Monday, June 08, 2009
Bottom of the totem: My retrospective
Kanye West had this whole saying -- “stadium status” -- which is believed to be Jay-Z’s way of saying an artist had reached a certain point, a point at which he was only doing shows in stadiums. I adopted it. Only I wanted to be working in stadiums, though as a sports writer, by 28. I’m not sure how far along I am towards reaching that goal. My biggest stories here to date have been for our local features section, which is my side hustle. You should not be shining off of a side hustle. But to know me is to know that my success is never conventional.By the way – I am writing this from my desk here in the newsroom. The phones aren’t ringing. It’s 6:30 at night. I just read my story in today’s paper, well, there’s two of them. One of them is a story about a girl who won the New York girls’ golf individual championship. The other is about a softball team that won its Regional title yesterday. This stuff isn’t typically the kind that makes my tummy tingle, but it’s what keeps my foot in the door.
I definitely got in trouble for writing a story for them -- local features section -- that I now understand should have been pitched to my editors in Sports. Funny, but I wasn’t even thinking it was something they’d want. I e-mailed the editor about it, but he never got back to me. Not only did he like it, but from what I heard, he really liked it. Which, of course, only made him more upset. A huge, huge, huge misunderstanding.
You know when you have a meeting with your boss, and you’ve done something so wrong but so unintentional that you just hang your head, helpless, apologetic and with that empty-pit feeling in your stomach? Yeah.
I do not relate to my co-workers the way that others do, and that is bothersome. And only because I think I am viewed as intimidating or threatening in some way. But other than that I have no complaints. I am writing everyday. I’m doing what I want to do. You know, except the stadium status part.
One think I have done right is get some fairly good mentoring from some great reporters and writers -- from Sports Illustrated writers, Daily News writers, and others. They seem to believe I have ability.
As for what I lack, which, in retrospect, could be the very thing that does me in, is consistency and eagerness. It’s hard for me to be Steady Eddy when decisions come down that I know are a direct correlation of what editors think of my performance and when I am clearly not on equal footing in comparison to my co-workers. With the competition for stories and attention so intense, it sometimes fosters jealousy, gossip and back-stabbing. It’s a tough environment. But I am learning. Slowly I am learning.
In three years, I’ll be that 28 year-old reporter I’d hoped to be covering the N.B.A. I wonder in which ways I’ll have grown as a person, and also as a writer. I hope that I’ll be able to look back on these experiences as learning experiences, as bumps in the road to my not-so-conventional success. I’m not leaving New York, the greatest city in the world anytime soon. I mean, Atlanta? Come on. Besides, Jay-Z, Bruce Ratner and some other developers are moving the Nets to Brooklyn. And I hear they’re building a pretty nice stadium.
Labels: lessons, mentorship, retrospectives
continue...Sunday, September 14, 2008
When You Write What You Know, You Start the Conversation
I have a hard time coming up with story ideas.Not because I can't think of any. I dream up plenty on any given day. But my brain has a glitch. It works a little too much. To the point where I overthink and overanalyze my ideas so much that I usually find a reason to dispose of them before any editor even gets the chance to. I think it's a side-effect of working in radio: instead of trying to fill up pages, we're trying to ration out minutes. Mere seconds, in some cases.
But it's something I'm actively trying to change. Particularly because right now, assignments are few in the floating/freelance producer world. I've got some time on my hands, and I've been spending it trying to figure out how to spend it.
"Go do a piece," said one of my colleagues (and sometimes-boss). "You're a good writer. Go find a story to do."
She said it so simply, like she was telling me to grab some orange juice out of the fridge. Doesn't she know in this overactive mind of mine, it's just not that easy?
*sigh* Okay. Yes it is. At least it should be. It just isn't, for me.
I was lamenting over this during a roadtrip with Soraya this weekend. "Just write what you know," she said. Basically, she said, there can be a story in anything.
And no sooner than I sign on to the Internet tonight do I see the very proof of her point.
