The other day there was a reference in Slate.com's daily roundup of today's blogs: The latest chatter in cyberspace" to a blog by a reporter with The Boston Herald named Jay Fitzgerald. Back in newspapering days, I worked with a guy by that name who hailed from Boston, so I got curious. I couldn't find his bio or CV on line, so I went to the blog, called Hub Blog, and googled around. Eventually I found this:
For my money, the most hilareous novel about journalism is 'Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO.' The novel's uncanny, if only because it's about a Statehouse reporter toiling for a medium-size paper in a sleepy Midwest capital in the 1980s and, as it was, I was a Statehouse reporter toiling for a medium-size paper in a sleepy Midwest capital in the 1980s when I first read it -- and I thought for sure the author must have been slyly chronicling the antics of my life and profession. ...Bingo! I remember the book, by Arnold Sawislak, from my own Statehouse bureau days in in a sleepy Midwest capital. I don't remember whether I borrowed Jay's copy or he borrowed mine, but it went around the Capitol press room when we worked there. He's right, too. The book's hilarious.
I remember Fitzgerald as an ambitious guy who wasn't afraid of hyping a story to get it above the fold on the front page. I figured he was writing his way up and out of Springfield, and I'm glad to see he wound up where he wanted to. He also writes for The Herald's EconoBlog. So yes, Virginia, there is life after Springfield.
1 comment:
Thanks Pete! I found a Herald story today about the Globe starting to charge for online content, saw Jay's byline at the top and thought, Naw, can't be the same guy.... My jackpot moment came when I read your description of Jay hyping stories to get them above the fold. I was a Copley intern in the statehouse in the early 90s and watched him talk a story about zebra mussels above the fold. I was in awe.
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