A Reporter's Life


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An anonymous person spent 23 cents to send me a postcard questioning a headline in yesterday's paper. I didn't even SEE the headline until I got the postcard, because I'd been too busy to read the paper. Did I write that headline? Nope. Did I write a different suggested headline? Yep.

Can I post the postcard on a bulletin board? Nope. Instead, someone in charge said, "They sent this to the reporter?" That someone apparently doesn't realize that very few people outside of the journalism world have a clue that reporters don't write headlines.

And the person who wrote the headline gets mad when I sometimes ask, long after I'm off work, what the headline is so that I can make sure it's accurate. How on earth can an innocent reporter win in such a situation?

Posted by Layla at 10:20 AM, August 22, 2003

— Comments —



So, what was the story? What was the headline? What was your suggested headline? What was the postcard querying?

Posted by: wintermute at 10:38 AM, August 22, 2003

GRILL THE L

Posted by: Sarah at 10:42 AM, August 22, 2003

In response to your question: Become an editor! :D

Posted by: jpb at 11:24 AM, August 22, 2003

wintermute: Wow, you should become a reporter.
Sarah: You rule.
jpb: No, no, no. I leave that to OTHER psycho people. ;-)

Posted by: Layla at 12:27 PM, August 22, 2003

Does that mean you're going to answer my questions? Or do you want to become a politician?

Posted by: wintermute at 2:49 PM, August 22, 2003

Layla... you can't win. Just ask Stephen how many times I gripe about my managing editor putting the word "thanks" in my leads for the word "because."

It's funny, though. We printed some letters to the editor about a headline, and I didn't even see them until a week later when someone asked me about it.

Posted by: Tom at 6:20 AM, August 24, 2003

"Thanks" instead of "because"? That sounds bad. Let's see here.

Sample 1: "The woman allegedly told police that she shot the man because he had threatened to kill her."
Sample 2: "The woman allegedly told police that she shot the man thanks to the fact that he had threatened to kill her."

OK, that's just comical. And very wrong. Tom, your managing editor and my headline writer should team up.

Posted by: Layla at 10:24 AM, August 24, 2003

"Innocent reporter," my ass.

Posted by: Mousie at 2:53 PM, August 25, 2003

Mousie: I second that! She only gives that aura! :D

Posted by: jpb at 5:56 PM, August 26, 2003

No reporter is innocent. :D

Posted by: merlaan at 4:43 PM, August 29, 2003

You should be careful what you say about people. You never know who may get bored and start reading it.

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