There's the column about insipid commenters on washingtonpost.com (I'd been sniveling about that just a day before). There's the New York Times piece about the evolution of Sarah Palin's hairstyle (I'd been sniveling about that too for the past three weeks). And the Modern Love essay about the downsides -- BIG downsides -- of looking someone up on the Internet before the first date (been there...MAJOR mistake). And let me forget the piece about tattooed wedding rings.
(As an addendum: The articles mentioned above also proved another point that Soraya had made -- that Times clearly has its finger on the pulse of culture -- "It leads the conversation on these things," she said -- and that that's some stuff to aspire to.)
So, with my boss' encouragement in my pocket, Soraya's pep talk fresh in my ear, and examples to follow everywhere I look, I've printed out a little helpful phrase and taped it above the keyboard on my laptop:
"You can write about ANYTHING."
Labels: advice, journalism, lessons, story ideas
continue...
Maybe I'm weird.I like being edited.
I mean, it's always a good feeling when someone hands you back copy and says, "This is great! No changes." It strokes your ego... but if you're me, the strokes are short. I start to wonder, "No changes? Are you sure? You positive I didn't miss anything? Are you SURE?!"
Chalk it up to my personal need for perfection, or the closest I can get to it. You can't get there if you're not challenged. Because if you're not challenged, you get stuck in your own little bubble thinking you can write rainbows and unicorns -- until finally, someone points out the muddy puddles and walruses on your page.
And then your feelings are hurt.
So yes, edit me, please. Especially if you're older, wiser, more seasoned and experienced. Anyone who knows me knows I have something of a reverence for the veterans at work. The hosts, reporters, editors -- all kind enough to chop up a young producer's copy.
Okay, yes, there are times when the revisions can annoy me (like choosing "gargantuan" instead of good ol' "huge"... inflated copy, anyone?), but most times, I just like sitting next to people I respect and learning from them. Three years out of school, I still consider myself a student. I figure, in order to be my best, I have to learn the best.
And, baby, I'ma be the best.
Labels: advice, Job survival, lessons, writing
continue...Monday, September 01, 2008
Note to Self:
If you have to work on a holiday, always bring snacks.I've been at work for exactly 54 minutes and I am starving for some reason. I've eaten the two grapefruit cups I brought to work and I"m working on an Arizona tea as well. But I didn't bring a lunch because I figured I could run home and get something when I got hungry.
But, when you're working holidays or weekends, you're usually the only person assigned int he newsroom. Which means that if anything happens anywhere in the state, it's your job to cover it.
I've already dodged a bullet with a structure fire that got knocked down quickly. But I'm still under the gun for a story for my section tomorrow.
And my tummy is rumbling.
Man, I shoulda brought some more snacks.
Labels: advice, delirium, lessons, schedules
continue...Friday, January 18, 2008
I Wonder...
A question for all you fellow journos.How many other people review your work before it's published or put on air?
Do you have an editor, a copy editor and a section editor?
Or is it a line producer, followed by a supervising producer?
Here at the wire, it's a deputy editor, followed by the national editor. And that's for every piece of copy that's put out on the wire -- as many as ten stories in an hour.
So humor me this... how many people do you think saw this...
...before it went to press?
Apparently no one who in the offices of GolfWeek saw a problem before the issue hit newsstands. But now? Well, now that folks are crying foul, GolfWeek is doubling back -- issuing an apology, removing the graphic from its site and reportedly firing the editor at the helm.
But clearly, Dave Seanor wasn't the only person to have seen cover before it went to print. Has anyone talked to the cover artist? The guy in charge of the cover artist? The guy in charge of the guy in charge of the cover artist?
No one saw an issue here?
No one said, "Umm, dude... this is a noose"?
*sigh*
I'm just wondering.
Labels: controversy, dismay, diversity, lessons, musings, the industry
continue...Monday, January 07, 2008
Everything I need to know about journalism...
