Journalism's great resignation may be linked to a great repression

In September 2008, after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and triggered defaults of several structured investment products, my editors sent me to collect anecdotes from people who had lost their life savings.

I hung my media pass around my neck, grabbed a notebook and a stack of name cards, and went to visit the branches of various financial institutions in the central business district.

That was a long night – the start of a string of several long nights, in fact – but the adrenaline of working on the biggest story since the start of my reporting career kept me going.