Related: Part II

     Recently, three critics from The Providence Journal's features department, Bill Gale, Vaughn Watson and Andy Smith, gathered with a group of staff members at the newspaper to talk about their jobs and to describe the difference between critical and newspaper writing. Critics, unlike reporters, are supposed to express their opinions. But that liberty also carries some heavy responsibilities. This is an edited version of the first portion of their talk.

     Question: Do you see yourself as critics, beat reporters, or a mixture and do these roles ever clash?
     Smith: My card says television critic but I see myself as both covering a beat and being a critic. When Channel 6 dismisses two of its key people, Pamela Watts and Sean Daly, then I'm a reporter. When I am reviewing "Tuesdays with Morrie", then I'm a critic. Where you sometimes have a problem is when you are criticizing someone who you are always reporting on. The main area where I am seeing it conflict at the moment is with the television show "Providence." For the future well-being at my newspaper it is important that I have access to the show. Therefore, if I were to turn around and really slag the show, it might be detrimental to my career. And so it is a touchy balance there. I think that happens relatively rarely.
     Gale: It is a weakness of many newspapers, including this one, that being a beat reporter and being a critic is not a good idea. In a professional sense I don't think it is good for me to constantly know these actors. It leads to liking these people. Then when you find that they are miscast, you have to say so. If I had my druthers, I would rather just review them and not write feature stories about them.
     Watson: I think we are all beat reporter and critics. I write a weekly column and sometimes in that column I will throw on the critic's hat and review something that happened the week before. And I am also subjective at times because I say this is what you should see in the next week. But at the same time I have something that is just straight reporting. I have not run into any problems yet.
     Gale: Readers do have a very hard time understanding the difference between a review and a news feature story. Also, I would like to make a distinctive between reviewing and writing criticism. Most of the time what most of us do is write a review. It's a brief review which tells what we saw and what we thought of it. Criticism, which we aspire to but we don't often make, puts into context what is going on. If it is a Mamet play, you can relate it to the other plays that David Mamet has put on.
     Question: How do you deal with the issue of your own taste versus knowing what people like? What makes a successful show, even if you don't like it?
     Smith: Generally, audiences are pretty much self selected. They don't go to something that they tend not to like. If you go see Phish, the audience tends to be filled with Phish fans. You are going to have to assume that they are going to enjoy the show. If the show is so bad that it alienates its own fans, then that tells you something. But in most cases they are going to enjoy the show, and in that context, you pretty much have to ignore that.
     Gale: I think the answer is that a review is one person's opinion, hopefully backed up well.
     Question: Do you get feedback on your columns?
     Smith: All the time. Occasional calls, lots of letters. When I was covering music they always said I can't believe you were at the same concert that I was. People feel very strongly about it. I think it is a good thing. It means people are reading, they care about it, and they care enough to write a letter about it.
     Gale: And the answer is, no you did not see the same movie, because you are not the same person. You have different educations and different backgrounds and everybody's different.
     Question: Who are your readers; who are you writing for?
     Smith: You are not writing for yourself, you are writing your own opinion. And you hope that the readers of the Providence Journal will find you maybe entertaining, maybe infuriating, maybe enlightening, but at least they will read you.
     Gale: I write for myself. I want to read that piece the next morning and say that's about as good as I can do.
     Watson: I had not thought of it the way you said it Bill, but I do not think of the audience and perhaps I am writing for myself. What I think is how can I make this review the best it can possibly be, given what I have seen. I often think of my audience as people who did not get to go to the show who like the particular artist but you need to think of a bigger audience.
     Gale: I think hopefully you are somewhat like your audience, or you may not last. Hopefully you are roughly like your audience, but better informed.
     Watson: I feel that my audience is very wide. Let's say I am going to a punk show, and the audience is going to be a younger teen audience. And then I'm going to hear Jimmy Buffett and that's going to be an over-40 audience. But when I write that story I don't think I really isolate out that audience is going to be. What I am trying to be is consistent.

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