Philip Merrill College of Journalism | University of Maryland

Columnist Gene Weingarten Addresses Graduates

For immediate release, May 23, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md.— Washington Post columnist and editor Gene Weingarten offered this maxim to the May 2006 graduates of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism: “The future” he said, “lies ahead.”

Weingarten spoke of the challenges facing journalists before the graduates, faculty and platform party at the Merrill College’s May 22 ceremony in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

“Good jobs in journalism have become scarce as newspapers shrink and die, broadcast media fragment to smaller niche audiences, and the public appears more and more willing to receive its “news” online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants,” Weingarten said.

But it’s not all bad news, he continued. There are still many talented journalists out there who “question authority and speak truth to power, right up until the time power incarcerates them.” He lamented the public’s apparent apathy, equating journalists’ approval ratings to be between that of “loan sharks and ho-bag skanks.”

Weingarten, who has a weekly column and online chat for The Washington Post, was a former editor at the Miami Herald. Credited as the man who discovered humor writer Dave Barry, Weingarten is now making a name for himself in the genre. His column covers hard-hitting topics as smelly people, butt lifts and words that rhyme with orange.

In 2001, he completed an investigation to discover the worst town in America. What he found was Battle Mountain, Nevada – a town complete with giant letters on the nearby mountain spelling ‘B-M’ and a Shell gas station sign over the main strip with the ‘S’ burned out. He dubbed it the “Armpit of America.”

Concluding his speech, Weingarten reminded graduates that despite the turmoil and uncertainty in the current media landscape, one thing will remain the same: “Your editor will be an idiot.”

Text from Mr. Weingarten's speech ran in his column appearing in the May 27 edition of The Washington Post Magazine.

For more information contact: Matthew C. Sheehan at 301.405.8320.