At one point in the last four years, while I worked on a story that I don’t remember writing, a source felt an apparently irrepressible urge to take me to task and angrily explain all of the evils of college journalism.
After railing at the unprofessional nature of the Daily Bruin as a newspaper, she accused me of “trying to pull a Woodward and Bernstein.”
Luckily for everyone involved, I didn’t have the chance to showcase my rapier wit before she hung up on me.
While being on the dead end of a telephone is something my elephant-thick, Daily Bruin-treated skin is used to, being compared to the stuff of
journalism legend was a new experience.
The tirade was bizarre and different enough from most of the calls I have made for The Bruin to earn a slot in my stockpile of newspaper memories.
The Daily Bruin is a newspaper produced by a constantly turning wheel of students; the people who run it one year are usually unknown to those who step up to the plate just a few years later.
It has a short memory, much like UCLA in general.
It is not a professional paper, and much of the staff prides itself on that fact.
I am not a professional journalist, and I am proud of it. I have dabbled in The Bruin over the last four years when I had time to spare, and seeing my name in print still gives me a rush.
During my time at the paper, I looked forward to talking to people, learning from my sources and opening my readers’ eyes to new ideas and situations.
Hopefully I have succeeded … at a college level, if nothing else.
Morgan was a Daily Bruin News writer for the 2006-2007 school year. She thought journalism would be too stressful a career field, so she chose to pursue law instead.