A common type of journalism story I loathe:

Smiling TV journalist tells you about a needless sacrifice made by a goodhearted person which can never address the structural violence the act is trying to mitigate and which gives cover to those who create the need for such an act.

Spare me your kids in the rain selling cookies to pay off other kids' lunch debt, your priests giving up their ventilators for the young, your girl scout collecting socks for the homeless.

Give me your structural analysis about crooks who ration debt/ventilators/homes!

What do these BS stories this tell us, journalists? Nothing helpful!

It's a kind of disservice journalism! It gives cover to existing power structures with feelgoodery dogoodery.

Our audiences need context, rigor, analysis—not emotionally manipulative propaganda!

Just in case it isn't clear: My beef is not w the person doing an attempted act meant to mitigate violence. But that's not NEWS. Maybe it's an early story draft where u like "Damn, it's fucked up, kids out here trying to pay off other kids' debt MFer?!? WHOSE FAULT IS THIS?"—>

...THEN you go and find the MFer, their system and their ilk, and expose why they are emotionally and financially manipulating children into trying to save each other from debt.

LEAVE THE KIDS THEMSELVES ALONE—*THAT'S* THE STORY. THAT'S JOURNALISM.

Thanks for introducing me to the term "perseverance porn," @MsShade & friends. It is obscene! https://twitter.com/MsShade/status/1243326982282252288

Think I am going to ask all my students a common question next term:

Does your story question relationships of power?

If their answer is "yes" I'll say, "How?"

If their answer is "no," I think I am going to send them back to the drawing board.