Journoterrorist Michael Koretzky brings his unconventional style to the University of Memphis

Michael Koretzky talks to Bryan Heater. sports editor
at The Daily Helmsman

Michael Koretzky calls himself a “journoterrorist” and says that he likes censorship. He tells audiences that he was expelled from high school, suspended from college and fired from two different jobs.

The South Florida writer and editor has published a newspaper for the homeless, written for supermarket tabloids and helped students put on programs whereby they give up their First Amendment Rights in exchange for food.

Koretzky is no traditional role model, yet he inspires journalism students to do great things.

He brought his non-traditional style to the University of Memphis March 27 as part of the 31^st annual Freedom of Information Congress at the University Center Theater. More than 100 people attended the event, and many more met with him as he spent the day in the Meeman Journalism Building meeting students and addressing the staff of The Daily Helmsman.

 “He was really insightful. He told us what we are doing right, and what we are not doing so right. He gave us a ton of good ideas for stories, and he told us how to cater to the student audience,” said Chris Field, a junior journalism student and sports writer for The Daily Helmsman. “He gave us a lot of ideas of how to take the paper in some new directions.”

The title of his presentation was  “Why I like Censorship (I seriously do, this isn’t a cheap reverse psychology marketing ploy)” He lambasted the thin-skinned news media along with pompous university administrators.

Koretzky used his own story as a way to inspire students, telling them that getting fired is not the end of the world - if you get fired for the right reasons. The right reasons would be standing up for principles and speaking truth to power.

For example, he discussed his experience as the campus newspaper advisor at Florida Atlantic University, where he was fired in 2010. He says he was fired because the school administrators did not like how the campus newspaper was calling them to task.

So instead of going away, he volunteered as an advisor at no pay, even though the school told him he could not do that.

Christopher Whitten introduces Michael Koretzky
at the Freedom of Information Congress.

One of his messages is that it is OK to fail. You will be better for it. He said he is a better journalist for getting suspended from the University of Florida in 1989 and then dismissed from the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1997.

“Commit sins of commission, not omissions,” is one of his mantras for young people who sometimes are too timid to take on people in positions of power and authority.

Memphis journalism students said they found Koretzky inspiring.

“I learned that you should do what you love. We are all journalists, and I am a writer so I should be writing about what I love,” said JJ Greer, journalism student. “He convinced me that there is a market for what we write about. I am a soccer player, and I do live to write. He convinced me to turn my career into someone who writes about soccer. You have to write about your passions and your interest.”

Koretzky said he was humbled by the invitation to be part of the Freedom of Information Congress, an event in the past has featured such journalism heavyweights as Anderson Cooper of CNN, the late David Broder of The Washington Post and Helen Thomas of United Press International. The event is sponsored by the U of M Society of Professional Journalists chapter and the department of journalism.

To find out more about Koretzky’s unconventional ideas, visit his blog, journoterrorist.com. He currently works as a magazine editor, and he continues as a regional representative for the Society of Professional Journalists.

About his experiences in Memphis, Koretzky wrote,” It turnsout the University of Memphis is a quirky and contradictory place. It bothdepressed and impressed me.”