive Administrator to help TNR implement the Archive Files some of us already bought adn would love to reference again. And a special small renumuriation for us selfless bloggers who do som much to fact check and provide feedback and criticism to keep excellent bloggers like Mark Pinsky on the cutting edge of journalism.

-

December 8, 2008 at 5:55pm

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Please learn how to use HTML before posting. Sometimes a little academia is a very good thing.

- Molly

December 8, 2008 at 6:08pm

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It's a crushing thing, seeing all those "journalists" who think news is their personal domain for dumping on their customers and rewritting reality now on the street. Surely something swhould be done! I know! Tree + Rope + "Journalist". Greeley and Nye have been turning over in their graves so much over the last thirty years they must be the diameter of broomsticks. As you sew, you fatuous, politicized, insolent and reflexive red windbags, so may you reap. I've even taken to stopping by U-HAul to buy my (blank) newsprint paper. It's more interesting that scanning the excretia of the "modern english" school of hacks.

- Brendan

December 8, 2008 at 6:35pm

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No more New Deal "cultural projects". Physical infrastructure only. Writing and art is completely subjective. Building is not... either roads and buildings are up to a measurable level of quality, or they are not. You can't say the same with art. When I think art, I think Renaissance masters. When other people think art, they think of something like Piss Christ. Best to avoid it altogether.

- Douglas

December 8, 2008 at 6:58pm

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If there were any true journalists left in the MSM maybe they'd have a point. No bailouts for propagandists though.

- Frank Parkerson

December 8, 2008 at 8:00pm

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What a load of tripe! My tax money is wasted well enough already. Here is a thought- if you cannot make a living by writing then it is up to you to get a different job. Get off of your bottoms and dig ditches, mow lawns or whatever it takes to earn a living and stop living off of the taxpayers!

- Max

December 8, 2008 at 8:07pm

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Is this satire? Is it? How sad is this that I just can't tell anymore!

- Tom

December 8, 2008 at 8:19pm

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Want to guarantee journalists' employment? Hand them shovels or teach them to unplug toilets. Let's face it, if we _wanted_ to pay for what passes for modern journalism, we'd be buying the newspapers and magazines, wouldn't we? What other section of the American workforce is guaranteed the same kind of job they're at risk of losing?

- richard mcenroe

December 8, 2008 at 9:21pm

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Jesus, maybe you people need a federal program to hire someone to approve comments in less than 12 hours. TNR, now at Internet speed!

- Mgmax

December 8, 2008 at 9:52pm

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Why not? I'd rather see a bailout of the middle class than the continued corporate looting of the Treasuty that we're seeing now.

- Huey Long

December 8, 2008 at 10:11pm

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You want a job? Pick up a shovel.

- Just Me

December 8, 2008 at 10:15pm

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A splendid idea. Especially if the program included writing for television -- the best TV series in recent memory, "The Wire," was created by a former journalist. The collective IQ of the nation might rise with more programming like that and fewer "reality" shows. The WPA travel guides are wonderful historical documents, great fun to peruse, and this country could definitely stand to pay more attention to history, too. Also, if you don't give honest work to all these former liberal arts majors jettisoned by media companies, they'll all go to law school and then we're really in trouble. BTW, if the current administration had harkened to some of those "intellectually bankrupt liberal academics" -- Paul Krugman comes first to mind -- the enormous financial industry bailouts might not have been necessary, thaprof.

- PG

December 8, 2008 at 10:35pm

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Well, considering that you all are losing your jobs because you insist on putting out a crappy product that is heavy on opinion (yours), celebrity and unrelenting stupidity and ignorance (especially with respect to history), I must say that I am UTTERLY disinterested in having some thief like Barney Frank or Chris Dodd or Charles Rangel giving MY money to you moochers so that you can continue doing what it is you've been doing. You are all in need of some gainful employment that actually results in the creation of something useful. Milking cows, maybe.(Instead of us taxpayers.)

