Here at D, we rely on a crack team of college-age interns to handle the bulk of fact checking and occasionally write articles. It’s a lot of work, and, like most internships in the media biz, it’s unpaid. Such is the life of a young reporter-in-training. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened an e-mail from the people at Education is Freedom on behalf of Mayor Tom and his summer internship initiative: They want us to hire high school kids (so young!) and pay them at least $9 an hour, 40 hours a week, for eight weeks ($2,880!). And cover travel costs. And set up one-on-one sessions with executives. Which sounds awesome, but kind of outrageous, given the state of the media business, our hard-working unpaid interns, and all the jobless reporters out there.
It would be great if we could help the whip-smart kids of DISD lay the foundation for careers in journalism, but as one of my colleagues pointed out: “I only made $10 an hour at my first reporting job.”
I’m not trying to be a jerk (and I know how pathetically low minimum wage is), so I’m posting the internship description below on the chance that one of you corporate types might be interested in municipal altruism. Contact info is at the bottom of the flier.
MayorsInternFellowsOnePage_2010
