Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005

"Bitch" vs. strong (woman)

This is a copy of my lengthy comment at Open Door Policy:The Open Source Work Relationship: "Bitch" as a power word:

Sorry it's a long comment:

The good, or bad, thing about this business, is that some people who succeed can be regarded as bitchy or pushy.

My old boss, bless him, was both of these; as well as neither of these and a spoiled brat. He, like Steve Jobs, was all
I want my
I want my
I want my look and feel
especially when it came to the on-air product. He was FAMOUS for not tolerating certain errors -- at the top of his lungs.

Now that he is gone some have noticed that things are getting looser and going slack -- and all these yes-men and -women are in place, so a bit of anarchy is in order. The old rules that were never broken (or he'd come down hard on you) are now up for discussion.

Still, this sort of person gets things done. Sometimes done well. At least one of the people I work with, one of the best producers in the shop, is pushy and can be mouthy.

I'm often a bitch, in Safran's definition; I love to bitch about my coworkers' faults. But I'm ready to admit my own faults at the drop of a hat.

I could get a LOT better at being helpful and constructive in my complaining about problems in policy around the newsroom, and say "This is wrong and we need to change this". Sometimes I just scream it across the room as a psychopathic rant because I just want to be a drama queen and I'm not allowed to KILL people at random.

As for aggressively pursuing information, I kind of bitched the other day in the morning meeting about how a talk radio host, whom I'm starting to dislike/be bored with, was trying to make a mountain out of a molehill (specifically, why is the Governor getting a 24-hour-a-day state police detail, mainly, the adding of overnight guards at his home where before there were none). And one of my superiors said, "well, that's what journalists do," raise the question about changes in policy.

Knowing the demand the Beast has for us, the talk show host also has to come up with SOMETHING to put on the air. (shrug)

This also reminds me of a question I had in an interview for a job I didn't get: Did I have any problem with strong women? Probably thinking it a silly question, I said no. I was also asked about my most recent news director at the time, who was a bit of a strong woman. I liked her, even though she wanted what she wanted, but she was good at having high standards, but not having an iron fist. She could be frank in giving an order but not caustic.

The same with an anchor-reporter I didn't get much chance to work with before she left. I also liked her. She's the type of (classy? definitely brassy) woman who you expect to see running down the stairs in a phalanx of reporter-characters in a movie in high heels to get the murder suspect just acquitted on the air before anyone else. She could breathe fire at times, and she didn't think the news director liked her because she wasn't a yes-man/-woman. Hard to say, these days.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 9/29/2005 12:51:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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