- Fred

December 8, 2008 at 11:54pm

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There are two big problems with this idea: 1) the lack of good journalists today, and 2) government control of the media.

- GetReal

December 9, 2008 at 9:03am

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This is a great idea -- carry on the tradition of Steinbeck and other greats who stayed working thanks to the WPA. There are thousands of female journalists who had left the job market temporarily and cannot get back into a shrinking market.

- Kathy

December 9, 2008 at 9:13am

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Federally subsidise the same journalists who have been pulling down the economy for the entire Bush administration like a pack of wolves pull down an elk? (4.6 unemployment is a recession in 2007?) Just so you can have some makework project? No. Welcome to the bed you made. I have no sympathy for you. Journalists are nothing more than useful idiots with a megaphone. Now that the megaphone is n't working so well you screem at the top of your lungs. I am personally tired of listening to you.

- JesterStick

December 9, 2008 at 9:58am

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Approaching 24 hours! When will TNR release the comment hostages? Can President Obama declare a state of emergency and appoint a comment czar so opinion magazines have the necessary staffing for this vital task?

-

December 9, 2008 at 10:08am

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As a working freelance journalist, I can say this isn't needed at all. (Yes,I'm a conservative working journalist: there are some of us out there.)Lika many other industries, the newspaper industry was larded with fat: too many in management, too many "specialist" reporters who were dumb as dirt outside their niche ... I could go on. Let the ones who can't adapt flip burgers.

- Ray Chandler

December 9, 2008 at 10:20am

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Jon Stewart has made a mint in the humourous fake news business. I suggest TNR simply change their mission statement to "the quality production of fake news." They don't need to alter their content, however. They are already meeting the aforementioned mission statement.

- JDW

December 9, 2008 at 11:09am

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Yes, we all know no-one has sympathy for journalists, but the fact is that the newspaper industry is dying and people are being laid off. I don't support this idea, but would it be such a crime for the government to help people re-train for new careers now that their chosen profession is going down the tubes? The liberal elite tag hides the fact that all over the country there are very poorly paid reporters from humble backgrounds who are struggling to pay their mortgages, just like everyone else.

- Clarkycat

December 9, 2008 at 11:38am

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Here's an idea: Go and develop new skills that are in demand in the marketplace and get yourselves another job! The government already supports "artists" who can't create a painting or sculpture that another person actually wants to buy. What a stupid thing that is and it should be stopped immediately. You don't have any kind of "right" to a job in journalism and any kind of "right" to be paid to write a single word. Tough luck. Either get another job, or go live in your parents' basement and start a blog where you can complain all day and night about how you can't get a job writing.

- Jeff

December 9, 2008 at 2:16pm

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unbelievable. I find it funny how proponents of socialism refuse to get jobs in fast food while lining up a new job...or using their brains and moxie to find a new one using their "skills" as a writer. As Bobby Knight once said," Everyone learns to write in third grade. Most of us go on to bigger and better things."

- Fred

December 9, 2008 at 2:29pm

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Those who teach, do not know. Those who know, do not teach. Those who do not teach, do not know, do not participate, are journalists - life's cowards. They watch and observe, watching everybody else bat life's ball back and forth, thinking great thoughts, and writing clever, pithy prose, telling us what to think and do. Yeah, that's worthy of federal funding, just like Guantanamo.

- kfreed

December 9, 2008 at 2:41pm

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Now this is a very strange sentence construction in post-racial America: "Gifted FWP alumni who went on to distinguished literary careers in literature include John Steinbeck, John Cheever, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and African Americans Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright."

