Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Parajournalism and arms length fiction

I doubt there was ever a time when fiction and non-fiction were ever truly separate forms of writing, but there was a time when it was considered the norm to try. Parajournalism, using fictional techniques to set up a non-fiction story wasn't considered real reporting. Walter Cronkite's “You were there” series was a teaching tool, not reporting. Michael Moore's “Roger and Me” was an art film about the emotional impact of GM's outsourcing not a report on the outsourcing itself, Tom Wolfe's books were rightly considered fiction about real events. I don't even want to get into “fictional memoirs”.

Fiction used to have Donnee, or an unwritten assumption, and looked out from the main characters worldview even if the character was flawed or outright deranged. The trend is now towards standing back and watching the main character, more like a movie camera following the action than the writer being god of the world they have created.

Now reporting has turned into the host telling people of their opinion and using the guests as props and in fiction the omnipresent voice is considered bad form. So the tones have completely crossed to the point where fictional situations are viewed objectively and actual facts are viewed subjectively.

The reason is laziness. In reporting it's easier to form the story first and pick out the facts that support the story than to go through all the facts and find the story. In fiction it's easier for the reader to follow one voice than hop in and out of people's heads and have someone speaking over their shoulder as well. It is really easy for an writer to leave the reader baffled as to whose head we are in.

So to all the parajournalist and arm's length writers, I say, “Going the easy path is a fine start, but reporting and writing are professions that means you must be constantly improving your skills. Reporters have to learn to report not give editorials on the events and writers need to learn to write, not report the images they see in their heads. It's not easy but truly worthwhile things in life never are.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Sympathy for the Devil

My latest Writing Wednesday is up on my writing blog. HERE.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Blame Stream Media Blamers

The idea of killing the messenger for bad new is nothing new. Public figures caught doing or saying things they regret are quick to blame the reporters. But recently it has become an art form into itself. Sarah Palin elevated this art form by blaming the media for quoting her exact words and placing them in proper context to make her look like an idiot.

She had a good run of being a media whore by yelling at the media, but now there is a new king of this art form.

Newt Gingrich was caught on tape being reasonable. A major faux pas for a Republican these days. So naturally he had to put out a press release blaming the main stream media.

“The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.”

To make this statement more powerful, Stephen Colbert had John Lithgow do a live reading of it.

The Colbert Report
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Newt has raised the bar on blaming the press for reporting what public figures say.

So to all public figures who want to blame reporters for quoting your exact words and placing them in proper context to embarrass you, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, Newt has raised the bar on this art form so high that a lesser person can not survive the billowing smoke and dust of tweets that is released from this challenge. Newt is the true champion of the fight against the literati.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE