When Liars Blame You

[Write-brained]

A rant: I'm pissed off.

I cornered a public official today after getting a document he didn't think I'd get. It's completely contrary to something he had told me in the past. So then ... Surprise ... he implies I got his original statement wrong.

Well, sir, why didn't you tell me that when the story ran a month ago. "I didn't read it."

It's not the first time it's happened. It's not the last time it's going to happen. But it infuriates me. It's one thing to lie but it's a whole 'nother thing to place the blame on me, when my jobby job depends on my integrity.

And you can't really do anything about it when you have a beat but keep your head down and do your job and hope people can see through the bull****.

What's scary is once you catch a guy in a lie, you now know better than to believe them so then you catch them in a lot of lies and then they tell their friends that you're just a slimeball out to get them and they believe him. You gotta wonder just how much of these people's lives are a lie. If people only knew the truth.

 

[EStreetJoe]

If people only knew the truth.

People can't handle the truth [/Col Jessup]

 

[Cadet]

Cover Your Ass should be a college major.

Sorry you're dealing with this.

 

[Write-brained]

Cover Your Ass should be a college major.

Sorry you're dealing with this.

Thanks. It's not too bad. My paper supports me. They know I'm not making it up. I just don't know how these people can look me in the eye later knowing I know they're full of ****.

The craziest part about this story is I caught this guy's adversary in a lie, too. Same f'in story. Two mind-blowin' lies about two different things. Can't wait til it runs. People aren't going to know what to think.

 

[Running Bear]

I have a very simple policy:

Lie to me, and I'll fry your ass.

Make this idiot look like the complete jackass he obviously is.

 

[Write-brained]

I have a very simple policy:

Lie to me, and I'll fry your ass.

Make this idiot look like the complete jackass he obviously is.

Reporters shouldn't be vindictive, no matter what the crime ... they eventually hang themselves.

 

[Tom Petty]

eddie murphy line of defense: "wasn't me."

 

[sartrean]

Everybody ****ing lies. Every public official, every coach, every player, every tom, **** or harry quoted for any feature about anything. Editors ****ing lie, reporters lie.

Get ****ing used to it. All we do is print all the garbage nobody friggin' cares about anyway. That's why they lie.

 

[Tom Petty]

Everybody ****ing lies. Every public official, every coach, every player, every tom, **** or harry quoted for any feature about anything.
.

hey, **** man.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Write,

Do you have the original comments on tape?

Also, make sure you record your interviews with this official from now on. The next time he accuses you of getting it wrong, plop out the recorder and play his comments back for him. This works well in public places.

 

[alleyallen]

W_b, I totally sympathize. It's tough when officials like that put you in an awkward position.

A couple of years ago I rode with one of the assistant DAs during a drug bust in a small community. Got great material, did some follow-up calls and wrote the story talking about how smoothly the well-planned raids went, how the perps were in jail and weren't likely to make bail any time soon.

I was pleased with the results and went home happy.

Next morning the sheriff's office is PISSED at me. Furious! Apparently one of the county judges released the guys on recognizance bonds, pretty much undermining the law enforcement efforts to keep them off the street. And the fact that my story didn't include this, or criticism of the judge for letting them out, pissed them off royally.

Never mind that the judge released them at 9 p.m., hours after the story had been written. Never mind the cops wanted me to attack, in print, a local judge, to kind of prosecute their own little feud with him.

Sometimes you just can't win no matter what you do.

 

[JBHawkEye]

At my first job, I had a high school football coach who, after the first two games I covered, claimed I misquoted him every time (I didn't, he was just a jackass who liked to run his mouth). So I brought a tape recorder to the next game. He said, "What's that for?" I told him that way there would be no confusion over what he said. Never had a problem with him again.

Everybody lies in this business (my favorite these days are the prep coaches who don't call in scores, then blame us when the parents get mad by saying they are reporting the scores, we're just not getting them in). That's why you always make sure you have proof, whether it be a document or a tape recording or whatever.

You don't have to go out and make an effort to make these people look like asses. They do a good job of that on their own.

 

[Eddie_Vedder]

You could have avoided this whole problem by bringing a tape recorder and starting the interview by saying, "Let's get you on the record now."

 

[Write-brained]

Everybody ****ing lies. Every public official, every coach, every player, every tom, **** or harry quoted for any feature about anything. Editors ****ing lie, reporters lie.

Get ****ing used to it. All we do is print all the garbage nobody friggin' cares about anyway. That's why they lie.

So you lie, is what you're saying. Thanks for the info.

You know, I'm not going to ****ing get used to it. Excuse me for holding public officials up to the same ****ing standards I follow. I don't lie .. not to my readers, not to my editors, not on my taxes (hi IRS), and my job is to keep honest the people in power. So no, I won't ****ing get used to it.