- srp

December 9, 2008 at 4:58pm

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I'm not sure the emphasis should be on hiring journalists per se as part of a journalists' rescue package. Many of those who participated in the FWP were folklorists and anthropologists, creative writers and others used to exploring the individual and cultural uniqueness of informants and their social context. One ideal collector from the 1930s was Zora Neal Hurston who did important work, drawing on both her scholarly training, her understanding of African-American traditions, and her sensitivity to oral language and literature. The important thing for this sort of undertaking is not to impose a story on those who have their own stories to tell. This will help satisfy those who worry that this could be a liberal scam-- when done well, the many points of view of American communities and their citizens are represented. I would recommend administering these programs, with some national oversight, through the state and regional Arts and Humanities Councils. This moves such a project beyond the exclusive realm of academia, whose departmental prerogatives and standards could slow down and stifle work of this sort. America's Arts and Humanities Councils are already doing similar work, often supervised by state folklorists. They are structured and well equipped to supervise the grant-making process, and they reach out to potential arts workers from diverse cultural and creative backgrounds. Often projects under their aegis are supervised by folklorists and other professionals but draw upon the skills and talents of citizens belonging to the communities being covered. This can yield fascinating insights and narratives not usually available to those outside the group. For those who wonder why the tax payer's dollars are being syphoned off to work of this sort, I can only say that a people's history has immeasurable value and that a society also benefits by nourishing its writers and scholars and, yes---journalists-- through good times and bad. A project of this sort will give voice to those who work at the trades and services but often lack the leverage to get their stories told and read by future generations. It is all about the arts in service of working people and their stories.

- Lisa Null

December 9, 2008 at 10:20pm

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If Bush had proposed a program to commission unemployed writers to produce government-approved works, TNR would have been frothing at the mouth with paranoia. "Propaganda!" you would cry. You'd reject the idea, or cheer lustily when the program's beneficiaries sabotaged the administration. The idea of being paid by the Obama administration to produce on commission the type of propaganda you had previously been doing on spec must be terribly tempting for you. I'm not sure I would specifically recommend hiring TNR alumni, though, unless the narrative is more important than the facts. Perhaps Stephen Glass or Scott Beauchamp are available!

- welcomerain

December 10, 2008 at 6:26am

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Thirteen years ago, in the city of Spartanburg, SC, we founded the Hub City Writers Project to put writers to work on behalf of our community. We used the model of the Federal Writers Project. Since that time, we have published the work of more than 250 writers, we have recorded the history and culture of our region, and we have trained nearly 500 more writers through workshops. More than 300 people in our city pitch in to fund this effort. You can read about us at www.hubcity.org.

- Betsy Teter

December 10, 2008 at 7:56am

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I think this is a great idea. The first makework project should be a history piece on what happened to the blacksmiths when Hank Ford built his automobile. The next should be a short addendum to the first book on the fate of "journalists" with the advent of the internet.

- Spudley

December 10, 2008 at 9:47am

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The reason journalists are in trouble is that the public, including me, lost confidence and trust in them. The failed journalists at failed news outlets produce "work" that is not worth $0.25 a day of my hard-earned cash, or even worth a minute of my time. What makes this writer think he has the right to take my money against my will by using the tax system, after I have stopped paying for media of such low quality that it would be overpriced even if their work was free? He has no more right to my hard-earned money than I have to what little money he will have left once his employer deservedly disappears. Good riddance to the failing portions of the press - they brought it on themselves through sleaze, bias, and low standards of quality. If he wants to earn money, he should do something worthwhile - and he should remember to smile when he asks, "do you want fries with that?"

- Working Taxpayer

December 10, 2008 at 10:34am

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I paused when I read the following: "Gifted FWP alumni who went on to distinguished literary careers in literature include John Steinbeck, John Cheever, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and African Americans Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright." How white of you, advocating for government subsidy for the arts while simultaneously qualifying African American artists as outsiders within that class. Why not identify Bellow as a Jewish immigrant artist, Cheever as a WASP artist, or Steinbeck as a middle-class artist. I'm not saying you're racist, but your idealism has some holes in it.

