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How do journalists and media specialists view alcohol consumption at work?

On June 25, Super.ru interviewed the stars following the report of Dozhd correspondent Denis Kataev, who interviewed guests of the premiere at the Moscow Theater of Nations with a glass of champagne in hand. Actors Leonid Bronevoy, Mikhail Boyarsky and Natalya Krachkovskaya condemned the journalist: some of them said that they would not have allowed him near them if they had been the guests of the theater premiere.

Kataev himself stated that he does not intend to make excuses and “there is nothing wrong with that.” TJ interviewed several well-known journalists and media professionals about how they feel about drinking alcohol during work hours.

Lesya Ryabtseva, assistant to the editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy

Alcohol is everyone's business. It is useless to be puzzled by morality in this matter. The main thing is that the journalist is productive.

In the end, if an adult (of any profession) understands that alcohol interferes with his work, then he himself can make a volitional decision not to drink.

And the bans are meaningless. In the Echo Charter, of course, there is a clause about use in the workplace. But “if you’re not caught, you’re not drunk.” And I don’t believe that none of the employees use it.

Igor Belkin, co-founder of the Shaggy Cheese agency

You need to get drunk after the report, before and during it - it is not recommended. (Although once a CNN correspondent got wildly unlucky when she was reporting from a legalization event in one of the states).

Anton Merkurov, expert, Institute for State Ideologies

If you don't know how to drink, don't drink. A glass of wine or a glass of beer is safe and healthy. Drinking in such a way that it interferes with the performance of work duties is prohibited, no matter who you are.

As for the media, a rare example where alcohol looked organic was the Minaev Live program. In all other cases, a drunk person in the frame looks bad.

As professionalism grows, so does self-confidence. Like, it’s okay to be drunk. This is a big misconception.

Tonya Samsonova, journalist of Ekho Moskvy

The Dozhd journalist, my colleague Denis Kataev, has an editor-in-chief to say what a journalist is allowed to do on air on his TV channel, and what not to do. I believe that the editor-in-chief and the media law are enough to regulate someone’s admissibility and morality, and my opinion is unnecessary here.

As for people who want to speak out about the morality of journalists, I wholeheartedly support their intentions. I think they could find the courage to write about more than just the incident with a glass of alcohol at a social evening. It would be interesting to start with those channels whose audience is many times larger than the audience of Dozhd - then the result of their activities in the fight for morality will be greater.

Unfortunately or fortunately, I practically cannot tolerate alcohol: it makes me vomit and even in small quantities greatly affects my speech coherence and self-control. That's why I can't go live with a glass of champagne.

Boris Vedensky, video blogger, co-founder of Droider.ru

Personally, I love alcohol. But I have a clear rule: you can only drink from Friday evening to Sunday evening. On weekdays it’s taboo. Empirically, I noticed that the next day the efficiency drops.

Although, I am convinced that this story is very personal. In certain situations, a “pair of Jacks” may be justified, for example by employees of the sales department. I'm not talking about the sommelier.

But on average in a hospital, it seems to me that getting drunk at work is impractical. It's like hiring a stripper for your office: it will lift the spirits of some employees or even inspire them, but most likely, overall productivity will drop. We need to look for other stimulants.

Pavel Kushelev, journalist at Vesti.net

I'll say something banal. Alcohol is relaxation and relaxation. And at work you need to be focused.

Alexander Plyushchev, journalist of Ekho Moskvy

Echo has its own standards, which say that you can’t drink at work and you can’t work under alcohol.

Without arguing with corporate standards, I will note that in my personal opinion, the main thing is adequacy in any condition. Some of our sober journalists are worse than drunk ones. And if a journalist, like everyone else, drank moderately at the event, I don’t see anything fatal in that.

Zalina Marshenkulova, editor-in-chief of Breaking Mad

To be honest, I didn’t understand what the problem was at all. It’s not like he fell on the coffin at the funeral of some respected person, for example. I was just intelligently hugging a glass of champagne, what’s wrong with that? He didn’t insult, didn’t vomit on anyone (sorry), calmly did his job, had a quiet, sophisticated conversation. I understand if he threw chairs at guests and shouted “We are all going to die!”

It seems to me that if you are a journalist, sometimes you even need to drink alcohol while working to add a little playfulness and cheerfulness to your materials. But if you are a surgeon or a truck driver, that’s a different story, of course: here you need to be as sober as glass so that your hands don’t shake. In general, if your job is not to be responsible for people's lives, then reasonable doses of alcohol are quite acceptable.

Oleg Koronny, editor-in-chief of "Arzamasa"

Drinking alcohol at work is smart, convenient and unacceptable. Especially if you are doing something important.

When it comes to journalism, alcohol has played a key role for decades. There’s probably no point in drinking alcohol while you’re typing a sarcastic note, but it can come in handy when communicating with people.

Many good interviews have come about thanks to alcohol. True, the transcriber will have a hard time - listening to the stilted, fuzzy, pretentious drunken dregs is not easy. Alcohol will come to his aid - and then some teenager, in order not to fall asleep on the subway after drinking, will buy a magazine and read it all while drunk. He will grow up and do the same.

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