March 23, 2005
Desktop messy side of journalism
By
Herald Editor
Last week I exposed something unseen in 12 years of professional journalism - the top of my desk.
Spring time and a young man's fancy turns to anti-bacterial spray. Yeah, me and Mr. Clean frolicking in lemon scent fields. More likely my spontaneous spring cleaning was part of a company-wide incentive in light of new carpeting being installed later this month.
Not to air our dirty polypropylene in the press.
Naturally this cleanup came as an ethical affront to a "Shoe" journalist like myself. I'm confident that a comic strip bird/reporter like Shoe would not have taken this news sitting down - unless he fell asleep at this desk again. Aside from both being cartoonish, Shoe and I share a similar mantra: the messier the desk, the better the reporter. In fact, I have it on good authority that Nellie Bly's desk at the New York World was a vermin-infested cesspool.
Humorist and journalist Bill Bryson subscribes to this messy desk theory. He notes in his book "Lost Continent" that he only knew one journalist with a truly tidy desk, and he turned out to be a criminal. Which in the context of a humorous travel novel, isn't overly funny.
I am not alone in my muckraking journalism - as in moving piles of press releases crafted during the Clinton administration.
While I won't reveal sources, a few fellow reporters' desks could be declared EPA brownfields. One columnist's desk in particular resembles a Dr. Seuss illustration, with books and papers stacked in ways that blatantly defy the laws of physics. I am humbled by the journalistic body of work inhabiting their desks.
Begrudgingly would best describe my initial work-related clutter cleaning. It began with halfhearted attempts at recycling old Grand Traverse Herald newspapers. And I do mean old - as in December 16, 1886. Evidently my predecessors couldn't chuck anything either. While I did save that particular issue, papers without ads for Simons' Liver, Kidneys and Bowels Regulator were pitched.
While moving on to junk from this century, I was overcome with a strange feeling - one not brought on by inhaling rabid dust mites. Oscar Madison help me, I was actually enjoying cleaning. At that precise moment, 125 miles away, my mother fainted. By the end of the day I lost five years of papers, photos, press releases and a petrified French fry. What I found was a writing surface called a desktop.
For now, my office desk looks like I just started this job, was fired from it, or ready to retire from it tomorrow. Of course it won't last. Already the weekly flotsam of press releases are poised for a coup d'‚tat against the Clorox disinfecting wipes. I guess if the "Shoe" fits, you have to wear it.
Who knows, if I'm still here at this desk a decade from now, the time will come for new carpeting and spontaneous spring cleaning. If not, I'll leave all the old stuff for the new editor to purge, pitch and plunder. Perhaps starting with these words.
Grand Traverse Herald editor Garret Leiva can be reached at 933-1416 or e-mail gleiva@gtherald.com