In what appears to be an ill-fated attempt to buck up the morale in the Winston-Salem Journal newsroom managing editor Ken Otterbourg had this to say (found in an Arizona Republic article about how reporters are depicted in movies):
"Reporters are always better-looking in movies than in real life," said Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor of theWinston-Salem Journal, in North Carolina. "There's a phrase I use to describe most people who work at newspapers – myself included, all genders – which is 'newsroom pretty,' which is a lower grade of pretty than real-world pretty."
Oh snap! But let's be fair and share the Big O's other quote in the story:
"In real life," Otterbourg said, "the sort of revelatory scoops on which movies are made rarely happen. It's more of a series of steps and monk's work at a courthouse or the like. And most reporters – even the good investigative ones – tend to have better social skills than the lone wolves of the movies. . . . Being a journalist is about getting people to talk with you, and nobody is obligated to talk to us. You can't do it by being a jerk."
To sum it up: reporters are really friendly, yet homely folks who toil in the bowels of places like the courthouse.
In defense of the Big O I should also point out that in the movies the actors are better looking than whomever they're depicting, whether it be reporters or lawyers. The most notable exception, of course, would be any film in which Dustin Hoffman was the actor.
Befuddled 