Dude to debate, dare to take responsibility
In a conversation with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, journalist Tran Mai Huong shared his deep impression of a major newspaper named Lao Dong - a newspaper with a clear identity, a strong and persistent voice of the working class for decades.
I was especially impressed with the state or dont section that was once on Lao Dong Newspaper - sharp and full of social messages. Those articles are capable of reflecting the shortcomings of life and social paradoxes in a brave but also very humane voice, he shared.
For him, the most valuable thing in this newspaper is the spirit of social criticism that is not waver, always protecting the right, standing on the side of the disadvantaged - without avoiding or being afraid to touch.
We really need such newspapers in the press - daring to ask questions, daring to have opinions, daring to debate and daring to take responsibility, he emphasized.
Lao Dong Newspaper, along with many other newspapers, contributes to creating the face of innovative journalism. In the period of national transformation, Lao Dong is one of the leading newspapers - brave and sharp in reflecting workers' lives, speaking up for workers, and at the same time not afraid to face complex social problems," Mr. Huong acknowledged.
Journalist Tran Mai Huong also especially mentioned prominent writers of Lao Dong such as Xuan Cang, Tran Duc Chinh, Nguyen An Dinh... Those who are not only good at their profession, but also have clear social courage - daring to commit, daring to collide, daring to pose thorny issues in the midst of the daily changes of economic and social life.
Sharp without showing off
Specializations such as " state or Don't" headed by journalist Tran Duc Chinh (Ly Sinh Su), or "Event - Commentary" led by journalist Nguyen An Dinh (Chu Thuong, Nguyen) at one time - although two different sections in form and tone - have one thing in common that is easy to recognize. These are all articles, sharp comments, distilled knowledge depth, commentary that is not afraid to declare war on bad habits, with the paradoxes of life - articles full of Lao Dong character.
When mentioning the section " state or Don't", journalist Tran Dinh Thao - a close friend of Tran Duc Chinh - calculated: For only about 10 years (from the late 1990s to the early 2000s), he wrote an article a day for Lao Dong. A month of 30 articles, a year of 360 articles, 10 years are 3,600 articles - all expressed in the form of journalism skits. That is enough to visualize "Mr. Ly" being "born" for the whole society - for the officials, the mechanism and the wrong things - in a way that has made readers " complain" many times about Lao Dong just for that topic.
His extraordinary work ethic has caused many of Li Xian Su's former colleagues to panic, and young reporters can only lean inpected. But what makes the very unique style of the " state or Don't" section is the special talent that reduces the tension of the problem, softs the dry topic with witty - satirical statements without being angry, sharp without being flashy.
Every day
The fact of "every day" also made his colleagues at Lao Dong "terrorized" when mentioning Chu Thuong when he was in charge of the "Event - Commentary" section in the years before 2004.
However, for those of his time, it was that "replacement" that created an entire anecdotal story about his way of writing and making newspapers, where each article was less than a page of paper and the knowledge was filtered out for a lifetime. For journalist Nguyen An Dinh alone, it is also a gentle movement between light literature and sharp political theory, encapsulated in a commentary of less than 600 words.
Journalist Tran Nhat Minh (VOV) recounted the anecdotes and times, when writing this article, early in the morning, Chu Thuong often went to the newspaper to write a really big title (title) on a white page. Then he went to the coffee shop to sit and listen to stories about life there, then went to the book, and he added sharp lines to the note.
"Some young people say that Mr. Chu Thuong writes in the newspaper as a "cold room". Please, it took a lifetime of being in trouble, now to collect and suppress each article, each moment. Profit from past labor combined with listening and distillation from life is always the weapon of every journalist - journalist Tran Nhat Minh shared.
In 51 Hang Bo in the early 2000s, Vinh Quyen journalists still remember the mornings that started with a glass of wine "asking" Mr. Chu Thuong to "pick up four good things" for the commentary. "I solemnly write a white piece of paper with a red ballpoint pen and throbbing fingers, place it shortly on the table with a smooth worn paper blocker, stand up on the street to enjoy the rice ball, and only go... to submit the notebook until late afternoon".
However, for journalist Vinh Quyen, the most important thing is to go one more time every day for professional journalists to understand how to make one more time. Readers read the newspaper every day not only to find the latest and hottest information but also to find the responsible attitude and voice of journalists in the face of news events. They are excited when journalists see something they have not thought of, or think of without knowing how to say lets but still perform.
Until now, journalist Ngo Mai Phong still remembers each article title, each voice in the "Event - Commentary" or Nguyen An Dinh's essay: "Resolution to hit the duck", "The stick in the mind", "The story of a power outage at night", "The medicine of a time". Each of Nguyen's articles is a perfect combination of literary language and journalism, a style that Nguyen is unable to mix.
In the article "Chu Thuong wrote evenings", journalist Luu Quang Dinh once wrote: "Evenings - Commentary can be considered the last page in his career as a journalist, where his life experience and writing experience accumulated over a lifetime helped him turn many small articles into sharp and profound journalism works, not only informing and analyzing simply but also evoking serious thoughts about life and people".
