Problem when editor doesn't back you up?

My guess is the karate instructor is pissed because he had hopes the story would boost his enrollment. But by focusing on the negative (why people can't stick it out), you have not done that for him.

Typical small-town bullshit.

 

Actually, karate is not a generic term for all martial arts with no weapons. Karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, jiu-jitsu, judo, aikido, ninjitsu, wrestling and boxing are among a variety of very distinct martial arts. Many of these incorporate the use of weapons.

Not only that, there are different styles of these martial arts and it's not uncommon for practitioners to get their gis in a twist when you confuse, say, shotokan karate with shito-ryu karate. So you can imagine how a tae kwon do instructor might be upset at a characterization of himself as a karate instructor (unless he was in fact also a karate instructor - many people have mastered more than one martial art).

Let me put it another way - to say that karate and tae kwon do are interchangeable is like saying spaghetti, macaroni, tortellini and lasagna are the same thing because, hey, it's all pasta. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.....

 

See, this is why I'm always hesitant to do stories about martial arts. It can be confusing to a layman to know what's what. And yeah, that's your job to figure it out, but sometimes the distinctions can be so minute that no matter how hard and how much your stuff is vetted, you'll probably still not get it completely right unless you have a black belt in tae kwon judo or whatever.

 

I'll defer to you here, but my understanding was that karate literally meant "empty hand" in Japanese. Regardless, our basic point is the same, I think.

 

I don't know if it's that hard to say to your source: "I'm a little confused by how to describe what it is that you are teaching. I know that there are many different types of martial arts and I want to make sure that I’m accurate in the way I report what you do. What term should I use in my story?"

 

But the basic stuff dovetails into more and more complicated stuff. And you'd better hope the person to whom you're talking is getting you the straight poop. There's nothing worse than making a mistake that you couldn't have known was a mistake, and martial arts is one of those things where it's almost impossible to account for every possibility.

 

When it comes to martial arts, there's no such thing as a stupid question.
We had a martial arts guru in our area who was always sending in results, etc. involving his school (particularly his top student and eventual wife, who had a national rep in forms, fighting and weapons, and another student who held kickboxing titles before meeting his maker in a murder-suicide). One of the scariest dudes I've ever seen (think of a cross between Rick Rubin and Jeff Lebowski who could knock your block off with one spinning heel kick), but one of the nicest guys I ever dealt with on the job.

 

Haven't met a martial arts expert yet who could stop a glock.

 

Chuck Norris can melt a handgun with his stare.

 

Ace, I've seen the little fucker and I still have my money on the glock - and I wouldn't have to double down on it either.

 

Well,

I talked with the instructor, and he was upset because he said I A) made the article about him, he wanted it to be more about the club and B) he said I didn't include complete quotes on several things.
Whats funny, the other karate instructor came in the same day and said he liked the article, saying it was good for the other guy to get some attention.
As for my editor, he's a nice guy at times, but I'm finding out nice guys don't make good editors. I don't think it's that he wants to not be on my side, its more that it seems to me he gets caught in what they're saying and doesn't want to lose a subscription over something they're pissed about. He doesn't really stand up to many people. After the instructor left he didn't say anything to me.
At this point I'd rather have an SOB editor who rips my stuff into shreds but stands up for me when a reader makes an unwarranted complaint.
The angle didn't make it much of a story, but that seems to be a theme here. I maybe could've gotten a better angle if I held it a day and tracked down some more people.

 

Brain,

It's a learning experience. A trap you don't want to fall into is having "enough" to write a story.

Now, it's a daily paper, so you can't spend a year to interview every last student of this guy, but when you feel like you have too much stuff that you can't possibly get it all in one story, that's about the time to start writing.

If you have written a story and feel bad about some of the stuff that didn't make it -- guess what? You probably have a good story!

If you have just the right amount of information to slap together a story, it's probably not going to win any prizes.

Oh, and you are never going to "completely" quote a person. You are just going for accurately quoting a person.