Drum Major Institute to honor David Simon, creator of The Wire

The producer of HBO's drama The Wire has been awarded a 2008 Drum Major For Justice Award. On May 20th, The Drum Major Institute will honor David Simon for his contribution to the national dialog on urban policy.

"Simon, by creating his own fictional urban vision, has illuminated many of the problems facing reality," writes Corinne Ramey writes at DMIblog.

The Wire is about the institutions that comprise the city of Baltimore--the police, the drug cartels, the politicians, the unions, the schools, and the media. Simon has called the series an op/ed dramatic form.   

Simon became intimately familiar with the streets of Baltimore during his 13-year career as a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. His longtime collaborator, Ed Burns, is a former homicide detective who went on to teach in the Baltimore public schools--the latter being by far the more difficult job, in his opinion.

The final season of The Wire devotes considerable attention to the decline of the American newspaper. The problem, as Simon sees it, is that newspapers are too preoccupied with profit to safeguard the quality of their own product. Experienced reporters are bought out and replaced by neophytes. Editors care more about winning prizes than about telling stories that matter.

If you doubt the verisimilitude of Simon's media world, check out AngryJournalist.com and this emotionally raw comment thread about freelance magazine journalism (the accompanying New York Observer story is okay, but the comments really capture industry morale at rock bottom).

Comments

[Elana Levin]

thanks for the mention!

the May 20th benefit will be great and tickets are still available.