Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I kid you not
I literally just had this exchange with a female caller about my story on the porn ordinances I wrote about earlier today:"Hi, I'm calling about the article on porn that was in today's paper," the woman says.
I take a deep breath and prepare to hear that I'm a bad person for even writing about it.
"Yes?"
"We say we're a country under God, but what mother or father would want their kids doing porn," she says. "For us to say we're a country under God is a lie because God does not want people doing porn."
She goes on like this for a few moments. I give her some time, thinking maybe this was a tangent and that the real point was coming. I should have cut her off earlier.
"Ma'am, did you read the article"
"Yes. I read it," she says. "But to say we're a country under.."
"Then you know the gist of the article was that yes, they've allowed these places to exist because they can't legally block them, but they've made it so undesirable and so implausible that no porn shops will likely ever come to town," I counter.
"I get that," she says. "That's good. But we shouldn't be allowing it anywhere."
I'm thinking this woman should be calling the president or the moral majority, not some reporter at a local newspaper. "Um hm," I say. "Well, you can write a letter to the editor to that effect and we can publish it."
"Maybe I'll do that," she says. "My point was that a country under God would not even allow porn in their constitution"
"Okay."
"Alright," she says. "That's all."
*Click*
Labels: Free Speech, fun, musings, readers
continue...Saturday, December 15, 2007
Readers are the best muckrakers
Oh, how I love reader responses. It's sometimes the only entertainment I get out of writing the weekend stories like this one. In fact, I turn three back-flips every time I open my inbox and find reader emails.Bikers in leather chaps + donated toys + Santa Claus + pediatrics clinic = do no wrong
...not for this reader:
Yes, this was nice. Biker group brings gifts to kids in hospitals. But the front parking lot was closed to people who needed to get to the emergency unit. Traffic officers prevented anyone from entering the lot. I parked in the back lot, where I usually park when I visit my brother. I didn't mind, but the woman I met in the back lot did. She limped all the way through the building, and that is a long walk. She had told the officer she needed to get to the emergency but was turned away. You might pass this info on to Director (name omitted). It sounds like a policy of "Don't bother us. We are doing good!"
Zinger!
Labels: dirt, muckrakers, readers
continue...Thursday, November 15, 2007
"You Make Me Sick."
It started off benign enough.“West Bay,” I said into the phone. “Talia Buford speaking.”
“Yeah, I was reading your article on Wednesday,” said the caller.
“Which one?”
“The one on Payette,” he said.
I scroll through our archives and pull it up. A West Warwick man was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of another man the weekend in my community. I did the second day story, covered the arraignment and also spoke to Payette's sister, who said the system failed her brother.
I prompt the caller to continue.
“It’s reporters like you who give the ACI (the state corrections system) a bad name. He’s scumb. He woulda killed you if you looked at him funny. I knew the guy. And you talk to his low-life sister? Give him a job. The best thing that could happen to this guy is to give him the gas chamber. You make me sick. Why don’t you report the truth for once?”
Then he hangs up.
I sat there silent for a few seconds before hanging up the phone. The sigh that escaped from my lips had to be covered in frustration and hurt.
The voice from over the cubicle says quietly: “Talia, are you okay?”
I tell my coworker I’m fine. And I go back to work.
Labels: controversy, frustration, Job survival, readers
continue...