If nobody cares about what you write then you, and JoR-el for that matter, need to leave the goddamned business. Maybe it's because you prefer to be a sycophant with a pen, deriving simple pleasures from insulting doting moms, rather than trying to be a real reporter. Maybe you should be pushing to be better.

Perhaps you'd be more useful as a publicist than a journalist. If you're going to accept people lying to you they will keep lying to you.

 

[Write-brained]

Write,

Do you have the original comments on tape?

Also, make sure you record your interviews with this official from now on. The next time he accuses you of getting it wrong, plop out the recorder and play his comments back for him. This works well in public places.

No it wasn't on tape and I've found having it on tape isn't fool-proof either. One of my former papers required us to use tape recorders all the time. I caught a dude on tape but he later told my editors that he didn't know I was recording him (****ing liar) so ****ing management got scared and refused run the story.

Moral: Get them on tape saying they know they're on tape.

Fortunately my current job goes to the mat for me. I still use a recorder on occassion but only when I think it's necessary ... this was a run of the mill interview that he fudged because he didn't think he'd get caught ... yet it probably would make sense to use a recorder with this guy next time, if only to make a point.

 

[ECrawford]

I feel somewhat qualified to comment on this, having covered Bobby Petrino for four years. One of my favorite anecdotes was when he signed his first contract extension at Louisville. A TV reporter asks him, "Coach, there's talk about you being a candidate for the LSU job, does this mean you won't be a candidate for that job."

His answer: "I think so, definitely."

A week later, he interviews with LSU. When he finally decides after all is said and done to answer questions about it again, he denies ever saying that he wouldn't be a candidate.

The fun part of it was that the audio of the quote was right there on the university web site, which I took no small amount of joy in pointing out.

The main thing I found was to get these guys on the record somehow. If there's any doubt as to veracity, just get it into print, into the blog, into black and white. Then, when they say something different, they have to deal with their public words, not just words they said to you.

Of course, what's happened to Write has probably happened to most people who have covered any beat for any length of time. And pissed us all off just as much!

 

[Gob Bluth]

I was covering a second round playoff football game two year ago and I talked to the opposing coach. I just wanted a harmless what is your team about story. Who are the strong players, etc. I tell the coach up front that I am recording the conversation, and he says it is fine.

The interview is going fine and all of the sudden the coach starts to rip into the conference the team I am covering plays in. He is like "this team is awful and their terrible." I was on the phone and I like this guys is nuts. This might the single greatest quote I have ever got from a coach on the record.

At the end of the conversation he says "I hope I haven't hung myself too bad." I get off the phone and turn to my SE and play back the tape and he is just beside himself. Friday rolls around and we pull quote the coach and I get a phone call saying to check this message board about my story and how everybody down here is raging mad that this guy would say that about the conference.

In two years on the job, I have never gotten a reaction like this. When I got to the stadium, everybody asked was it true. I was like, yes I wouldn't print it if it wasn't. The two teams were ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in the state and the team I cover ends up winning like 35-7. It was a bloodbath and the conference as a whole went 3-0 on the night to put three teams in the Final 8 of state.

The coach starts telling people that he didn't say anything and that I made the whole thing up. Of course I let the coaches from the team I cover hear the tape. They can't believe it and the coach never calls my shop to say anything.

 

[Freelance Hack]

Write,

Do you have the original comments on tape?

Also, make sure you record your interviews with this official from now on. The next time he accuses you of getting it wrong, plop out the recorder and play his comments back for him. This works well in public places.

No it wasn't on tape and I've found having it on tape isn't fool-proof either. One of my former papers required us to use tape recorders all the time. I caught a dude on tape but he later told my editors that he didn't know I was recording him (****ing liar) so ****ing management got scared and refused run the story.

Moral: Get them on tape saying they know they're on tape.

Fortunately my current job goes to the mat for me. I still use a recorder on occassion but only when I think it's necessary ... this was a run of the mill interview that he fudged because he didn't think he'd get caught ... yet it probably would make sense to use a recorder with this guy next time, if only to make a point.

The key is to not ask them if you can tape them. Just put the recorder in a conspicuous place and let the subject know your recording to back up your notes.

 

[Running Bear]

It's not being vindictive. If they lie, the public should know they're lying.

And if this guy has lied to you before, you definitely use a tape recorder. Make sure he knows you're using it. I usually start out by saying (after I've turned it on), "You don't mind if I use this, do you?"

A while back, a high school baseball team announced before a playoff game that it was protesting because the other team took batting practice earlier that day (not allowed per league rules at that time). Anyway, after the game, the coach of the accused team says, "What is this protest stuff? You can tell the whole league we'll be taking batting practice tomorrow morning." Mentions they've been doing it for years, and the previous coach did it before him.

Next day, I hear from the league commissioner, the school's AD and a few other people that the coach is claiming he never said that -- that I made it up.

Needless to say, I showed them my tape recorder and said, "Really? Want to hear a misquote?"

Never had a problem with that coach again.