Problem when editor doesn't back you up?

so, to sum it all up one more time for those in the cheap seats.....journalismjobs.com.

 

Agreed, and better luck with your next job.

 

My friend, this story is all too familiar for me. I resigned at my last newspaper because the editor and ME decided to side with a politician rather than back their reporter over a very misleading press release he sent and I reported on.

The release said he received "the nod" from a powerful political action committee. When I phoned to get a comment, he then told me he didn't receive an official endorsement but the organization in question sent him a letter saying his views were in line with theirs. He even admitted his press release was "misleading."

I reported just that. A few weeks later, he sends my editor an angry letter. I suspect the organization's officials rattled his cage over the announcement. To appease the primary hopeful, my editor decides we still needed to run a correction stating (repeating) he wasn't endorsed by that organization. I had enough and quit.

Sadly, this wasn't the first such incident. As a cops reporter at the same paper, I literally had to "talk down" a woman charged with manufacturing meth after she insisted on the newspaper's blog site she had never been charged. This was after my editor, not once but twice, asked me to double check court records. (I did and brought back a copy of the court docket to prove she had been, in fact, charged).

The editor at the time pawned her off on me. Ever try to explain to someone who's in a meth-fueled haze that they facing charges? ("I was in court. I don't remember that happening," she repeatedly told me on the phone.)

I'd been a journalist for 20 some years, including spells as a sports writer (I still freelance). Despite long hours, unbearable workloads and cranky readers, I loved what I did. Those two demoralizing experiences have soured my outlook on the newspaper business.

So....heed the advice of your online brethren and develop an exit strategy.

 

Brian, it's obvious you care about what you do and you want to get better but at this point in your career I'd advise you to take half the time time you spent agonizing over the misguided lead and put it toward fact-checking your work. Eliminate the errors, man. Develop some good habits and the writing will come.

As for your editor, the great Edna Buchanan once said, "Never trust an editor, never trust an editor, never trust an editor."

 

Ditto. Also spend less time feeling victimized and more time thinking about how you can improve on your own, especially if you aren't getting much help.

 

I'm still trying to figure out why newspapers are losing readers. If someone has any ideas, please don't hesitate to speak up.

 

Henry,

Guilty as charged.

I don't feel the need to placate people who want free advertising for their business (the "infomercial" business feature) and who feel entitled to dictate content.

Nor do I feel the need to placate people who object to my reporting something that happened in their school district that they want kept quiet for personal reasons.

Those people might be members of the community, but they don't represent "the concerns of the community" as a whole. It's respect for "the concerns of the community" as a whole that makes me think that those people don't deserve special treatment.

 

Come now...it wasn't just on the midget team. The pre-tyke, tyke, novice, atom, peewee, bantam and juvenile teams all got space too!

Jokes aside, the point is, you serve your readers. In Fumbuck, the readers wanted to see their kids name in the paper (and Fumbuck is in Canada..midget hockey is comparable with high school football in the U.S.) I was too busy looking for "big" stories that were only remotely connected to the community I served (I did a lot of pro rodeo when I was there because it was "pro" and therefore more worthy in my estimation) to realize that I wasn't taking care of the bread and butter.

As for Brian's story...aside from the editing/story direction problems that have been pointed out (a simple piece of advice from someone only a few years ahead of you on the career curb Brian...we write stories about people. You should have made the story about the instructor, not the sport and not the club), my guess is that he was pissed about the inter-changeable use of karate and taekwondo-karate is a generic term for all martial arts that don't involve weapons, taekwondo is the specific art this individual teaches. Or, you could have left out a sponsors name (did he say something like "I want to make sure that Billy-Bob's pumping and Jessica's Hair Xpressions is thanked" during the interview. If so, you have to either tell him that A) you can't do that, or B) that you will have to ask your editor if you can make reference to sponsors.

 

To be clear, the ME didn't order me to write a story about minor hockey. I used the experience to self-reflect on the job I was doing and I came to the conclusion that I could do a better job of covering minor sports. I hardly think that I was "emasculating" myself.

 

C'mon, Brain, tell us what the trigger was!

As for the branching arguments from this thread: I think you have to walk a really fine line when working at this level of community journalism. On the one hand, yes, you write about people. You write about things that, let's be honest, feel beneath you or your news judgment. But giving in to a demand often can be like taking the band-aid off a gushing cut to fix a slight scratch1. Sure, you get the person off your back by writing the story they want, or giving them editorial control, or whatever concession they want you to make. But once you do it, they know they've got you in their pocket, and if anyone else figures it out, you could be spending your every working hour blowing the local dojo, gym or travel soccer club.

I know because that's what my predecessor here did: any story you wanted done, he'd do to 60-inch extremes2, with unabashed editorializing at the end about what an awesome person John Doe is and how the Local High Heffalumps are the greatest bunch of kids in recorded history3. It takes a while to overcome that, but it's worth it, because the squeaky wheel doesn't tell you shit about how the rest of the car is doing4. Writing an opus about midget or bantam or cruiserweight or X Division hockey might make that guy happy, but if you have finite space and it's getting burned on something for the satisfaction of one loudmouth and a cabal of parents, what are you doing for the rest of your readers?

But for the love of doughnuts, people: Don't assume most readers or even parents are douchebags just because the loudest voices happen to be the douchiest.

1 -- It's a bad analogy. I know. Shut up.
2 -- For those of you who know me: No, it's not him.
3 -- No, really, it's not him.
4 -- That wasn't any better an analogy. I said shut up!

 

Maybe I'm off-base here, but...

Did you call the people that gave him "the nod" for comment as well? Because if you didn't...you did, in fact, make a mistake.