“FROM TABLOID TO
TRUTH”
JOURNALIST
INSPIRES YOUNGER GENERATION OF REPORTERS
Former Tabloid Reporter’s Autobiography Now Available On Unique Website
For Christian Journalism Students and College Libraries
MINNEAPOLIS, MN / LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS)
-- As a young man, Michael Ireland found that his
dad was not too enthused about his dream of becoming a journalist.
Ireland’s dad wanted him to become a Civil Servant, pushing paper, pens
and paper clips and writing memos in triplicate. But God had other
plans.
Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST Ministries/ASSIST News Service also got
little encouragement from his dad -- a missionary turned pastor -- in
his desire to become a journalist.
Now, more than 30 years later, Wooding heads up a unique Christian news
agency specializing in Missions, the Persecuted Church, and Christian
“human interest” stories.
 And Michael Ireland is
working with Wooding as his chief reporter for this unusual Christian
news agency. (Pictured: Dan
interviewing Joni Eareckson Tada at the NRB Convention).
Wooding has just released his autobiography entitled FROM TABLOID TO
TRUTH, which recounts many of his experiences as a Christian journalist
on his lifelong quest for the truth.
ASSIST Ministries has made special arrangements with Theatron Books,
publishers of "From Tabloid To Truth" by Dan Wooding, to make copies of
it available for free to Christian journalism students and Christian
college libraries throughout America as a gift from ASSIST.
And Ireland has bought the first 10 copies of his mentor’s new book to
donate to either 10 promising Christian journalism students or to 10
Christian college libraries across the United States.
“When I heard that Theatron had made this offer available, I wanted to
be the first to jump on board and make it possible for other students
like me to gain the benefit of Wooding’s experience and wisdom. He has
been my friend and mentor for more than 30 years and I wouldn’t have
learned as much as I have about the profession without his help and
encouragement,” said Ireland.
“He has also given me the chance of a lifetime to invest my God-given
skills, talents and abilities back to Him in service of the Persecuted
Church.”
Get more info on the book at www.fromtabloidtotruth.com
where you can buy the book or on the ASSIST website at www.assistnews.net.
You can also go directly to Journalism Student/Christian Library Book
Fund Student/Christian
Library Book Fund to make your tax-deductible donation. Gifts large
or small will be a blessing to ASSIST and to Christian students.
A LIFELONG FRIENDSHIP
It was in 1972 that Ireland first met Wooding, who was
then Chief Reporter for the local newspaper, covering crime, religion
and show business, topics he says are all somehow mysteriously related!
He got Ireland his first real reporting job.
Ireland asked him why Christian journalists are important in today‘s
world?
“Christian journalists can help influence the world for good! The
problem is that many of them have little experience in what is going on
in the real world and have not traveled much. My suggestion is that any
young reporter should join a local secular newspaper or radio and TV
station and learn their craft this way. It can be difficult for them –
as I found – but still it is a terrific way to learn.
“I have reported from many parts of Africa, the continent where I was
born, but Uganda is the country closest to my heart. It was there,
while working on a book with Ray Barnett called Uganda Holocaust, that
I made a commitment to serve the Suffering Church for the rest of my
life.”
Wooding has kept that commitment, made on a visit to Kampala just days
after the cruel dictator Idi Amin was kicked out of power in Uganda by
Tanzanian troops, by starting ASSIST Ministries -- a unique Pen-Pal
ministry to persecuted believers -- and also the ASSIST News Service
which has a global reach with more than 2,600 subscribers, mostly media
outlets who run ASSIST’s unique brand of Christian news and features.
What have been some of the worst interviews he has done?
“I did a radio interview last year with a major Hollywood star, whose
name I won’t mention. I asked her, ‘What was your favorite movie last
year?’ She looked at me and replied, ‘I can’t remember?’"
Ireland asked Wooding what he has learned personally about human nature
from his 30 years in journalism?
“I have learned that nothing surprises me about what people do. Human
beings are capable of great kindness and terrible cruelty. I don’t
think the world is getting better at all.”
On the future of Christian journalism around the world, Wooding said:
“I think it can only get better. There are now many top-class
journalists who work on both Christian and secular publications and
media outlets who have learned their craft and are really terrific.”
He advised aspiring young Christian journalists to “Get training on
secular media outlets!”
Ireland was one of those who took Wooding’s advice. After meeting him
one day for coffee after being introduced through his mother’s
part-time employer, a retired Christian schoolteacher for whom his mum
did housework, Wooding took Ireland on an assignment to interview a
woman whose apartment was lice-infested and for whom the local
authorities were doing nothing to help.
Wooding let Ireland take a role in the interview -- and that was when
Ireland knew he was smitten with “the journalism bug.” Ireland soon
graduated from a British boarding school and joined the local paper
with Wooding’s recommendation.
 More than 30 years
after that first cup of coffee together, Ireland is working for his
"mentor" as the chief reporter for Wooding’s ministry. Wooding even
gives Ireland a brief mention in his autobiography! (Pictured: Cover of
From Tabloid To Truth). (Pictured:
Cover of From Tabloid To Truth).
Wooding has helped many a budding journalist take their initial steps
in their reporting careers.
Michael Ireland was one of them, and now he too wants to help “pass the
torch” to a new generation of young Christian reporters by helping to
make Wooding's autobiography available for inspiration and
encouragement.
** Michael Ireland is an international
British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London
newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982
and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two
children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a
British Christian radio station. (Pictured: Dan Wooding with Michael Ireland at
the occasion of the NRB 2004 in Charlotte and the book signing of
FROM TABLOID TO TRUTH).
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