Launching A Career

Posted Sep 19, 2007 by Laura Fiorilli

Updated Sep 19, 2007 at 06:14 PM

I noted yesterday that the Tasered University of Florida student, Andrew Meyer, was a telecommunications major. He is also a self-made Internet celebrity, a project he started long before the zap heard ‘round the world. But I didn’t realize he was an award-winning writer for the teen pages of the Sun-Sentinel! The Daily Pulp notes this, and says the South Florida paper has more or less disowned both Meyer and the story. Blogger Bob Norman sees this as a rejection of Meyer’s outspoken attitude:

At one point in journalism history, right around August 4, 1974, Meyer’s gonads alone might have helped him get a job at some newspapers. But in this day and age, it ain’t gonna help him. More like make them turn and run, as if from Taser-carrying riot police. A journalist with a point of view who might make a stir? Never! We must be dull, dammit, dull as dormice!

He has a point about dull journalists. As a college editor, I was often flabbergasted at the sheer blandness of some of the kids who would volunteer to write for my newspaper. Worse, their blandness often congealed into a sticky form of loyalty that made them impossible to get rid of. It makes no sense, because the job demands spark. Whether it’s the same spark that fuels Andrew Meyer, I don’t know yet - he might just aspire to be an Internet celebrity, not a guardian of the fourth estate.

On day two of the Taser saga, UF students staged a real-life protest march, and the Alligator, which one might think eats dormice for breakfast, reported the whole thing live. And people are commenting like crazy. Has this incident inspired more journalists-in-the-making? Time will tell.