This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on Dec. 11, 2014.
Maybe this is because I’m a journalist, but I’ve noticed there are a lot of movies and TV shows that portray characters in the journalism industry.
But, as probably any profession depicted, it’s not usually accurate.
In movies, there’s Kevin in “27 Dresses,” Sophie in “Letters to Juliet” and Megan in “Absence of Malice,” just to name a few.
On TV, here’s a short list, from realistic to ridiculous.
Robin Scherbatsky on “How I Met Your Mother”
She worked her way to the top, which makes sense.
She worked weird hours (as in, went to work at 2 a.m.), which makes sense.
She went from horrible, meaningless stories/shows to the top TV station depicted on the show. And then worked even more. Makes sense.
Rory Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls”
Rory starts out how many journalists do: at her high school and college newspapers.
I give “Gilmore Girls” credit for realistically showing the struggle of finding a writing job post-college.
Rory was a Yale grad who set her sights on a New York Times fellowship. Those are hard to come by.
She freaked out during her senior year, but in the end, she got a low-paying job reporting on the road for Obama’s election campaign.
But, for someone who dreamed of being Christiane Amanpour, it was odd that Rory never tried broadcast journalism while in college.
Sabrina Spellman on “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”
Sabrina loves writing and after graduating college in two seasons (thanks to the magic of TV time), she lands a job at the fictional Scorch magazine.
The magazine world is tough — but most likely, she would’ve been a freelancer, not a staff writer, at first.
Yes, she gets stuck with assignments no one else wants, but I don’t imagine the magazine world is anything like what she experienced.
Then, she quits and becomes a freelancer. But she never is seen working again for the remainder of the series. Because that would totally work … not.
Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City”
No weekly columnist would be able to afford that big of an apartment in NYC, much less all the designer fashion.
While it’s believable that her columns were turned into a book, it’s absurd to see her lifestyle unfold on TV knowing that even columnists work long, odd hours, and could probably never afford Manolo Blahniks.
