Graduation
Wall Street Journal's Jon Weil: Try to go beyond accuracy

Jonathan Weil. Photo by Drew Johnson.

Jonathan Weil ('91), who reports on the accounting industry for The Wall Street Journal, delivered the School's graduation speech on May 5 in Macky Auditorium. Following are excerpts.

I was in your same position not quite 14 years ago, in this same auditorium. Most of us in my class of December 1991 had no idea what we'd be doing six months later, much less with our careers. There's an old joke that a journalist is somebody who's an unemployed reporter. If your class is anything like mine was, I suspect a lot of you still will fit that definition of a journalist after you graduate today.

By training, I am a journalist and an attorney. By occupation, I am a reporter. So, I will be directing my comments mainly at the graduates who are considering careers at some point in the broadcast, print and online news media. And the first thing I'm about to tell you probably won't be news to any of you.

The news business is a difficult business to break into. If you haven't already completed multiple journalism internships, it may be hard for you to get a job in your chosen field starting out. Even if you have, you may have to resort to some unconventional means to land your first full-time job.

I could have started out making much more money as a lawyer. But I decided that in the long run I probably was better off doing something I knew I loved than doing something that I wasn't quite sure I liked.

I also was lucky. I had parents who supported me, financially and otherwise, both of whom are in the audience today with you. And there's a point to all of this. Good jobs are hard to get in journalism. Don't complain. Lots of people would do this for free, if given the chance. To borrow a line from Hyman Roth of The Godfather trilogy, "This is the business we've chosen." You can always choose another.

It's been this way ever since a former CU student named Robert Redford played Bob Woodward in "All the President's Men" and inspired countless college students to seek fame and justice as muckraking reporters. The competition means you'll probably encounter lots of obstacles, and you'll have to find creative ways to run through them. You can trade the traditional media's obstacles for a new set of obstacles and start your own online news site or Web log. Plenty of people are making a living this way already.

Prior to the ceremony, SJMC administrative assistant David Martinez (with back to camera) steps into the line of soon-to-be graduates of the School with instructions about the procession. Photo by Drew Johnson.

If you choose the traditional journalism route, expect the pay to be awful at first. I knew the only way it would get better for me was if I broke lots of good stories. When I did, the Journal noticed and hired me full time. Over the last eight years, as I've broken more good stories, the Journal has rewarded me. But one bit of advice. And this applies to all employers but especially to newspapers: Your bosses may only give you really big raises when competitors offer to pay you much more money.

Now, a word for you broadcast majors. Should you go into television journalism, every morning when you wake up, you need to ask yourself: Am I journalist, or do I just play one on TV?

Last week, I watched the local Fox News affiliate in New York lead its evening newscast with a recap of what happened the night before on "American Idol" and a preview of what was to come on the next episode. Meanwhile, CNN was all over the apparent kidnapping of a Georgia bride – with live press conferences, family interviews and all. Given the thousands of other missing Americans, the only apparent reason this was national news is that she is young and pretty. And, as you may know, it all turned out to be a hoax by a runaway bride. My favorite all-time media frenzy was of the live press conference carried by the cable networks a few years ago by a UFO-worshiping cult in South Florida called the Raelians, who announced – falsely, and quite obviously so – that they had cloned the first human being.

Stories like these are the norm for TV news today. They probably are not worthy of your time as viewers, let alone your careers as journalists. The three major networks still produce pretty good 30-minute evening newscasts. And thank heaven for "Frontline," the BBC and National Public Radio, one of the last remaining outlets of good radio journalism. As for cable and local news, the truth is that while there are some good people doing good work in some places, for the most part it's a journalistic wasteland. If you find yourself at a place that won't let you do better, I suggest you find a place that will or find a different line of work, unless you don't mind the schlock, in which case I have no advice for you at all. You also should realize from the outset that your future as an on-air journalist may be determined more by your Q-rating than your ability as a reporter.

I'm going to finish up with some unabashed preaching.

Dean Paul Voakes. Photo by Drew Johnson.

First, as reporters, you're not stenographers. Don't fall into the trap of he-said, she-said reporting that attributes everything and says nothing. Most news today is a commodity product. Take any breaking national story today, and you can find 100 practically identical versions of it on Google. If you're going to succeed as a journalist, no matter what your medium for publishing news and information, your stories have to add value. Seek out stories that turn conventional wisdom on its head. Tell us interesting or important things we don't already know and can't learn about anywhere else. Seek the complete story. Go beyond the facts that are obvious and known. Seek out mentors who'll help show you how to do this. I had many here at CU, including Don Ridgway, Doug Cosper, Sam Archibald and the late Sue O'Brien. Try to stay in touch with your mentors after you part ways.

Seek the whole truth. Usually, you'll have to settle for accuracy – by which, I mean, the only thing you know for certain is that your sources said it was true. But try to seek the truth anyway. Otherwise, you'll never find it. Mere accuracy often may suffice. But the risk is that it is incomplete or, at worst, propaganda. Consider this widely repeated statement from a couple of years ago. "Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, U.S. government officials said." Or this one: "Enron Corp. earned $1.2 billion in 2000, up 32 percent from a year earlier, the company said."

Accurate? Yes, they said those things. But was that the truth? No.

If you strive to be an opinion writer, my only advice is: Please, don't be boring or predictable, and please don't try to disguise yourself as an impartial reporter.

For the other journalists in the audience, keep your opinions out of your stories. But remember that providing readers with informed conclusions often is vital to good reporting. To do that right, usually you'll have to become an expert yourself in whatever it is that you're reporting, so that you can distinguish the fake experts from the real ones. And you almost certainly will need to be financially literate, something journalism schools generally don't prepare you for. If you're not already, my only advice to you now is to start learning. You can't cover city hall, or probably at least not very well, if you don't know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet.

Be fair. Be respectful. Be as careful about stories that build people up as you are about stories that may tear them down. Avoid needless adjectives. Make your writing as simple and short as possible, but not simplistic. Write precisely.

UCLA's legendary former basketball coach, John Wooden, used to tell his players: Be quick, but don't hurry. This same advice applies to deadlines and breaking stories.

Don't take cheap shots. Don't pile on. Don't hype. If your bosses pressure you to hype, quit your job if you have to, but whatever you do, don't hype. Never do anything that you wouldn't want to see printed in Columbia Journalism Review. Never knowingly publish something you know to be false or inaccurate.

Our industry's reputation for fairness and integrity has taken a serious beating in the past couple of years: Jayson Blair at The New York Times, Jack Kelley at USA Today, the debacle at "60 Minutes," major newspapers inflating their circulation figures.

What's more, our industry isn't as financially stable as it used to be. Longtime readers are dying off faster than we can replace them. Young readers don't want to pay for news.

But I have no doubt that journalism, whatever the public's medium of choice, will continue to survive and flourish. There's only one way to fix what's wrong with journalism. And that's to do more good journalism. The world may be crowded with lots of journalists. But there's always room for another good one. And given the great school from which you come, I know there will be many outstanding ones among you graduating this afternoon.

And with that thought, my work here today is done. If any of you ever get up to New York, please, look me up. I'll buy you a drink.

Best of luck to all of you. And congratulations. Thank you.