THE JOURNALISTS REFLECTION

When you’ve got that great headline, a sensational coup,
Before you yell copy, just pause and reflect for a while;
The words from your keyboard, are they all really true?
Have you been balanced, fair and not stooped to guile?
Take some time at the mirror and asked the face staring back.
Is my work really worthy of the Great Fourth Estste?
He’s the one you first please, but you’ll learn down the track,
That your readers know best just how you equate.

Let’s suppose for a while that the face in the glass,
Isn’t you or your editor, or even your best drinking mate.
He is a reader, a viewer, from the proletariat class.
All he seeks is the news, the story just straight.
He needs to make decissions, maybe even to vote.
He’s the person whose verdict can cause you most strife;
For he is your customer, and he relies on your quote.
To sort from sensation, the facts and the truth in this life.

In your rush to make deadline, get your views into print,
Are you being open and fair to that face in the glass?
For he is the ultimate judge of the worth of your stint,
Even though he is just one of the proletariat class.
His views are unheard, so why should you shed a tear,
When sensational headlines will bring media glory?
As you instill in your readers trepidation and fear.
But you will come to regret taht unbalanced story.

Because truth is like gold, it’s never easy to find.
You need to search and to mine and wash till it’s clean.
You will only be trusted in your readerships mind;
When your copy’s like gold, weighty, pure and pristine.
You may fool a few pollies down the pathway of years,
You’ll get accolades and gongs from the media brass.
But your final reward will be oblivion and tears,
If you have misled and lied to the proletariat class.

Pikey.