News reporter/journalist worst job in America

Reporters have made the top of the 'Worst Jobs in America' list 3 years in a row.  The pest control man who brings us poison ranks better than the newspaper reporter who gives us our daily dose of knowledge. There is some humor to be found in that statement but I will move on.

​I wondered how photojournalists faired on the 'worst jobs' list and could only find a study from 2013 that said photojournalists ranked 188, right below dishwasher. Um? Well, better than being next to the bug man.

It is only fair to say that the decline in newspapers has caused the layoff of thousands of employees, and reporters have sometimes been stuck with the job of taking photos. Most reporters only have point and shoot skills and newspapers know that only a photographer can spot a bad photograph, so newspaper writers sometimes have to do the job of 2 people. I was lucky  that I retired before my newspaper started layoffs.

​Still, I loved my job. My only complaints were deadlines (the nemeses of both reporters and photographers), dealing with people who were ill-prepared for my arrival, and the weather (my last hurricane assignment took out my Nikon strobe).

​When it came to weather, I think I hated the heat most of all.  While on  2 separate assignments I turned my camera to my fellow photographers who were trying to keep themselves and their cameras cool. The heat index on both occasion was well above 100.

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