Column: STOP THE PRESS!!

When I first started out as a reporter I always had the dream of frantically running into the printing facility and screaming, "Stop the press".

I had seen this in multiple movies and television shows and it always seemed so dramatic. A few years later I would get the chance after a major error was discovered. Turns out it was not as exciting as I had pictured it. In fact, I think I just made the press crew mad and got called about every name in the book. I think half of it was the fact I came in the pressroom like a whirling dervish screaming and shouting, but it also probably had to do with the fact they had already printed about 5,000 copies of the edition.

I blame television and the movies for ruining this. Had it not seemed so cool I wouldn't have wasted my time. It's not like I would have personally volunteered to be called the things that came out of crew's mouth. I felt dirty after that experience.

Probably about for our five times a year, I will watch a movie that will feature some sort of journalist. They can be a small town newspaper reporter, an investigative reporter from the Boston Globe, or someone who works for a fancy magazine. Each and every time they make the life of a journalist seem so dynamic and interesting.

Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome gig, but it never is as crazy as they make it out to be. The only thing that is really accurate is that the main characters always have some sort of silly sidekick. This is the way it goes because most journalists are a little bit out of their minds, present company included.

In a lot of the movies they live in these ridiculously extravagant apartments in places like New York. It grinds my gears because that is not going to happen.

If you are in it for the money, journalism is the wrong gig, especially when you start. In fact, I'm pretty sure my allowance from when I was a kid was more than my starting salary at the Daily Rocket-Miner newspaper.

During the 2017 Legislative session, the Ledger will be running several stories written by journalism students at the University of Montana. It's really great to have some talented younger people interested in becoming journalists.

I know they will find out it is not as glamorous as they have imagined, but stories need to be told and they will be the ones doing it in the future in both publications and on the web.

The Montana students will be able to learn at one of the best journalism schools in the nation and hopefully many of them will stay in the state. Whatever they do, I'm just glad they picked what they are doing for a career. I look forward to seeing their stories and all the crazy journalists they will meet along the way.