I tell stories from the front and back lines of the newsroom. This story is about mundane tasks.
For six years, I majored in interning: WGBH, WHDH, WNYT, USA TODAY LIVE, ABC News Nightline and the ABC News Investigative Unit. 8 semesters in 6 newsrooms in 3 markets. This is all to say: I know how to make copies.
At my first full-time position on an assignment desk, a producer asked me to photocopy a book and digitize it for the newsroom. Wow. All the interning skills kicked in. I was on a very short list of journalists who knew how to copy using the printer on the assignment desk. I copied the entire book whilst answering phones and making beat calls.
This job wasn’t the last time I used my office nonsense brain. Every position since reminds me of my work in high school teaching adults basic computing for community service. I positioned myself on the front lines of the newest newsroom technology. I constantly teach myself new skills that I can bring to journalism: file transfer protocol (FTP) servers, content management systems (CMS), social media marketing, content strategy, blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and large language models (LLMs).
If a newsroom wants to pivot to a new technology, the strategies boil down to: invest heavily in the new technology, hire Molly for the new project, slowly lose interest in the project, defund the project and lay off Molly.
The tech bros have yet to make my copy skills obsolete. As the paperwork piled into my one-bedroom apartment, I turned my home into a newsroom again. I say again, because I worked remotely before. This time, it’s a story where I am the source, the reporter, the archivist, the secretary, the witness, the fundraiser, the woman managing everything from the inside. My only way out of this story is with documents.
And there are a lot of documents. Emails. Court filings. Certified mail. Secured communications. Agency complaints. Probate dockets. Pro se court filings. I hadn’t heard of those last two until 2026.
Newsrooms taught me how to pivot in changing environments. I know when I reached the limits of my understanding. Only money can help me get closer to the truth. Because the goal for those funds is to go directly to a lawyer who understands my spreadsheet better than its creator.
Donate to the #PapaStarkFund and help me with legal fees:
Freddy Furiosa is my executive assistant. She thanks you for your donations!
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