i'm not sure what it says about my dad's frame of mind regarding my future when he keeps sending me articles like this one, but nevertheless - i'll say what i really think. you are an idiot if you are going to journalism grad school with the intention of being a reporter. from my experience, anyone who's intelligent and can write and wants to be a reporter can just GO BE A REPORTER. you are going to get hired at the same daily rag that you would get hired at if you didn't have that $30,000+ degree, and you are going to have to pay the same dues that everyone else who one day wants to work at the ny times will.

that said, i sleep at night because i tell myself i'm going to study new media, and don't want to be a reporter, and it will be totally different, and i will definitely get a job. and then i go down half a bottle of nyquil.

UPDATE: see? this is what i mean: "The New York Times Company plans to reduce its staff by nearly 2 percent, including nearly 200 employees at the Times and the New England Media Group. The target date is August. Roughly two-thirds of the total will come from the Times, with "fewer than two dozen" coming from the newsroom through a "voluntary reduction program." More corporate speak: "Staff reductions will be carefully managed so that they do not adversely affect journalistic quality, the smooth functioning of the Company's daily operations and the ability to achieve its long-term strategic goals."
The company will take a charge but won't announce the amount until June. "

i can't decide which is the crazier tom cruise incident of the day - his insensitive, idiotic, slathered-in-scientology-goodness condemnation of brooke shields' use of drugs to help her postpartum depression, or his totally-fucking-insane performance on oprah (click through for pictures on defamer, where cruise acts like a goddamn monkey flinging his suspiciously hysterical love for katie holmes around like so many feces).

somebody, please, give him an oscar already, for anything, for a beer commercial, a belated award for the terrible last of the samauris, ANYTHING, so he can go into scientology hiding and leave us all in peace.