Is journalism the best profession around?

In his rare public comments, Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on 2 September 2008 in Northern Mexico, hailed journalism as the best profession. Is it so?
Choosing to become a journalist, one is always hounded by one’s friends and relatives, even at interviews, why on earth are you choosing this profession? One needs to give a thought to this question, as it is unlike other profession and usually thought as low paying one involving ‘risks’. But that has not deterred people from selecting this as their career. What is the attraction that has been drawing people to this field, which also is growing at a tremendous rate; is it really the best profession?
Bob Woodward once being asked the same question, has suggested that it is the nature of work that makes this profession the best: “ Everyday is interesting……when things get uninteresting you don’t have to cover them…you get to cover the next interesting thing.”
As a journalist you are covering ‘news’; the term itself makes it clear. Like any other working person, a journalist will also be going to the office, but the nature and content of work is going to be different everyday for him. A reporter covers new things. He will be tracking an old story and will report it only when there is some new development. This close relation to newness is what attracts people to this profession. Probably this is one of the rarest of professions in the world, where you get to passionately follow newness. As Marquez has expressed: “we enjoy it when we find jewel (of a story)…”

Not only this, this profession also allows serving the society and nation to prosper towards a better present and future. A journalist is the ‘prime mover’ of his society. He educates and enlightens the citizens by bringing new information to them. And as Francis Bacon has said, ‘knowledge is power’, thus empowers them. As the fourth estate of a democracy it also keeps check on the functioning of the government, thus ensuring prevalence of democracy.
A journalist enjoys no privileges. His rights are same as that of any ordinary citizen of a country, but he is shouldered with lots of responsibilities which are challenging and exciting at the same time. After all who wouldn’t like to be part of a profession where one gets to serve society, educating it, and also where monotony or boredom or lull never sets in? Isn’t it the best profession to be part of?