Salmon: Internships That Pay More Will Attract Only Rich People

So this new, top-of-the-line investigative news outfit called Pro Publica pays their Social Media interns (whatever that means) $700 a week. Felix Salmon, a blogger for Reuters who I normally agree with and respect a lot, thinks that salary will discourage people who aren’t used to getting payed a lot of money from applying to the internship. He also writes that it will spoil the young journalists who get the job. The second point I think is stronger than the first. Journalists tend to be arrogant proud people. So if they get an internship like this $700 one at Pro Publica, they’ll think they deserved it because they’re that good. This is what happens.

But I digress. My problem is with Salmon’s main argument, that a higher salary will attract a less diverse applicant pool. God, even writing that makes me cringe. As a member of the generation Salmon is talking about I know for sure that a paying internship at an august news establishment like Pro Publica (which is doing just fine, contrary to most news outfits these days) will attract a much more diverse pool of talent. Every college student who has dreamed of doing honest investigatory work with some of the best in the business in New York will salivate over this internship. It’s as simple as that. It’s just plain bizarre that anyone would think otherwise.

–Daniel Strauss