Brassy Broad: Alison Bass

Honest journalism, straight from the hip and hard boiled at times, Alison Bass takes reporting to a different level. Sharing her road, her path and her writing styles, adding in her own life experiences, the author takes us on many different journeys to where she is in the present. beginning with her goal to expose wrong doings even in her childhood, attacks during college and focusing on articles dealing with abuses on by priest, pharmaceutical companies,  laws and more, her stories are true to life, reveal when the person causing the abuses got away due to those higher ups where they worked covering for them. Always a cause, her work in the new rooms, before there was social media, lack of respect for women, gender bias or prejudice were the norm but hardly ever a critical issue to be dealt with. Sharing her experiences, living in a community founded by Quakers in Pennsylvania, Bass’s goal was to grow in her field, research each story to the max and report on those she felt were imperative. She as some reporters now but not all would not tolerate no for a response. She had issues dealing with her higher ups and sometimes because of her confrontational personality did not get the high interest stories, and the changes for that breaking news story that would set her apart from the others and what about women’s untold stories. Many of the stories did change the lives of some people when focusing on abuse and suffering. Did her stories be effective? Did they endear her to her readers? She brazenly exposed psychiatrists that had sex with female patients and the impact on his victims. Working for the Boston Globe, Bass took on the importance and authored a story about the molestation of children by Catholic priests. Just how did her male co-workers describe her”Broad” not exactly complimentary. Working hard, married, raising a family took time away from her career and limitations on what she could do as the men she worked with did not have these constraints.While she was on maternity leave the board of Massachusetts board of medicine filed formal charges of sexual misconduct against Dr. Sheldon Ziegelbaum. Accused of having sex with his female patients, this doctor had some powerful friends. The author shares the conversation she heard made more  determined than ever not to miss a minute of the hearings against him. the medical board did not take patient’s complaints seriously until a second patient came forward. The final outcomes on pages 76 and 77. The author shares her experiences that she and her family faced because she is a Jew. Church authorities called on the Boston Globe editors to stop reporting about an abusive priest. She did not stop and continued. Alison is tough, relentless and in a world dominated by male reporters she holds her own. When she was raped by a  date instead of people coming to her aid she was blamed for it by family members and more. She is tough, demands the truth and will never take no for an answer. Facing hostility that women face and discrimination in the workplace. A challenge she could not pass up was before she left the Globe she stumbled on a great idea for a book. In the course of  reporting a feature on the freewheeling mix of work and play that typified life at dot com companies in the Boston area. Getting  a book published is not easy and in the early spring of 2000 she wrote up her proposal about a female CEO of an internet startup who had overcome tremendous odds to get where she was. Her agent could not sell the book.. She managed to pitch Ilene Lang’s story to her old editor. She shares the journey with readers. A wide range of topics stories dealing with abuses by priest, companies that violated pharmaceutical rules, and impeccable research to back up her stories and become one of the first journalists in the nation take aim at males’ psychiatrists that took advantage of female patients. But the stories that teens and young adult need to read is the one about the date that turned into rape and being careful trusting strangers and allowing them to walk you home or drive you home on a first date. The story about the rumors that Mike Barnacle who worked for The Globe made up stuff hand fabricated the sources, faces and quotes and plagiarizing other people’s work. she learned from others that this was true but how do you prove it. however, she relates on page 127 the incident that forced those in charge to demand his resignation. Ending with her mom’s funeral in Philadelphia which was where her parents wanted to be interned. She wakes up the morning of the funeral and jots down someone some remarks,. “ My mother made her mark in so many ways  and the impact she had made on he and my brother and sisters was her firm and conviction that were  special , that we could do anything we put our minds to and that would  succeed. Whatever I have accomplished  in this life so far I owe to my mother’s unwavering glove for and belief in me.” This truly sums it up perfectly and it helps readers to understand why Alison Bass believed in herself as others did and do now. Added in she had her book published and wished her mother was still alive when her book was published to read the reviews, understand it form a women’s point of view. She highlights her book on page 203. So much of what she wrote inspired others, changed polices and hopefully the way other journalists would present their take on stories in an honest, trustworthy and down right to the point way. Alison Bass’s story explains how she helped pave the way to ( be one known as) the ME-TOO movements. Her voice is strong on every page and each story she relates is told in a straightforward nothing held back way.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews