SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: FRIENDSHIP WITH FELLOW JOURNALIST HAS BEEN HARD-EARNED

What will Speak Out be like without departing reporter Scott Moyers to kick around?

Journalists are like soldiers, IRS investigators and Chinese acupuncturists -- once in formation, once on the trail, once stuck together they are hard to separate.

We've also been described as leeches but we won't go into that here.

Well, one of the soldier/acupuncturists is shaking loose of the Southeast Missourian and heading north to fight wars on a different front. Scott Moyers is heading on.

What is Speak Out going to be like without Scott Moyers to kick around? Scott, like any good foot soldier in the heat of battle, has thrown himself on the hand-grenade of Speak Out frenzy and taken the brunt of the blast many times to save his comrades.

Actually, Scott either doesn't know how to avoid irritating people or doesn't care. Either way he diverted the venom of Speak Out regulars away from the rest of us consistently.

Unfortunately, I am the guy to take his beat, and with that will probably come the bullseye baseball cap that is the Speak Out mantle. I was told recently by a leading member of the law community that I have big Speak Out shoes to fill. In fact, counselor, I have an enormous Speak Out crown to try and fit my head into.

Scott has always thought that I have coveted his beat. He's said from nearly my first day that I have been envious of his work with rapists, murderers, thieves and petty thugs -- all alleged, of course.

My constant reassurances have not put him at ease. In fact, Scott and I hated each other early on and have constantly viewed each other with side-long glances. Despite the fact that we have become good friends, we have never been quite able to trust each other.

In the egomaniacal world of journalism, that's as close as you're going to get to true friendship.

I'm actually going to miss Scott, probably as much as I miss Heidi Nieland. Being at a newspaper far from home, as I am, makes field friendships all that much more important. As truly odd as Scott Moyers can sometimes be, we really are very much alike; we like journalism because it's fun.

Many, many journalists have lost that and they're just husks of what they once were or shadows of what they could have been. So far I have been able to avoid that and enjoy my work. Scott is going to his second job in the field and this will be his biggest test. If he can manage to maintain that spirit -- keep having fun -- despite the pressure and the discomfort, he may just turn out to be a real human being.

Not many journalists can lay claim to that.

Good luck, Scott.

David Angier is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.