Lessons from George Ramos
Photo from sanluisobispo.com
The world knew George Ramos as a fierce reporter and editor who'd earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam and won three Pulitzers for the Los Angeles Times. His "kids" knew him as a tough teacher who demanded that we drop his course the first day if we weren't going to hack it. He was all of those things, and more – his big heart, mischievous smile and intense spirit made him a beloved mentor and friend to many. He may have died last week, but his legacy lives within us.
As my news reporting instructor in 2002, George was crazy. He was loud, pushy and sometimes profane. He told us he reveled in failing students, and sometimes his assignments felt like practical jokes, gleefully delivered from his wide bear face with a sly glint in his eye. But these jokes all came with lessons. Here are my favorites:
1. Never take no for an answer. George recognized that I considered myself as an intrepid reporter, so when he assigned us different communities to cover for a series of stories, he gave me Sierra Madre. George knew very little happened in Sierra Madre, a sleepy foothill town of 11,000 people, mostly retirees. It was going to be tough for me to get a story, any story, let alone the felony that was one of the assignments. I said, “Sierra Madre? Are you fucking kidding me?” He laughed. I went to Sierra Madre’s police station, where the pleasant officers showed me their bookings for the past year. They’d had no felonies that they could even remember and said that I should go back to school and tell my teacher that I couldn’t find one. A bit discouraged, I went to my car and sat to think. I decided I was going to sit there until someone committed a felony, or I was going to have to commit one myself. I waited some more and checked back periodically. When I went back into the police station about five hours after I’d first arrived, the officer at the front desk told me I was in luck. A man had just gotten arrested for trying to sell a stolen bike on the street. I had my story! It wasn’t the most exciting felony, but it was a felony. Whew.
2. Be clear. Write for your audience. George told us that reporters are always using words like “weapon” and “authorities” in their crime reporting, because that’s the kind of jargon used by the police. He told us to use “gun” and “police” instead, because we’re supposed to write for our audience, and in news reporting, that meant we should write for regular people, not cops. It seems obvious, but I think of George’s advice every day when I’m writing. (You may notice that local news reporters often repeat what the police told them verbatim.)
3. Use common sense. George had an annual assignment called “Find Four People.” We had to dig up the addresses for four people (himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and two of his friends) and verify the addresses twice with different sources. He reminded us that most people are in the phone book, and that’s where we should look first. Of course, there are about a billion George Ramoses in the Los Angeles area, so I used my own common sense to narrow down the list. I called Steve Harvey, George’s colleague at the Times and my instructor at journalism camp. Steve told me that George lived near Echo Park. Later on I tracked down George’s mom and brother through a tip from another student, and they verified that he lived in Silver Lake, so I paid him a visit at Larissa Drive, steps from where I lived at birth.
4. Always take notes. George introduced himself to us on the first day of class, and then he had each of us talk about our origins. He told us that he’d just interviewed us and we hadn’t even noticed. Then he told us to write a story about what had happened in class. We all looked around at each other in horror and realized that we should have been taking copious notes. I somehow managed to pull together a good story, complete with quotes from George and other students. To this day, whenever anyone’s talking during a meeting, I write down everything in case it might be important. Don’t be alarmed if I write everything you say into a notebook. It’s George’s fault.
5. Set your goals high. On that memorable first day, George asked us all to tell him what grade we planned to get in his class. He went around the room, and most students looked intimidated and said they would get B's. I looked him in the eye and said I would get an A. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "Really?" I took his question as a challenge. "Yes. An A." I earned an A- that semester, though I called George a bastard for giving me a minus. Again, he simply laughed at me.
George taught me for only a semester nearly a decade ago, but his lessons remain with me today. When I look back at my time at USC, I realize that J206 was the best class I took in college: It made me a better reporter, writer and person. I mention George's class so often at home that my husband knows whom I'm talking about when I reference George by first name.
I wanted Jason to meet George, so last weekend we drove up to San Luis Obispo for the California Scholastic Press Association's 60th reunion. I attended the CSPA workshop in 1999 at Cal Poly, and it was an incredible learning experience that helped me become who I am today. It was good to see the older but familiar faces of the journalists who were my teachers when I was 17. We hugged and shared stories of what we’re up to now. But one face was missing Saturday: George Ramos. I had assumed that George would be there, since he was also a CSPA alum and taught at Cal Poly. I'd emailed him earlier in the week but hadn't heard back, which I thought was odd, since he was always quick on email. During the picnic, I asked several teachers about him, but no one had heard from him recently. I figured he might be on vacation and hoped to hear from him soon.
I couldn’t believe the timing when I heard the news that George had died a few days before we arrived in SLO. We were on our way home when I received the email from Scott Sandell, one of George’s colleagues at the Times and another one of my instructors at USC. I cried for a while during the drive home, and then I started writing. Because that's what George would have done when someone died. He taught us how to write obituaries, after all.
My last memory of seeing George was at Cal Poly. I drove up to SLO in 2005 to visit the CSPA workshop and visit George. After I sat in on a workshop class, George gave me a detailed tour of the journalism department, which he was heading at the time. He walked me through the Mustang Daily's newsroom, the radio station, classrooms and his office. He was proud of his school, his kids and his accomplishments.
I'm proud of him, too.
FLASHBACK TO J206: NEWS REPORTING
If this blog isn't long enough for you, here's the story I wrote in 2002 after my first day in George's class.
