Are Journalists Underpaid?

Slate ^ | Dec. 20, 2005 | Daniel Gross

[baystaterebel]

The New York real-estate boom is claiming a different kind of casualty, according to an article in Sunday's New York Times. Keying off a new report issued by the Center for an Urban Future, Jennifer Steinhauer noted that, thanks to high housing prices, many of the creative types who work in Manhattan-centered fields like advertising, publishing, and the arts are being priced out of the city. This, presumably, could damage New York in the long run, since it's an article of faith among nouveau-urban thinkers that the creative classes are a huge economic advantage, as the author Richard Florida has persuasively argued.

It could also damage journalism. The journalists who write these stories about people who can't afford to live in New York can't afford to live in New York, either. And that's a trend that may prove just as corrosive to establishment media as any disruptive technology.

[baystaterebel]

Quick! Call Jerry Lewis! Get the PBS phone banks fired up! Break out the violins and the boxes of heavy duty tissues!

This is a travesty that must not go on.......

Not only does it say all you need to know about most journalists. The journalist who wrote it probably does not understand why we have little sympathy for him and his ilk.

Has their ever been a more self absorbed creature put on this planet than a journalist? I tend to think of them as the common house cat. Sure they are curious, when they want to be. Other then that they just lay around all day waiting for someone to put food in their dish for them.

[mtbopfuyn]

It could also damage journalism.

Hahahaha!

[atomicpossum]

Whatever Daniel Gross receives in his check, it's way too much.

[Nat Turner]

It could also damage journalism. The journalists who write these stories about people who can't afford to live in New York can't afford to live in New York, either. And that's a trend that may prove just as corrosive to establishment media as any disruptive technology.

awww aint that a shame. Maybe if they told the truth onceinwhile instead of serving as the house organs of the DNC.... who knows, people might start reading newspapers again.

[appleharvey]

Quick! Call Jerry Lewis! Get the PBS phone banks fired up! Break out the violins and the boxes of heavy duty tissues! This is a travesty that must not go on.......

LOL. Great comments! Right on the mark.

[Fido969]

Wait - these guy get PAID for writing this crap?

I didn't know that!

[Maceman]

Nobody in the world is underpaid (assuming they are not being physically or legally coerced to do the work they are doing.)

Everybody is paid exactly what the work they do is worth.

Otherwise, they would be doing the work for someone else at higher pay. (Duh.)

[pabianice]

Journalists are underpaid. Marxist hacks at and are overpaid.

[Fenris6]

"Are Journalists Underpaid?"

No. Via Watergate, they were elevated to level they don't deserve. How can journalists be underpaid when blogs have better coverage for free?

[airborne]

Depends on whether you add in the bribes and other payola.

[txkev]

First of all, journalists report facts, not opinions or what the DNC playbook prescribes.

[thoughtomator]

Their Soviet masters don't give them nearly enough, I agree.

[HardStarboard]

Overpaid is a certainty; under educated is a strong probability too.

[Thebaddog]

I do think that we should pay them more. If they got the same dough as a corporate executive, they would turn to the right very quickly, I bet.

[FLCowboy,]

Has their ever been a more self absorbed creature put on this planet than a journalist?

You have hit the home run over the stadium wall! The most successful journalists (money-wise) are the ones who are in other fields, and cash in their notoriety either by writing a book and getting undeserved accolades for their work (ala Clintons) or, in the case of Steponopoulis, have no journalististic background, and be made Washington bureauchief because of his ties to Clinton.

When journalists achieve some degree of respectability, they might get paid accordingly. As it stands now, they are basically whores.

[baystaterebel]

I love this part"

Most experienced reporters and editors at the publications in question earn salaries in the low six figures. They can expect salaries to rise by a few percentage points a year, if they're lucky. Salaries that barely pierce six figures certainly aren't insulting to most Americans. But everything is relative. A couple doing quite well—he's an editor at the Journal, she's a reporter at the Times—could make up to $250,000. But after New York taxes, New York child care, and New York housing, you're not left with much. In New York City, you can't buy a co-op or a condo with only 10 percent down. In most desirable suburbs, you can't buy a starter house for less than $700,000. When children arrive, the couple has to choose between living in an expensive town with good public schools (which means long, painful commutes), or the prospect of private-school tuition at $25,000 per kid per year. Given the types of lives many journalists wish to lead—and think they're entitled to lead by virtue of their education and positions—the wages aren't anywhere near sufficient.

You just cant make this up!

Seriously I would love to buy a journalist for what he/she is actually worth and sell them for what they think they are worth.

Oh yeah, they are really in touch with the working man....BWAAAAAAA HAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAA!

[muir_redwoods]

"Are Journalists Underpaid?"

I don't know. What's the going rate for mediocre creative writers?

[malia]

Don't even want to read this --- but I will say if FoxNews is paying Corn, Ellis,Gergen, Estrich, Begala, Bechel, and a host of others I say no if anything they are being paid way to much and for nothing!!!!!!!!! They get their talking points, all repeat, repeat, repeat,

[FreedomCalls]

I do think that we should pay them more. If they got the same dough as a corporate executive, they would turn to the right very quickly, I bet.

How do you explain Katie Couric then ($13 million per year salary before perks)? Or any of the other highly-paid lefties like Dan Rather or Mike Wallace?

[IronJack]

many of the creative types who work in Manhattan-centered fields like advertising, publishing, and the arts

Translation: parasites who could not exist anywhere they had to ply a trade that made a difference.