- lotusleft

December 10, 2008 at 11:08am

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To the person who said the newspaper industry brought this on itself: Yes and no. The hard-working journalists who've gone to good schools to learn this craft and spent 20-30 or more years honing their craft are not at fault for a failing industry. Corporations who buy up all these major-market daily newspapers certainly are (Hello, Gannett); they are trying to make an industry that was never meant to be a "cash cow" into just that. They cut staff, cut space in newspapers and no longer expect good journalism from the reporters they still have on board. Then they wonder why their individual properties are not raking in 20-percent-plus profit margins each and every year. I think the FWP would be an excellent way to throw good money at a problem that will be a drain on our society. No matter how you feel about the *gasp* "liberal media" (which I think is a misnomer, because it is used by ultra-conservatives to bash anyone who might disagree with their viewpoints), the elimination of a "free press" to take people in power to task and keep an eye on government and it's programs will not bode well for our free society. I think that's becoming obvious, given the amount of slimy things people in Washington have been getting away with for the past 20 years – as solid reporting and newspapers have eroded. Bring on an FWP. There are plenty of good projects out there and a lot of good, talented, hard-working (albeit unemployed) journalists who could make some incredible contributions. It would be a lot more useful than bailing out corporations whose profits have been syphoned off by executives and investors making far more money than any one person is worth.

- community journalist

December 10, 2008 at 12:28pm

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By the way, I think some of you are missing the point. He is not suggesting that taxpayers fund the actual newspapers and corporations, but put to work a group of people who have a lot of talent and nowhere to use it in the present economy, and with the current shift in the economy.

- community journalist

December 10, 2008 at 1:26pm

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I’m in school studying journalism, and I can’t say this is a good idea. In nearly every class, the discussion turns to how to make money in journalism today. We are all painfully aware of how dramatic the shift is, and we all bite our nails about our job prospects after graduation. There are some very innovative ideas out there, like www.spot.us, and they might very well presage the face of journalism to come. I say, “Let us fail.” The technology underlying our business model is antiquated. We’ve acknowledged that fact, and it’s the first step to adapting to a new market. If only the employees of automobile manufacturers felt the same way.

- jschool

December 10, 2008 at 4:38pm

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Interesting how everyone assumes that journalists as some kind of unified group started producing crap, rather than responding to market pressures. Gossip sells, and is cheaper to produce. Also interesting most here don't see any problem with the demise of journalism as an institution. Bloggers don't spend all of their time writing, don't have reporting skills in most cases, and most don't cover local and national current affairs - to the extent that they do, it's largely parasitical of the traditional media's work, however flawed, of going out, doing actual reporting, and getting the facts down. Opinion, which is what the overwhelming majority of blogs are, is vital and has benefited from democratization, but must rest on a foundation of facts. No matter what the platform (clearly the old business model is dying), you need people who's job it is, who have the training and experience, to go to places, to interview dozens of people, and to comb through documents. (You also need resources to cover big stories by funding the travel of teams.) This is just as necessary and valuable to society as people picking up shovels and flipping burgers. An informed public means a functioning society and a responsive government, and good coverage means full time reporting and some form of organization (centralized or no). Blogging provides neither of these, no matter how wonderful self-expression is or how useful new kinds of information can be. Perhaps some day it will. In the mean time, we have a problem, and it's not unreasonable to consider what role government might have in solving it. In addition to wanting to save their employment, there's a reason why people talk about bailouts: the loss of industries and occupations have real economic and social effects, and therefore a cost-benefit analysis is in order. (Yes it can go overboard or be designed to benefit the wrong people, but the "tough luck it's the market" philosophy is thoughtless and can be counterproductive)

- jp

December 10, 2008 at 4:45pm

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This is, actually, a good idea. As Eric Hoffer noted, unemployed intellectuals can bring a great deal of grief to society because they get bored. WPA projects could be mundane, for example, making indexes of printed materials, or writing background information for local city governments (histories, etc.). I'd not have college teachers vet the entries though--too much self interest there.