Former students call him the devil. He seemed to love that name, perhaps even take pride in it.
But as instructor George Ramos introduced himself and his reporting class to 14 USC students Wednesday, he sounded more like journalism’s version of Jaime Escalante.
Raised in East Los Angeles, Ramos is an alumnus of Garfield High School, the same inner-city school where Escalante taught students who couldn’t initially do simple math to pass advanced placement calculus. An award-winning teacher known for his dedication and tough teaching style, Escalante was immortalized in the 1987 film Stand and Deliver. A seasoned journalist also known for his demanding teaching style, Ramos is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has helped hundreds of students master the skills necessary to become good reporters.
Yet while Escalante taught many students from underprivileged backgrounds, Ramos said he thinks USC students are too “comfortable” with where they are. Through his teaching, he wants them to step out of their comfort zone to tap into skills they don’t know that they have.
Ultimately, Ramos wants students to get the most out of their craft: “Love journalism and it will love you back,” he told them.
“The goal of this class, simply put, is for you to be able to walk into a small newsroom and function as a competent reporter and writer,” Ramos said.
Those reporting skills are simple in nature but take much practice to master: “Interviewing techniques, writing and organizing stories, speed, accuracy, critical thinking and ethics will be of primary importance in this class,” Ramos said in the syllabus. “During the semester, you may be asked to stretch yourself as a reporter and writer by doing a number of things you perhaps haven’t done before.”
Some of those unfamiliar tasks include getting multiple assignments in one week, the first of which included finding Ramos’s home address, writing about the class, and reporting on NBC’s Meet the Press. Later in the semester, his students will be assigned to local communities for off-campus reporting, and they will also be asked to find celebrities’ home addresses, to further hone their search and research skills. The final will be a news story administered at the Los Angeles Times, which will represent 40 percent of the class grade.
Besides scaring students with the workload, Ramos appeared to revel in scaring his students, taunting them repeatedly with questions like, “Are you gonna drop the class?” He also joked about his joy in failing students who didn’t meet his standards.
“I think Ramos must offer one of the most challenging courses in the school of journalism,” print journalism major Jason David said. “Never have I been so intimidated on the first day of class.”
By the next week, one student dropped. But 13 stayed. Some were hopeful that the class wouldn’t be as traumatic as they’d heard it could be.
“I’m not going to let George’s lecture discourage me,” broadcast major Zaraya Skea said. “I am sure everything will work out somehow.”
Although Ramos acted displeased that some students were not afraid of his class, it seemed like he was looking for some determination in the face of adversity.
That’s the kind of moxie that has characterized his career. Told in high school by his counselor that he’d never make it as a professional journalist because of his Mexican heritage, Ramos set out to prove him wrong. The counselor offered a simple stereotype that indicated why Ramos would fail: “Mexicans are [only] good with their hands.”
Undaunted, Ramos left home to attend college at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, majoring in journalism and working at the Daily Mustang student newspaper. Ramos has been working at the Los Angeles Times since the 1970s, earning three Pulitzers along the way.
Like how he proved himself worthy of being a journalist, Ramos wants his USC students to demonstrate that they are good reporters and that they cannot be written off as over privileged slackers, a common stereotype of the university’s students.
After hearing Ramos outline the class, Skea committed extra time to the class.
“Right after George’s lecture, I wrote a letter of resignation from my job at transportation services so I will have enough time for this class,” Skea said. “I am up for the challenge.”
Still, Ramos’s method of teaching can turn off some students.
Dan McManus, a print journalism major from Danville, California, was blunt in describing Ramos after the first class meeting: “I think George Ramos is loco.”
And Ramos agrees with that popular sentiment, but he promised that every assignment has a real purpose.
“There’s a method to my madness,” he said. “You’ll see.”
Ramos showed a little bit of that method when he slyly interviewed the class simply by asking them to tell him a little bit about themselves. In a short time, he developed a connection with each member of the class, which made it easy for him to learn about their backgrounds and ask more questions.
“You know what I just did?” he asked the class. “I just interviewed you. Now I know a little bit about all of you.”
That is the kind of rapport Ramos wants his students to have in their interviews while on assignment, the kind of interviewing that is learned through practice, if it doesn’t come naturally.
Jenni Rosenberg, a print journalism major from Claremont, said that she wants to make reporting skills more natural for her, like the way they are for Ramos.
“I think this class is going to be amazing, one of the richest learning experiences I will ever have,” said Rosenberg. “It’s going to kick my butt, but it’ll be good for me. I need the experience in reporting, since my strength lies in writing stories and not necessarily in doing the research for them.”
MORE ON GEORGE RAMOS
American Dream Lives in the Barrio, by George Ramos, Los Angeles Times [Part of a series that won the 1984 Pulitzer gold medal for public service]
George Ramos: tough-guy reporter with a big heart, by Frank O. Sotomayor, LA Observed
George Ramos, reporter and friend -- R.I.P., by Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times
An ode to George Ramos, by Lauren Michell Rabaino
Pulitzer Prize-Winner's Voice Will Be Missed, by Kevin Riggs, NBC Los Angeles
CalCoastNews editor George Ramos dead at 63, by Lisa Rizzo and Josh Friedman, CalCoastNews
George Ramos dies at 63; former Times reporter and columnist, by Keith Thursby and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times
