Quick notes: Pulitzers and infiltrators

Back in 2008, you may recall, a reporter wrote a story about my Stained Glass Project, and my efforts to photographically preserve the stained glass windows at St. Mary's church in Nanticoke. I couldn't help but notice that the reporter who was writing the article, and who met me in person for an interview, was young - very young. In a brief exchange of chit-chat after the interview I determined that this market was her first newspaper job right out of college, that she came from a place halfway across the country and went to a school almost as far away. And the question I should have asked her, if I were actually asking questions instead of deriving answers indirectly from her statements, was this: Why? Why here? Why Wilkes-Barre?

A few weeks ago I met a reporter from that same newspaper. She was familiar with my Stained Glass project, and as we got to talking I asked her the question that I hadn't asked her colleague a year and a half ago. And she explained that many of the newspaper's staffers - perhaps half - are actually from outside the area, even outside the state. This provides the newspaper with a variety of perspectives that would be lacking if they only hired locally. Still, I never asked how that selection process for staffers works. I imagine it's something like a draft for college players turning pro, and some recent graduates get tapped by New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, and some get drafted by Wilkes-Barre.

Still. Thinking about the Pulitzer Prize news from the other day, it seems to me that the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton area might actually be a plum assignment for ambitious young reporters looking to make a name for themselves. There's no lack of intrigue and corruption in this area, plenty of creepy crawly things under every rock just waiting to be uncovered. From crooked politicians to backroom deals to suspected organized crime figures operating in the open, from gas drilling contaminating wells to toxic river sludge being used as landfill to toxic sewage being dumped directly into the Susquehanna, there are plenty of things to write about in this area - some of them, perhaps, even Pulitzer-worthy.

Another thought:

I saw reports on yesterday's Tea Party Gatherings while I was getting ready for work yesterday afternoon. I heard one woman speak momentarily about "infiltrators" - people who have come to take up space at the Tea Party gatherings without actually embracing the Tea Party ethos. I wished the report had gone into more depth - I wasn't clear if she was speaking of, say, Obama supporters attending the gatherings and calling into question the actions of the Tea Partiers, or if she was talking about those more extreme elements (Birthers, "Obama is a Muslim," "Obama is a Socialist," "Obama is the Anti-Christ") from which the Tea Party movement has recently apparently been trying to distance itself. I suppose I may be able to find more information in the reports on yesterday's activities.

But for now, I must head for bed.