- Lolly

December 10, 2008 at 6:19pm

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Getting professional academics involved in the decision making with such a venture would be a DRASTIC mistake. Starting in the Seventies, America's colleges and universities took a swan dive into the toilet. They aren't qualified to tell anyone which journalists or photographers' work is worthy of funding. Unlike journalists, who have to at least try to keep their personal biases in check, academics mercilessly shred any idea that doesn't fit into their steadily shrinking boxes of acceptable ideologies, religions and philosophies. They don't have to be right; they "KNOW" they're right, and that's the problem. Their minds are made up. They don't give an inch. And if all the journalists and photographers whom they don't agree with fell off the edge of the Earth, they'd be happy. You think your newsroom is politicized? Try the halls of your nearest college or university. I have personal experience with this. Yes, I have a chip on my shoulder. And it's there for a reason. If you haven't been burned by academia, you probably think I'm nuts. That's ok. I'll wait, because as soon as it happens to you, then you'll understand.

- No colleges, please

December 10, 2008 at 6:50pm

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Before I say anything else, I would like to thank Lisa Null, PG and Betsy Teter whose contributions are the most thoughtful. The rest of you, by and large, spewed venom. I am catching up with my reading -- Gee! I find it difficult to read all the news and I am only employed part-time! Could that have something to do with the decline of the newspaper? -- and only found this story two days after it was published. It is now Thursday, the 10th, and NPR correspondent Ketzel Levine has lost her job. I am a former journalist. I won't go into the reasons why I almost made the mistake of pursuing a legal career but I will say that I tried social work and teaching before journalism. That was prior to the internet, prior to internships when those who wished to become journalists were sent to little community papers or professional publications for a year or two then were allowed to apply to the wires and/or the big city dailies. When I was at the critical one-year point in my aborted career, I submitted my resume to AP, UPI and Reuters. One week later, one of them (it is so long ago that I can not remember which) went on strike. In those days, people snail-mailed their resumes and followed them with a physical appearance a few days later. I had had an assignment at Detroit's Recorder's Court and took advantage of being "downtown" to stop by one of the non-striking wires. A harassed but well dressed (remember well dressed?) blonde receptionist was desperately trying to control the phones as I walked through the door. I introduced myself and said that I had sent in my resume. She pulled out a manilla file folder three inches thick, full of resumes. The folder collapsed and the papers spilled across her desk and onto the floor. I helped her pick them up, or, rather, I picked them up because she had more phone calls to answer. That was in the early 1970s. I did a quick search but could not find the strike or its year, but it had to have been between 1972 and 1974. I felt defeated. I stayed with the weekly paper until early 1976 when I married and moved to New England. While my ex told me during our courting stage that we were moving to Boston, we somehow ended up in Nashua, NH in an apartment he commissioned his mother to select, decorated without input from me by the mother of his best friend. He never understood why I wasn't delighted. Although I obtained a NH teaching certificate, it was only as "insurance." I hoped to go into book publishing -- I had a master's degree in English, earned while working as a journalist -- and was happy to be in area where such a career was more possible, geographically, than it was in Detroit. Resume after resume went out. Cover letters were written in many different styles. I had never been without a job for more than two weeks and months were dragging by. On my return from an interview to be press secretary for the late Governor Tompson -- at which I impressed the panel as a "bright girl" -- I passed an employment agency so new that workers were hanging the sign on the building. I called the agency to set up an appointment as soon as I was through the apartment door. The woman answering the phone said she was the president. I asked for an appointment. She asked what I did and what my education was. I told her. "You're virtually unemployable," was her answer. "But, I have worked continuously since graduating from college!" "That was in the Midwest. Here in New England, we have standards. You can come in and give me your resume but you won't find work." Many years later, after a divorce and financial ruin generated by my ex, I went to Harvard to gain some of those New England standards. The Big H bills prides itself in teaching writing. Just as at Wayne State, professors loved my writing. One asked me to tutor in writing. Good! I thought. I planned to parlay the new degree into a career in book or magazine publishing. At least, I am consistent. As I love security, my "Plan B" was to work in lower level university administration. Geographically, good plans for someone now off the commuter rail leading to Boston. The problem is that I was it was 1997 and I was 50. I looked 40. I had graduated with highest honors. The first two years, I sent out more than 1,000 resumes. I learned that the doors of publishing houses are shuttered against people over 40. I have not had an interview for a full-time job since 2001 when I was 54. I have worked in retail, as a temp and as a substitute teacher, although I have a Massachusetts certificate. Some of you have blithely told author Pinsky to get a shovel. Well, I have news for you. You can not just get a shovel. I moved 100 miles from Boston to western MA to lower my cost of living. Last night, I mailed the last of the proceeds of the sale of my former home to pay December's mortgage. I thought in this new locale, it would take one year to find full-time work. In the interim, I hoped to work 2 - 3 part-time jobs to keep me in shelter, food, heat and insurance. I have worked at a liquor store for 14 months. It takes 80 hours/week in retail to live on. That is not possible due to retail scheduling demands. I have applied for all manner of jobs -- bank teller, part-time AA at the Mt. Holyoke English Dept, tutor at the Amherst College writing center, civil service receptionist at the Brd of Health, training director at the Food Bank of Western MA, visitor services at the Eric Carle Museum, AA at Smith College, district aide to State Senator -- dutifully sending in resumes both by internet and snail mail. I have not had an interview. Come on! Is it possible that I am unemployable? I used to state in my cover letters that newspaper editors are administers and another Harvard grad, through the alumni internet forum, said that statement was snide. Now, the administrative part of my editor's job is described in today's discursive resume. When I was an undergraduate political science major, one theme went through all views of government: when two rights are in conflict, one is not a right. So, do I have a right to make a living or does every single employer have the right to ignore my resume? Perhaps, the attitude displayed by most of the respondents here is why I don't have a job. BTW, I answered a blind ad, "administrative assistant, must have superior written communications skills." Three weeks later, the agency told me that while I was welcome to look through their listings, they will never be able to find work for me.

