Hankinsense

Poverty Playlist: Journalism roundup

A playlist about journalism is automatically a playlist about poverty, isn’t it? It’s one that hits pretty close to home for me. Here’s the mental list I’ve been keeping for a while about the creators and consumers of the news. Honorable mention goes to Yesterday’s Paper by the Rolling Stones. In the spirit of news collaboration, let me know what I left off this list, eh?

In a song about Superman, The Spin Doctors inadvertently underscore two universal truth about journalists… we’re superheroes and we’re hot. Even if dating us gets a little bit complicated.

“I’ve got it so bad for this little journalist”

-”Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” by The Spin Doctors

This one’s a newish song with a shout-out to our kissin’ cousins over at public radio.

“You don’t like anything on local radio
so you fumble around ’til you land on NPR
and listen to world news.”

-”World News” by Local Natives

“He’s a WHAT? he’s a WHAT?
He’s a newspaper man
and he gets his best ideas
from a newspaper stand.”

-”Dancing Choose” by TV on the Radio

Sometimes this is how I feel at the end of the week, after typing up five days worth of “other news” headlines…

“And that’s part of our world tonight,
for the CBS evening news, Dan Rather reporting.
Good night, and have a great weekend.”

-”Rocked by Rape” by The Evolution Control Committee

Rocked By Rape

The Evolution Control Committee | MySpace Music Videos

I want to sing this one every night at 6 p.m. when I see the red “On Air” lights flash on in the newsroom.

“Here is the news
Coming to you every
hour upon the hour
The weather’s fine but there
may be a meteor shower.”

-”Here is the News” by ELO

Now on to a couple of un-lovesongs to journalists, especially rock journalists. They make me think of that scene in Almost Famous…”Here I am, telling secrets to the one guy you don’t tell secrets to.”

First up, “Ballad of a Thin Man.” The Bob Dylan version has been scrubbed from YouTube (Thanks, Sony) so you get the Stephen Malkmus cover…

“You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts
When somebody attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect.”

-”Ballad of a Thin Man” by Bob Dylan

Then, there’s this. Those that can’t do… write?

“Hey, Mr. Reporter,
How ’bout talking about yourself?
Do you like what you’re doing,
Or is it that you can do nothing else?”

-”Mr. Reporter” by the Kinks

No news is bad news? Bad news is good news? Hmm….

“I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh.”

-”A Day in the Life” by the Beatles

That’s all good and well, but who among us actually reads or writes the news these days? What is it we’re actually doing? Well, I’m glad you asked. We…

“Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
load it, check it, quit – rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
drag and drop it, zip – unzip it.”

-”Technologic” by Daft Punk

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 7:31 am and is filed under poverty playlist, wealth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.