How did THIS make it to print?

Re: Worst story about a death ever?

Did the terrorists have a shitty offensive line or something?

 

Re: Worst story about a death ever?

I'm one of those sports editors at a sub-20K paper who goes to games on Fridays as well ... but I cover the game played at the local stadium, which is 5-10 minutes (depending on how many lights I hit) away from the office, just to be back at the desk with plenty of time to write, edit the other stories, go over photos, slap together a page that resembles monkeys painting a Rembrandt and get it to our Goddess of Pagination on time.

But get this: I also have one of those newfangled things called a Cellular Telephone. They come in very handy for keeping in touch with our reporters in the field. And you know what? They are also great for calling the desk when, uh, stuff happens. I usually check in with the reporters at halftime anyway (plus, I can get brownie points with the stadium announcer and give him the scores). Someone could have even called the desk and let them start working the phones (the news side folks probably know ways to get information while tapdancing around HIPPA the typical sporto doesn't).

Oh, the ways this story could have been better ...

 

Re: Worst story about a death ever?

19k isn't large, but it isn't exactly a rickety, hand-cranked press in the back of someone's garage either.

 

Re: Worst story about a death ever?

EDITED: Fuck it. I'm not going to get in a pissing match I can't win, or at least not get tossed for. But the point remains. A change in thread title, at least, would help ease the concern that we're teeing off on a writer at a paper smaller than some people started at.

 

Changed the thread title. Maybe it further will ease concern that I work at a weekly newspaper smaller than the one in question and I understand the need to make sure stuff like this doesn't make it to print.

 

I think it's just a little patronizing. Oh, those poor little small-paper journalists. They are much too feeble-minded to be held to any sort of a standard?

I know it's not meant that way, but come on. Give us a pass on quality, sure, but on basic judgment?

 

Was an odd night in the state for preps and fatalities.
The coach died at halftime; a referee died during the game in another part of the state.
AHSAA sent out press release on both, minutes apart: "AHSAA mourns loss of Lincoln coach" and "AHSAA mourns loss of official"

 

No, absolutely not. They should be held to the same high quality. But I just think there's a huge difference between "Wow, Lupica sure does blow" and "Look at this shitty small-town-paper story."

 

I think there's a difference between "This story is written horribly" or "This story is missing some key information, the reporter needs to ask more questions" and "The decision should have been made to split the death from the gamer."

 

Which is fine. But it's a slippery slope as to which part of a small-town-paper story we're ripping, as threads here slide all around. There's just a difference between those who have made it and those who are learning or who are never going to be doing this for a living.

 

As poorly written as this story was, this getting into print as it did is all on the editors/desk people who were in that night.

This had to be handled differently, and broken out as a separate -- even a small one if that's all the information you had -- regardless of the quality or organization of the writing.

Even though things certainly start with the reporter and problems often originate from there, not everything is his or her fault.

The editors are higher up, and, theoretically, supposed to be better than their reporters, after all, and a situation like this is exactly when they're really needed and can have the greatest impact. This case serves as an exact example of an editor/desk person's job, in a nutshell.

In terms of responsibility, the decision-making, news judgment and copy-editing all were done poorly -- much more poorly than even the reporter's news-gathering or writing efforts.

This is especially true if the reporter in question was a stringer. Even if it was an experienced one, these stringers often are not and never have been journalists.

Essentially, they are doing newspapers a favor by covering these games, and a paper's inside people's job is to help them (yes, even help them look good, sometimes, when maybe, they're really not). Or else, do the job themselves.

Neither of those things happened in this instance.