[CarryaBigStick]

No, you don't need a journalism degree, but you should have some sense of how news is organized, as in writing a lead sentence, constructing the facts in an interesting and factual manner and answering the who, what, when, where, why and how, within the first few paragraphs.

From what I've seen lately in the LSM ninety percent of the people with journalism degrees can't do any of the above. Most of the time I see better reporting from the folks on this forum than I do from our 'esteemed' press.

[rabidralph]

You're right. Except for the Bunny-with-the-pancake-on-its-head vanities that crop up, FReepers do an excellent job of answering the five Ws when it comes to after-action reports and on-the-scene stuff. Of course, we have the luxury of follow-up questions so that the info remains as accurate as possible.

[Keyes2000mt]

Well, you have to remember that there's new theories of how to write a story. The inverted pyrmaid is still the best, IMHO.