...I learned from The Wire. Maybe not everything, but I'm sure learning more than I ever thought I would.So, I'll admit it: I just got hip to this show, largely because I don't have cable and now, I have a friend who downloads the episodes and made me watch them in preparation for the last season, which premiered Sunday night on HBO. The show is essentially about the struggles between drug dealers, the police who chase them and the government processes and politics that equally helps and hinders them both.
From HBO: The fifth and final season of 'The Wire' centers on the media's role in addressing - or failing to address - the fundamental political, economic and social realities depicted over the course of the series, while also resolving storylines of the numerous characters woven throughout the narrative arc of the show.
Sounds like a potential teaching point to me.
As I watch the episodes, I'll try to point out one or two things I've learned about journalism or the media from watching. Feel free to do the same and add your comments to the post. Oh, an if you need to get caught up, most newspapers, like the Boston Globe, published a "What you Need to Know" about the Wire story in yesterday's paper. Check it out and plug in.
* Baltimore Sun reporter Alma Gutierrez turns in a story about a fire where more than 100 people were evacuated. City Editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes, tells her she's wrong.
Wire Lesson #1: In newspapers, buildings -- not people -- are evacuated. From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary -- evacuate: 1) to empty; 2)to discharge wastes from the body; 30 to remove or withdraw from. Without clarifying that the people were evacuated FROM the building, Gutierrez basically just said that after the fire, more than 100 people got enemas. Ew.
Labels: lessons, the industry, The Wire, tips and tricks, writing
continue...Tuesday, September 11, 2007
How many picas of grief are enough?
I was browsing The New York Times Web site this morning and saw some photos from a 9/11 memorial that happened in the city. The photo was featured prominently in the middle of the Web site, on the main screen.I glanced over it and kept moving. Didn't stop to read the story, look at the pictures or, I'm ashamed to admit, say a prayer for those who lost their lives in the event. I just moved on to the next story.
Later in the day, I revisited the site, expecting again, to glance over the photos of flowers, grieving family members and flags. Instead, I saw a photo of Sen. John McCain speaking to the the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
I did a double take. For a spit second, I was offended. Here we were at ground zero and I'm hearing about John McCain instead of these attacks which took so many lives. But then I realized that really, I didn't need the memorial story. I knew what it was going to say before I read it. That's why I passed it by.
But I guess I still just wanted to know it was there. Despite my lack of interest in it.
Today, in the City Room, The Times is publishing first person accounts from reporters who covered the 9/11 attacks. One post, from Style reporter Joyce Wadler, particularly struck me.
"I’m not too crazy about this idea. 9/11 stories. Does anybody really need any more? Aren’t the pictures enough?" she writes. "The thing about these 9/11 stories, they seem to me to have become war stories, entertainments, the thing you trot out at a dinner party. "
Save the people directly impacted by the attacks, most people have, at most, respect for the event, and at the least, a sort of weariness that comes with having a single day rehashed in excruciating detail.
So on to the journalism: How do we as reporters advance this story? We write about Iraq every day. Osama just released a new tape so he's in the news. We cover the memorials, the flags and the ceremonies.
Do we give people more or do we report on the burnout that some people are experiencing surrounding the commemoration (a friend of mine wrote a Facebook note today telling people to 'it's okay to get over 9/11,' and he wasn't met with open arms)?
What else can we do? Or should we do anything?
Labels: 24-hour news cycle, journalism, lessons, the industry
continue...I (Heart) West Warwick
It makes me chuckle when I hear things like this from my sources:"I'm only giving this to you, Talia. Not to that other paper. That other reporter just makes me nervous. He's so jittery."
One of the officers I use as a source at my local police department said that to me yesterday. I could barely stand I was laughing so hard.
It's funny.
I've been covering West Warwick for .... 13 months now, and people know me. Not just as the major metro daily reporter, but they know me. Talia. They smile when they see me. I lean back in my chair when they call and we chat. They say hilarious things about life, politics and that other paper to me.
And I love it.
