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Martin Halstuk takes his job seriously. He called every editor in California until one gave him the job he wanted. He lived as a homeless man for a week just to write a story about homelessness. After 22 years as a journalist he switched to a career in teaching.
Halstuk is not someone who waits for something to happen. He walks very quickly, takes charge without even thinking and plans to someday be the proud owner of a BMW motorcycle. History fascinates Halstuk the most. "Journalism is daily history," he said. "We are here today because of yesterday's history. Everything is connected." Halstuk has accumulated quite a history of his own. Although born in a German displaced-persons camp just after World War II, he spent most of his childhood in Chicago. Easing his way into journalism, he became the editor of his high school newspaper and graduated in 1964. He earned a degree in English literature from Loyola University in Chicago. Halstuk got his first journalism job in 1972 by a weekly paper in New York. Two years and plenty of hard work earned him a job at a daily paper. However, Halstuk's ultimate goal was to work for a newspaper in California. Unfortunately, everybody seemed to want the same thing as he did. He mailed his resume to editors of every medium and large paper in the state. Every editor turned him down. Fighting discouragement, Halstuk called back all the editors, told them he was coming to see them and packed his bags for California. He visited two or three editors a day at his own travel expense. Soon he received several offers from impressed employers. For several years he worked as an editor for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Examiner. He often taught part time at UCLA, the University of San Francisco or smaller colleges in the area. Previously, Halstuk was a reporter with the Oakland Tribune. There, he was intrigued by California's homeless people. To write a story about the homeless, Halstuk put on old clothes, didn't shave for 10 days and wandered the streets for a week, begging for money. (He later gave all money he collected to the Salvation Army.) A photojournalist tracked him, snapping pictures from a distance. In December 1982 the remarkable story ran in the Tribune with this lead: "I fell through a crack in society, to a dark place where luck and faith seldom shine." Halstuk recalls this experience as the most memorable and touching in his long journalism career. Another memorable assignment involved several policemen raiding drug houses only to steal the drugs from criminals and sell them on the street. Halstuk covered the story throughout their arrest, prosecution and conviction. "Policemen should never be above the judicial system," Halstuk said. "I think it is sad for society that fewer students are interested in journalism because we need journalists to expose corruption like this before people become victims of it." Although he enjoyed being a reporter, Halstuk longed for a new routine to learn something new. He decided to earn a Ph.D. and go into teaching. He found himself in William McKeen's mass media and society class with 23-year-olds, yet he still managed to keep the class alive. "Martin was so interesting and had so much experience that he got other people in class to talk," McKeen said. Instead of planning for retirement, Halstuk has now nearly finished his Ph.D. in Media Law at the University of Florida and is eager to start a full-time teaching career. On June 22, he spoke to SJI students about the art of interviewing. Halstuk is teaching two classes this summer -- Advanced Reporting and Interactive Media,which publishes the online newspaper Sun.One. In the fall he will teach Investigative Reporting. "I think Martin will be a really terrific teacher," McKeen said. |
Martin Halstuk lived as a homeless man for one of his Oakland
Tribune stories. He told SJI students that for reporters "life should be
a field trip." Halstuk
offered interviewing tips in his SJI speech. Photo by Alexander Nackashi.
