newsroom lawyers are the responsible moms of journalism

Today’s link is a super cool day-in-the-life piece from an NYT newsroom lawyer, revealing how the powerhouses in these positions, contrary to what the few of us who’ve ever had to interact with a newsroom lawyer want to believe, do not spend all day thinking up ways to tell reporters/advertisers “no” and quashing our dreams.

In fact, newsroom lawyers like the NYT’s David McCraw spend their day keeping reporters safe, covering publications’ asses in general, and serving as the legal muscle to get ~classified documents n stuff~, which is all really fuckin’ badass.

And lest you conclude from this v. small sample size that newsroom lawyers are only men, pause for a s/o to Sandy Davidson, the communications law professor at Mizzou’s J-school (and newsroom lawyer for the local city paper there), who in J-school lore and beyond will forever be an absolute legend due to her annual rapping of some Tupac lyrics during lecture.

Yep, it’s decided: newsroom lawyers are the shit!!!