Dr. V's magical putter

Simmons specifically said they weren't interested interested in running the story when Hannan first submitted it in September. It had no ending. She wouldn't talk to him, and they had nowhere to go with it.

So, Hannan contacted Dr. V one more time. She committed suicide. Hannan submitted a new draft. And, they decided to run it.

Her suicide made the story better. It provided a resolution. Isn't that great?

 

Can't the following two things both be true:

1) Writer and editors are sad that a human being committed suicide;
2) Nonetheless, writer and editora realize that said suicide of human being makes the story more compelling.

I wrote about a lot of deaths in my time, some of the best stories I wrote, I'm not ashamed to say.

 

Was anyone at Grantland sad she committed suicide?

Did Dr. V's suicide make the story more compelling, or just provide and end note? This wasn't a story that looked at how sad it was that a suicide was the ultimate conclusion.

It wasn't even the story of "a troubled man". It was a story about the writer of the story. It was a story about his wild ride uncovering the truth. And, his ride wasn't wild enough without a good ending, which the suicide provided.

And, we weren't asked to feel any sympathy for Dr. V or her loved ones. The person we're supposed to feel bad for at the end of the story is Caleb Hannan. He had to go through a lot to get this story. Poor guy.

 

I can simultaneously say writing about some of the deaths I wrote about gutted me inside, and were the best of my career.

I take NO joy in those being my best work. None. Most days, I'd rather have been a mediocre sports writer.

I don't know if Hannan got giddy about a suicide ending because it was the most compelling and/or would make his career. I do know that's a pretty shitty thing to accuse a writer of without a leg to stand on.

 

Let's be real for a second. Caleb didn't hear about the suicide and start jerking off mentally.

OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! SHE'S DEAD SHE'S DEAD SHE'S ... DEAD!

I don't think he knew *what* the fuck to do next. And I do think he's knee-deep in a world of guilt right about now, 5 days later.

 

YankeeFan doesn't need facts to have an opinion on things.

 

Maybe not, but in the piece, he doesn't express any remorse about her death, or his reporting.

In his telling, he's the victim: Over the course of what was now eight months of reporting, Dr. V had accused me of being everything from a corporate spy to a liar and a fraud. She had also threatened me.

And, the ex-brother-in-law is the one lacking in sensitivity: Even though he hated his former family member, this seemed like an especially cruel way to tell me that Dr. V had died.

What we do know from Simmons is that while "Caleb was obviously shaken up" (though he doesn't express how that manifested itself), he got right back to work on a rewrite of the story with this new, and exciting ending: We had no plans to run the piece at that point, but we decided to wait a week or two before we officially decided what to do. When that period passed, Caleb decided to write another draft that incorporated everything that happened.

 

"was encouraged decided to write another draft ... " ??

 

Caleb decided to write another draft

I don't see any sign of "encouragement" in what Simmons says, do you?

Grandland was waiting to make any kind of decision. Caleb was back at his laptop.

 

Don't know how much of this is true, but ...

http://gawker.com/twitter-explodes-after-trans-subject-of-golf-article-ki-1504164978

"friendofv

I was the recipient of one of Anne's final letters, written after she had made the decision to take her life. I am not a blood relative, but (I believe) one of the closest things she had to family. She was an unhappy person, had made suicide attempts at least four times before, and her death was not a surprise to many of us.

She made no reference to this story, or to being "outed." Her backstory—her credentials, her claims about her background, but NOT her gender identity—had been unraveling in the industry for some time, and she was convinced she was going to end up broke or in prison or worse, for the scams she had pulled. (And this Grantland piece only touches the surface. She was a lifelong scam artist.)

I think she had reached the end of the game. Each lie was another lie to keep straight, more stress on a personal already on multiple medications just to stay even.

Anne was a compulsive liar, a hustler, a depressive, and a person who burned nearly everyone she ever dealt with. She never burned me and I considered her a wonderful friend. But no one's to blame for her suicide, other than—and this is the great debate of humankind—perhaps Anne herself. Saturday 8:40pm"

 

Wow. That's pretty powerful stuff. Sad story all the way around.

 

From Tom Scocca at Gawker/Deadspin http://gawker.com/the-journalist-and-the-con-artist-1506799508?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow