Chat

It's an interesting thing, finding a field and then watching it disappear.

I never wanted to be rich or famous. I just wanted to go skiing once a year and then head off to Europe every other summer. (Being Swiss, this was an option.)

But the reality of journalism is somewhat different. Especially over the past 30 years. I was committing journalism in college. I was still doing the same in my first three jobs. And then, well ...

I don't want another fucking career. This simply suggests that I'd chosen poorly, but you know what didn't fuck buggy-whip manufacturers over? Ford. They were separate things.

Now, we have this weird environment where "why did anyone want journalism in the first place?" is somehow the question.

As Elon would say -- and has -- let that sink in. As a society, we've been trained via the gutting of education to, well, not care about truth. This is a bad environment in which to want an independent Fourth Estate. Yet here we are.

Everything domestic has gone off the rails, and this means no job opportunities. I can't see how we rebuild this within a single generation, let alone whether we'll try.

News has never made money (as with internet firms, the audience is the money-maker for advertisers, and that has nothing to do with single-copy sales). And the more layers of editors and executives, the worse things look.

I was hoping to be in a nice house with a few trees and a nonabusive spouse by my mid-40s. It really doesn't feel like a lot to ask.