Would you touch this story?

Look at all the national attention Sarah Palin's daughter got for having a kid out of wedlock. In my opinion, it went waaaay over the top. I bet there was more than one conversation in that household that went along the lines of "Why did you have to run for Vice President? Couldn't you just be content with being governor and let us live halfway normal lives?"

 

Shouldn't stop you from asking, though. I agree with Some Guy. Ask. If they don't want to talk, fine. If they do, dig a little deeper and see what's there.

 

I'll echo the tread very carefully. This girl has had multiple pregnancies, if what you know is true. I see huge red flags here with big underlying issues in this girl's life. I'm not sure if that's fodder for the daily news.

 

Definitely a notes item:
Jenny's third-inning double broke up an 0-for-15 drought ... Been wondering where Susie is? Knocked up! ... Alice's second-inning steal was the first of her career.

It works.

 

A paper in Michigan, either the Port Huron Times Herald or the Battle Creek Enquirer just did a feature on a senior pitcher on the softball team and has a one year old. It was pretty interesting.

 

Ryan S has got it. The kid and the family have to be completely on board to write anything on a teenager that's this personal. Can be a compelling story if the girl is okay opening up about what she's been through. I'd read it before I'd read something about the pitcher for the other team who struck out 13 batters in a game last week!

BYH cracked me up with the this-and-that notebook.

 

Outing alert! sporting_g is Larry King!

I would look into the story, but not write a word unless the player (and her family) are cool.

And you have to be careful, too. The kid may want to talk but not the parents. Or the kid and her mom may want to talk and the dad may put the kabosh on it or raise a stink later. That happens.

If she is 18, that's different, but I still wouldn't write anything without her being cool with it.

 

Along the lines of checking the facts, and checking them again and again ... record all of the interviews. Cover every base, at least three times. That way they can't come back and say they didn't tell you things that you published.

I echo the "tread very lightly" suggestions.

 

I was fully prepared to scrap the stories if the subjects didn't allow me to record the interviews. I didn't trust myself enough with shorthand...plus...that's just dumb. Fortunately, they had no problem with the recorder bring present.

 

headline ... "Pregnant pause"

 

no

 

The news item is that the kid is missing the season for a personal reason.

There's no reason for doing the story other than gawking. It's not the newspaper's function to turn a kid's pregnancy into a societal lecture. (She regrets it --wants to remind other teens to wrap the salami. She's having the child because she's pro-life and her church and family is being supportive. There is nothing original to be said.) Unless she's going to be trotted out on the campaign trail and her family preemptively announces the pregnancy, it's not news. High school girls get impregnated every day (well, most often on Fridays and Saturdays, I suppose).

But then I am generally not in favor of sports writers going sociological on a high school kid. Because usually it's a story about a kid (and kid's family) who aren't savvy enough to predict what'll it be like after everyone reads about it. Usually poor or lower-middle-class kids. Fodder for the readers' entertainment? Uh, no thanks.