Athletic departments help save writer's life

[MileHigh]

Incredible story about former Denver Post sportswriter Natalie Meisler. She was talking with an official at the University of Wyoming when he noticed she might be suffering a stroke. He and others worked with the Colorado State athletic department to try to get someone to her home in Boulder.

She's still in the hospital but it appears she'll be fine.

And it's a little more crazy connection for me. Natalie used to be a neighbor of my sister's. And the writer of the piece, I've known since the late 1990s working at a newspaper in SoCal.

Anyway, a pretty good read.

http://yhoo.it/1339OLy

 

[KYSportsWriter]

That is a great story. Excellent work.

 

[WriteThinking]

No media/media relations separation there...and a good thing for Meisler there wasn't.

It's funny, wonderful, and again, fortunate, that real life can break that down, in an instant.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

She obviously can't cover the school again because it would be a conflict of interest. (/crossthread)

 

[Armchair_QB]

I guess all the CU guys were having lunch at Big City Burrito.

 

[reformedhack]

She obviously can't cover the school again because it would be a conflict of interest. (/crossthread)

Got a good chuckle out of that comment. And then I started thinking, well ... there might be a smidgen of validity in it. It's much too soon for this to even be a real-life consideration, at least as far as her particular situation goes, but it's a good mental exercise for the rest of us.

Say I'm the beat writer for a major college or a big-league team. I have a traumatic medical emergency, and someone on the team saves my life. Could I objectively cover that institution ever again? Even if I believed I could, would readers trust me?

 

[Armchair_QB]

She obviously can't cover the school again because it would be a conflict of interest. (/crossthread)

Got a good chuckle out of that comment. And then I started thinking, well ... there might be a smidgen of validity in it. It's much too soon for this to even be a real-life consideration, at least as far as her particular situation goes, but it's a good mental exercise for the rest of us.

Say I'm the beat writer for a major college or a big-league team. I have a traumatic medical emergency, and someone on the team saves my life. Could I objectively cover that institution ever again? Even if I believed I could, would readers trust me?

Readers don't want objectivity.

 

[Versatile]

That's a post straight out of a journalism school's ethics class, completely without validity in real-world application.

 

[HanSenSE]

See also: Simers, T.J.

 

[JosephC.Myers]

That is a great story. Excellent work.

I agree. Great story all the way around.

 

[Matt Stephens]

I worked with Natalie a lot when I was in college. Always liked her. Despite the grief she'd get sometimes, she was very helpful to me, opening doors to internships and even a freelance gig I did for Versus. Glad to know she'll be OK.

Covering CSU, I work with Tim a fair amount up in Laramie and he's a good dude; this just goes to show that.

 

[MileHigh]

Natalie, of course, was very lucky. Kudos to Tim for recognizing what was going on -- and acting on it. As he said, it would have been easy to chalk it up to other things.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I worked with Natalie a lot when I was in college. Always liked her. Despite the grief she'd get sometimes, she was very helpful to me, opening doors to internships and even a freelance gig I did for Versus. Glad to know she'll be OK.

Covering CSU, I work with Tim a fair amount up in Laramie and he's a good dude; this just goes to show that.

During my time in the business, she was the only writer I ever saw light a cigarette while sitting on press row at the NCAA Tournament. Security told her to put it out and an hour later she did it again. When security came back around she said, "I just do it by habit..."

Incredibly nice person... One of the true characters in the business.