The Difference Between Professionals and Amateurs

Well, while the real journalists were waiting for the verdict at the court yesterday, I was catching up with my life. I spent a good part of the morning getting a crown on a tooth that broke. Stopped in at the university to work on the Healing Racism in Anchorage newsletter. And then met with a student in the early evening. I put the trial out of my mind, never had the radio on, and when I got home I got back on to try to do something with all the left over thoughts about the trial still in my head. When I finally finished it was 3am and just before posting I thought, well, let me check if there was a verdict on the ADN website. I really didn't think there'd be.

Boy did I feel sheepish when I found out 12 hours after the verdict was announced. The professional journalists were there as they were throughout the trial. One of the things I learned and it makes me feel good about Alaska, is that the tv journalists were there and writing their own stories. Bill McAllister of Channel 2 was there all the time as was Matthew Simonof Channel 11. It's nice to know we have real journalists who write their own stories and not just people who read the teleprompter. I've already talked here about the ADN news folks, Lisa Demer, Sean Cockerham, Michael Carey, and Rich Mauer, and APRN's Steve Heimel and David Shurtleff. And I also got names the names of the two artists who have illustrated the inside of the court where cameras were not allowed: Pat Gillin for Channel 2 and Tamara Ramsey for Channel 11 whose photo at the door of the Federal Building I posted the other day. And Shannon Moore of KUDO. And there were others who in my ignorance, I never identified.

My hat's off to you all. Thanks for treating this amateur journalist with such kindness and support. And let's not talk about how long it took me to find out the verdict, ok?


Bottom photo: Waiting for the Kotts after the trail Monday.



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