Russell Baker: 'When Writing Is Fun, It's Not Very Good' - The Atlantic

Russell Baker: 'When Writing Is Fun, It's Not Very Good' - The Atlantic

"What I find about reporting now is you don't know what you don't know, because there aren't reporters there anymore. There's nobody covering closely the things they used to. The real valuable reporter is the guy who goes to the beat every day.

"That's the only way to do it. It's the guy who goes every day and says 'Hi,' talks to the secretaries, bumps into people in the corridors, urinates beside them in the men's room, they wash their hands together. And pretty soon he knows. You want to know what's going on in City Hall? We don't have many of those guys anymore. They're the people who have taken the buyout. We have too many stars now. I was aware of that when I started doing the [New York Times] column. I had to give up reporting and I hated it. I loved reporting. I just loved bumming around the Senate and talking to those people."