Don't get me wrong: sometimes the daily life of being a bureau reporter weighs on me. But many days, when I'm out conducting interviews, shooting the breeze with cops and just being in my town, I love it. I should do it more often. And it makes me feel really good that people trust me with their stories. I never get anyone who says they won't talk to me because I constantly misquote them. And they feel comfortable enough with me to tell me when I've got something wrong or when they disagree. And they know that I'm professional enough to run a correction if necessary, but that I'll hold my ground if they're trying to blow smoke up my butt.
I have a relationship with the Town of West Warwick. And the more that I think about it, it's not such a bad one either.
Labels: heart, journalism, lessons, milestones
continue...Friday, August 31, 2007
Can I get a retraction?
I could hear my name being said as I walked through the door of my office this morning."There she is," one of my coworkers said. "Talia, did you write this story?"
The story, was a throwaway brief I wrote after being in court for more than 2 hours the morning prior. The case I'd been there for had been rescheduled, but that info didn't come out until after I'd already waited around.
"Yeah, why," I mutter.
"Bob is on the phone," said the office assistant.
Expletive.
I walked to my desk as my coworker grabbed a copy of today's edition for me to read. I didn't bother to look at it before I picked up the phone.
Bob didn't mince words.
"Are you going to print a retraction," he asked. "Because that story is false. I was never supposed to be in court yesterday. That date had been rescheduled weeks ago."
I sighed and turned to the story.
"Well, sir, I was there yesterday," I began. "Your name was on the trial calendar and they called your name twice. Additionally, a lawyer who said he was speaking on your behalf told the court that you were supposed to meet him in the courtroom. That you would be there. After we waited a while, I saw the lawyer preparing to leave and asked him what was going on. That's when he told me the date was rescheduled for October."
He told me that was untrue. That there was no one there representing him.
"This article reads like I'm a criminal," he said. "Like I intentionally disobeyed the court. It's damning."
Maybe, I said. But it's also true.
"Bob, I was there," I said. "I wrote what I saw. I didn't write it to be mean or to be unfair. But the court apparently expected you to be there because they continued to ask for you a number of times. I apologize I didn't get the lawyer's name, but there was someone there who said he was waiting for you."
I denied another request for a retraction before he hung up. I picked up the paper and read the article. The copy desk had taken out my explainer about the unnamed lawyer speaking on Bob's behalf. But the story still read true.
But in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think that I should have done more reporting. I should have gotten that lawyers name. I should have asked him when and why they decided to continue the proceedings. I should have called Bob for a comment as to why he didn't show up (though he changed his phone number). I should have done more.
Next time, I will.
Labels: corrections, lazy reporting, lessons
continue...Tuesday, August 21, 2007
I've got the Wikipedia blues
I finally got on the phone with a high-level Major League Baseball team executive today, after days and days of trying him with no luck.The guy calls me out of nowhere and I was almost caught with my pants down.
Literally. I just got out of the bathroom.
I left a message with him two weeks ago about an "online published report" that I read about his team's interest in a particular player whose name you'll figure out when the story runs. I couldn't remember if it was a newspaper report, MLB.com, or ESPN -- all I knew was that it was published. And that it was a report. Online.
It was friggin' Wikipedia.
So right in the middle of the interview, I remembered that it I'd read this information on Wikipedia, and hit myself in the head for basing my entire set of questions based on what was likely bad information I read on that website.
So he's going into something about how he gets information on players outside of his region and drops the big one on me.
"Darren, where'd you read this report?" he says.
"You know, I was just thinking about that.."
I was stalling. I wasn't going to give up my sources. No matter how flimsy they may be.
"Because we don't usually comment on these type of speculation stories, but I was just curious. No problem. Hey Darren, take it easy."
"Zip it up, and zip it out."
OK, it would have been pretty cool if I added the the zippy part (Dave Chappelle for the clueless), but I didn't. I just hung up, and added wikipedia.org to the sites I'm not allowed to visit in Mozilla.
Labels: Chappelle stand up genius, lazy reporting, lessons
continue...