why they're so rare

I'm surprised that everyone's omiGOD, these people at CNBC aren't really reporters!!

Journalism is hard work and I don't mean the part where you sit down in front of a screen to write. The gathering news part is hard. But what can be way harder is the fuck yous you get, the clever lies, the personable liars and the threatening ones. Not to mention the fact that you might end up writing bad things about people which will make you an object of hatred. You might end up being messenger who will be ignore, reviled and undermined. Or shot. Yeah, that happens a lot in a lot of parts of the world.

Real journalism is not for someone who wants to be popular with the elite--or anyone else if it comes to that. If you write really balanced stories about horrible situations, nearly everyone is likely going to show an asshole side and you have to expose that. Exposed assholes aren't pretty. True investigation of important issues is not for television personalities if they care about ratings. The story is all that matters for a real journalist.

I was a real reporter for ohhhhhh maybe 2 weeks? Less than that, really. It was a story that was dumb and small -- about the placement of a television tower for god's sake -- and still makes me feel nauseated when I think about how MAD everyone got.

The kind of reporter I'm talking about isn't the type who goes to a meeting and writes it up (and in case you're curious, I stank at that) I mean the type who goes to the meeting and then looks for the back-story and tries to see why people are doing what. She's an investigator and she won't stop until she figures it out . Note to Jim Cramer and anyone else: People who are doing bad things will lie about it. And if you figure that out, they will get mad at you. EVERYONE will get mad at you. Even people you like and admire. Even your publisher.

After that tiny foray into real news exploration, I did nothing but feature stories. Maybe a trace of controversy, but never deeply explored, never the basis of the story. I was a girly girl and I wanted people to like me. I did not like it when the big guy yelled at me and told me to fuck off.

So when Jon Stewart tells Jim Cramer he's not a real journalist and he should have been and Cramer's already big eyes go all round and sad, I think, no, Cramer couldn't be. He doesn't have what it takes. In fact, who the hell does? Not a lot of people as it turns out.

Cramer and almost everyone else over at CNBC never will be able to write real news. He's like most of us. He cares too much about what people think of him. He respects money too much which means he respects the people who hold it (or he did, anyway) If you're going to be a real reporter, you can't care so much about the people. You care about the institutions and justice. You know people and you can write a great portrait, but the people aren't as important as the story, and you're willing to hurt the feelings of people you might actually admire. You have to have the courage of your convictions to a degree that most of us can only imagine.

And those reporters? I've only met a couple and they're tough, driven, scary people, God love them. I sure do.