Today's Inspiration

Today was Day 2 (of 2, mercifully) of Orientation, which translated into a parade of talking heads and lots of time spent in butt-numbing seats in the school's main lecture hall. We also got goody bags containing, among other things, our bibles for the next year: Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, Tom Rosenstiel's Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, and The Associated Press Stylebook.

Also on today's activity list: ordering my J-school business cards ("Jody Rosen Knower, Reporter") and picking up (and then very quickly depositing) a huge student loan check (most of which, of course, will be going right back to Columbia when my eye-popping tuition bill is due in a couple of weeks). And I bought my first textbook (for a whopping $75!!) -- Melvin Mencher's News Reporting and Writing (of which I have to read 4-1/2 chapters before RWI meets again tomorrow afternoon).

All in all, the day was somewhat administration-heavy and inspiration-light.

So it was an extra-special treat to go back to the lecture hall at 6PM to hear documentary filmmaker Martin Smith talk about covering the war in Iraq. Smith is a longtime producer, writer, director, and correspondent for PBS's Frontline, for which he has done a series of four segments on the war, from Truth, War & Consequences in October 2003 to Private Warriors in June 2005. (Three of the four are available in streaming video on PBS's site.)

He gave a great talk, filled with meaty clips from the series, and set a tremendous example as a passionate, intelligent, forthright, principled, and generous professional. During Q & A, the hands shot up like weeds after a hard rain, and you could feel the intensity of interest all around the room. This is a guy who has taken the biggest, most reported story of the day, found several critical yet unexplored angles, and then used masterful storytelling techniques to bring the truth to the public in a way that's both accessible and powerful. I envy those who get to work with Smith, especially those just starting out -- what an incredible role model and mentor he must be.

Cool quote of the day:

The key is to find the chaos out there and make sense of it for your audience. --Martin Smith