- SWozniak

December 11, 2008 at 10:22am

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This country - at all times - needs a functioning body of people that document the issues of the times and criticize the powerful. It's one of the tenets of democracy. If that makes them liberal then so be it. The mainstream TV news is embarassingly dumbed down and has forsaken all principles of journalism for the sake of TV ratings. I think this is a fantastic idea and would be of great benefit to the nation as a whole.

- Fred

December 11, 2008 at 1:59pm

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Without a functioning media (ie serious newspaper that research and investigate) there is no more democracy in America. PR and spin is all that will exist, whether people can blog and think for themselves or not. Journalism is not just about expressing opinions, which of course people can form for themselves. In fact that is only a very tiny part of it. Journalism is about investigating facts - something the average blogger will never bother to do - because they dont have the time, the resources or the contacts in relevant places that journalists foster over years.

-

December 11, 2008 at 2:04pm

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The idea for a new Writers Project is great, but Pinsky makes a terrible mistake in pitching it as a way to bail out unemployed journalists. The purpose of a new Federal Writers Project would be to gather and preserve our history. Pitch it as a heritage and history project and this is a winner.

- Larry Cebula

December 11, 2008 at 4:31pm

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Give me a break. If you can't find a job producing something that will make people want to part with their own hard-earned money to possess, you aren't worth your feed. I worked my ass off to get an engineering degree, and have been employed my whole life. It wasn't my first love, but I wanted to get a job. Pinsky seems to think that there's a shortage of people writing. Haven't seen it. Look, there are people who need federal help. Able minded college educated people don't really make the list.

