Hiccup on teen mom feature ...

If that's what I end up doing because I don't want to write a story that includes gratuitous details about an incestuous diddler, I'm fine with that.

I don't need a "momentous story," or your idea of one, to be sufficiently comfortable with my career and my reputation. I'm already there, and I see no point in wasting my time on what I sense would be an incredibly distasteful story such as this.

Some may believe it to be news. I disagree.

You're the one who's dead wrong. The "innocent child" is actually not quite three years old.

And I really hope you're not implying with the quotation marks that the 18-year-old is not innocent.

 

Life is distasteful.

That doesn't mean the writer has to handle it distastefully.

 

This ... this stinks of a setup sockpuppet post.
A high school girl is willing to talk about an alleged incestuous relationship with an uncle? A high schooler - in high school? Willing to talk about shagging her uncle and having a child?
My bullshit meter is pegged.

That said ...
you mention the alleged incest, better have the shit to back it up (for example, a copy of the birth certificate listing the father) or you and the paper are sued.

 

It certainly could be a setup.

But you would not have to look hard to find teen mom stories.

 

She is 14 and not a public figure, so you just cannot print the identity of her baby's father. Plus, you have her guardian's to think about if this becomes legal.

What I would do if I had the time and I were you...

Stick this in your back pocket and at the worst, do a huge feature on her when she graduates. Follow her through the next few years of school and keep up with all the ins and outs of this. It would make for an amazing feature, magazine article or a possible book.

 

did i miss where the thread-poster said he ran in the other direction when learning 'uncle john' was 'baby daddy?' no, he asked for guidance on an important issue. it's quite clear, to me, anyway, that he is in the midst of 'genuine soul-searching,' as most of us have had to do.

then the issue here, forged largely by dick w, is the question of: can you be a 'great journo' and have a conscience simultaneously?

dick if i've misread your posts, my apologies, but it sure seemed to me you declared straight-up that it was impossible. and that now you're backtracking 'cause your contention has met with great resistance here.

if this is an unfair summation i'd appreciate a clarification.

 

True. But it also means you don't have to throw distasteful details into a story where they don't belong.

A court case about a man who raped and impregnated his teenaged niece is news and should be treated as such - assuming, of course, that there is a court case. As I've said, though, there may well be a publication ban that protects the identities of the girl and her child.

But a profile of a high school softball pitcher that identifies the girl as the victim of an incestuous rape that resulted in pregnancy is completely inappropriate.

To me, there'd be no problem in just chucking the profile idea and going to the police and/or the DA's office to find out what's happening or has happened regarding a criminal prosecution of the uncle.

 

And, with that, Happy 5,000th Post.

 

But one whose father is Uncle Joe?
And is willing to talk about it? While still in High School - you remember High School - where they rag on you mercilessly for wearing the wrong outfit, shoes or hair ... Now going public with the fact you not only put out and got knocked up, but kept it all in the family?
No. I'm sure high school kids would let that slide right on by.

 

Shit. Didn't even notice. Thanks.

 

It is an unfair summation.

I think that I have made clear the distinction between "pursue it" and "run it."

I also think that I have said that how the journalist handles the piece

I never said you can't have a conscience and be a great journalist. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. I just don't think this is necessarily a litmus test for that. It's all in how the writer handles it.

Here's a good example. I don't know if anyone has ever read "There Are No Children Here." The author followed a couple of inner-city school children for a couple years of their lives, and wrote about all the gory details of growing up in the Chicago projects.

In the intro or acknowledgements, he disclosed that he had, after the fact, decided to share some of his profits from the book with the family. He knew that was a journalism taboo, but decided in the end that some things were more important.

Great journalist. Conscience.

 

So an executive at your paper asked, "Are we sure this piece doesn't GLORIFY teen pregnancy?" How stupid is that person? I sure would be so much cooler if I had a giant belly like Suzie who still gets to sit at the cool table...Man, you had no chance to write this at your paper, but you should do the complete story for a national paper.