Reporter

I was an accidental journalist. I majored in journalism at the University of Texas because someone told me that reporters earned more reliable paychecks than cartoonists, which really is what I wanted to become. Somehow, I got it into my head that I would do both.

Things didn’t quite turn out the way I intended. My freelance cartoons have appeared in a number of major publications and websites and I’ve had some impressive clients, but I never gave the sustained longterm attention to cartooning that I devoted to reporting and, later, to arts criticism. Being a triple hyphenate is hard work. Still, I have no complaints.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram hired me after graduation, and I turned out to be a decent reporter. More importantly, I loved it. Every story taught me something new. As I tell my students, if you crave constant learning and broadening, journalism is the profession for you.

My reporting and writing won awards, including the Texas Headliner Award for feature writing (for a story about a homeless boy prostitute). I went to work for a larger newspaper (the Philadelphia Inquirer) where I won more awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for magazine reporting (for a story on public housing).

I became a national correspondent and bureau chief. Appalachia was my beat. Later, I joined the Los Angeles Times, doing the same job but in different parts of the country – first the Midwest, later the Southeast. I’ve covered presidential elections, scandal, crime, disasters, social issues and controversies of every stripe.

I fell in love with movies as an undergraduate, and in 1997 I persuaded my editors at the Times to let me write about film. This is what eventually brought me back to Houston, my hometown, in 2000 to become chief film critic for the Houston Chronicle – a big fish in a small pond, as they say.

Beginning in the spring of 2011, I began teaching at Texas Southern University in Houston. Currently, I teach Introduction to Journalism and Introduction to Reporting.

Journalism has changed a lot since I started out but reporting – the heart of all journalism – remains as vital and important and challenging as ever. This is what I try to teach my students.