- rhinoman

December 11, 2008 at 7:23pm

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Excellent idea! Bail out Wall Street to create still-operating, zombie banks that go on for another ten years, bail out Detroit to create zombie auto-makers that lose $4000 on each car but miraculously keep operating, bail-out the intellectually bankrupt mass media to create a zombie class of Ministry of Truth apparatchiks.

- heuristic

December 12, 2008 at 6:39am

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So when the Bush administration pays a few journalists, it's shocking but if Obama paid thousands it would be a great step forward (or is that a Great Leap Forward?) for society? Look up "conflicts of interest" on wikipedia, or "bribery" for that matter. I mean sure it was "less overtly political" than the Federal Theater Project, but so is everything actually thought up by Satan.

- Michael Price

December 12, 2008 at 8:39am

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You are right on, Mr. Pinsky! I'm game for this. In my current Americorp/VISTA position, I work for an environmental group that is seeing many long-time owners of valuable mountain land have to sell to make room for new developments that house people with second homes and immigrants from other states. The guard is changing in America, and many parts of our country will be a thing of the past if we don't get off our rear ends and start recording the voices of land owners who are losing their sense of place after many generations of their families. We can't put brakes on this phenomena unless we know the hopes, dreams and loyalty to the land of these people. I would love the opportunity to go out and listen to these voices here in the mountains of North Carolina and throughout Appalachia, even the rural areas of the Midwest. Let's go for it! Our people and culture must be protected before it disappears!

- Rachael Bliss

December 13, 2008 at 4:31pm

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"Before I say anything else, I would like to thank Lisa Null, PG and Betsy Teter whose contributions are the most thoughtful. The rest of you, by and large, spewed venom. I am catching up with my reading -- Gee!" I have to agree. This needs to be broadened to be more like the original FWP or it may not fly. I consider myself as middle of the road, in my political leaning. I'm a former librarian, who has done free lance research for other authors, and who has a published book to my credit, as well as a number of articles. The book was a finalist for a major award. I was not able to find work in an ever tightening library job market after looking after two elderly parents for a decade. With the recession comes a contraction in book publishing. It happened in the 80's. I was working on a project, with a potenial publisher who seemed interested, but it may not come off as I'd hoped due to the recession and credit crunch. Fine, let me use my skills at research and writing in some other way to weather the storm. As it looks, years of research [this is non-fiction history] could easily end up in a landfill, and myself in some latter-day Hooverville, for all I know.

- Ex. Libris

December 13, 2008 at 5:51pm

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Bravo, Mark! We have launched the "National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work in Schools" to convince the new Administration and Congress to use a portion of the Jobs & Growth stimulus package to employ underemployed and unemployed artists and writers to teach in the public schools, community centers, and other social institutions. In the spirit of the WPA and the more recent CETA Arts Program. CETA was created under the Nixon Administration and then the Arts Program took off under Pres. Ford. It differed from the WPA in that funds were distributed through the states and local jurisdictions, probably a good idea for the Obama Administration. Thanks again.

- Michael David Nolan

December 14, 2008 at 6:43pm

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An excellent proposal. nd, government funding does not mean :"government control." The sign of a civilized society is one that supports the arts and humanities; given its per capita funding for other, less humane items (such as the military build-up), the United States lags far behind in supporting arts and letters.

- Peg Aloi

December 15, 2008 at 9:37am

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My husband and I are both aspiring writers, and he's out of work. If this project ever does get off the ground, let us know. I'm kh@beingjewish.com No, I'm not being sarcastic. This sounds like just the sort of thing we need.

- Kressel Housman

December 16, 2008 at 11:23am

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Everything in this is happening to our country now; very scary and not getting better. My view is that if Obamam looked at this in the 21st century eyes and transformed much of it; it would be a start - not the answer. Look around you - job losts, companies closing, banks shutting down - and on and on. Obama knows what lays ahead - may he have our prayers and support as nothing will happen overnight. This is one step to look into -

- mao

January 4, 2009 at 10:28am

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