Calendar journalism

In my years as a newspaper hack, the dreaded 'it's been 5 years since ...' and 'we'd like you to do a story on it' popped up about every six months.

The term 'calendar journalism' emerged, meaning -- the only reason we were doing the story was because it met some convenient set of rules, such as the fiftieth anniversary or ... 'it's been two years since the big fire ... how are the survivors adapting.' It was a reminder that it didn't happen to us but we're sensitive to your pain. I called it bullshit.

So off we'd go, doing nothing practical in the quest for a career, instead  re-writing somebody else's reporting, adding in special charm that connected to back-story, as well as the benefit of knowing all that had transpired since the original event.

Newspaper editors were not only tedious, but they were in lock-step with everything they claimed to be distasteful. 

Just to fill space in the paper with somebody's melancholy. Calendar journalism is equaled only by the 'top 10 stories of the year' that wastes everyone's time.

I was apprised of this earlier this year (2019) with the advent of two events -- the 1919 World Series and the 1969 Apollo moon mission. One small step, etc.

What we got from both is a complex view of history that couldn't have been possible at the time. We learned over the century that the 1919 White Sox either (a.) threw the Series (b.) were unwitting dupes or (c.) were part of a much larger lie. The (d.) here is whether you want to believe it.

The Apollo 9 story is laced with everything but the obvious: Going to the Moon was, under any circumstance, one of the most reckless activities since they dropped the test bomb at Los Alamos. We got virtually nothing from the missions, spent too much money, invested way too much patriotic capital ... but we got some wonderful calendar journalism.

We even have photos!

Neither of these stories gets past the 'hello' part of a conversation if the year doesn't end in a '9'.

The trick is to be creative with stories like these. It's possible. The facts are there.

Calendar journalism doesn't allow for that. The editors who assign those vapid treadmill exercises are the reason the print media went under. Inevitably, television will go the same way.

Don't fall for it.

If you want to do period history, event history or just trend color, do your own story. Read the original transcripts or reports, follow your own footprints, no matter where they lead. Don't just top it with 'It's been x-years and we thought we'd remind you.'

There is a difference between historical research and calendar journalism. One of them makes you wish you'd gone to bartender's school.