Taya Graham

Yes! And I used to sit and watch my mother write on an IBM selectric and I loved the sound. It was a privilege to help replace the ribbon. And I loved helping her find typos! She was a copy writer and I inherited a love of big words from her. (Shadenfreude, Apotheosis, Reliquary! Words are fun!)

This answer is a dissertation! I am not Marshall McCluhan! Social media has fragmented and atomized the power of media- in one sense social media has democratized journalism and at the same time tribalized and trivialized it. The monopolistic power of the aggregator Platforms is the main power as they profit from the work of content creators and journalists without the need to reimburse them and at the same time keep them in a cycle of continuing to provide free content in the desperate hopes of relevance and remuneration. The Internet and social media could be the death of journalism without serious intervention to save the 4th estate.

I plead the 5th!

Hmmm, maybe Noam Chomsky, Lisa Ling, Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Wynn, Lizzo and Bernie Sanders! And President Obama! And Angela Davis!

The story I am proudest of isn't a huge breaking story, it's a local, Baltimore City story about a woman who was being abused in public housing. There had been a scandal reported in Gilmor Homes Public housing, where women were being coerced and extorted by maintenance men for basic repairs to their apartments. Pest control, electrical work, even disability accommodations were being held ransom by maintenance workers who were trying to receive sexual favors from residents for work that was supposed to be provided as part of their rent payment. I was certain Gilmor Homes was not the only residence where this had happened and investigated another public housing unit where I met a wonderful woman. The housing authority had ignored that this problem may have been continuing and other units throughout the city. When I met her she was reluctant to come forward about her story of abuse at the hands of maintenance workers; but over a period of 6-7 months of talking with her we became friends and eventually she felt comfortable sharing her story. She did it to help prevent the same abuse from happening to other women. She had also been asking for a transfer from that housing unit for over 3 years. Through writing stories and through video we were able to put enough pressure on the housing authority so that she was eventually able to move from the unit where she had been stalked and abused by maintenance workers. One of my happiest days as a reporter was the day she told me she was moving to new housing.

Hmmm, I don't want to say because I don't want to embarrass a co-worker, but there have been some doozies!!!