Alan Robinson

I've always been awed by the speed of BYH.


Oh, in sending stories. Never mind

 

Don't know -- and really don't care to know -- all the fine particulars about Alan's departure from the AP.

What I do know is this: He's a friend, someone I look up to and someone who, quite simply, cannot be outworked.

I've shared the press box or press row many times with Alan. When I think of him, I think of a guy who would cover a 1 pm Steelers game, then show up at a Pitt or Duquesne basketball game at 7 pm the same day and write that one, as well. All the while, he'd be working on a Penguins advance or feature as the basketball game was happening. The guy is, honestly, a machine.

 

Ah, overtime!

 

not always. but did you think guys just fired shit right to the wire from the pressbox?

 

If a lede is not up to snuff, no reason to not rework or scrap it, in consultation with the writer at some point. I dont get the sacredness of the lede as far as editing it. It is no different than the 15th graf as far as the potential for it to be off the mark. Sounds like a diva move on Robinson's part

 

You rewrite a lede, I would think you would take the writer's name off the story.

To me, the first three inches of a gamer are 10 times as important as the remaining 12 inches.

 

OK, 93, going by your logic, an editor should be 10 times more vigilant about making sure the first 3 inches are as good as can be

 

Sure. But if you screw with it, you better take the writer's name off of the story because they took 10 times the effort on those inches than the rest of the story.

 

That's a crock of crap. What difference does it make how much time was spent? If it didnt work, it didnt work

 

So you hack a lede just as fast as you hack the 14th inch?

Mind you, this is not some young kid's lede you are torching.

 

I could give a crap about age. If it needs fixing, I could give a darn about its location

 

Fixed for an error or fixed for taste and personal opinion?

FWIW, I read an AP story today on Rasheed Mendenhall that attributed "Ground Chuck" football to the wrong coach.