The nature of the beast

The headline called it a "fiery crash" and a few people expressed their outrage that a newspaper would put photos of a burning car and firefighters working to rescue a person from his wrecked truck (the person in the truck could not be seen in the photo.)

Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 people looked at the the photos, following the link from the newspaper's Facebook page to the newspaper's website. 

That raises the question (to paraphrase a line from a "Star Trek" move), "Do the desires of the few outweigh the desires of the many?"

I was the photographer who shot the pictures in question and I assure you I would have much rather been taking photos of some cute bunnies at the fair or darling little girls in a dance recital than to take photos at "a fiery crash," for that is indeed what it was. 

The people stopped in traffic for more than a half an hour wanted to know why traffic was backed up as much as a mile. At least two of those people asked me about it as I walked back to my car. 

I believe we did the right thing by posting those photos online, even before we had the names of the victims (there was one injury -- a boy was burned by the airbag in the car.) The thing is, we weren't the first to take photos of the wreck. My boss texted me from Parke County with a short video of the plume of smoke rising from the crash. 

The criticism and the interest shown (there were nearly two dozen times our Facebook entry was shared) raises ethical questions about media, including newspapers, TV, radio and the World Wide Web. 

The critics said they wondered if their family and friends who drive a car similar to the burned out shell of the vehicle we photographed were the victims. They said we shouldn't have posted the photos before we could identify the people involved in the crash. 

That's an interesting idea. In response I would ask, "Would you not contact those people and ask if they were the ones involved?" and "Would not everyone with family and friends who might be traveling that stretch of road be concerned?" Remember, the crash was already on Facebook before we snapped our first photo. 

The fact is a newspaper, a news story regardless of the medium, isn't able to tell the whole story. It is a snapshot in time. 

The reality is, that is the best it can be. 

One of the biggest news stories of the 20th century was Watergate. It was reported over a period of months with many stories about developments published in The Washington Post and other newspapers, on radio and on TV. 

Even after President Nixon left office and books were written, critics said the whole story hadn't been told. 

One of the best pieces of advice I received on journalism came from an editor of a Missouri newspaper who said, "A newspaper ought to be a snapshot of what happened on a particular day." 

That is not only a worthy goal but it is the best any of us in the business can hope to accomplish. That's just the nature of the beast. 

"Help! My editor makes me mad!"

John Hinshaw was a great editor.
He knew the AP Stylebook inside and out. He started in sports and worked his way up.
When our paths crossed, I had been in radio for a number of years and my experience in the print media was limited to free lance writing. My editors made changes without informing me and published my work many months after I had submitted it.
So, when John called me in to his office after I turned in one of my first stories, I didn't know what to expect.
He asked me what I meant in one of my paragraphs. Then he began picking apart my story and I was forced to stand next to him while he went through my story practically character by character.
When I was first hired, our cops and courts reporter asked our executive editor, "Who's going to teach him how to write?"
I was sitting in the executive editor's office at the time and wondered how or if I should respond.
I don't remember what our executive editor told him, but thankfully I soon gained acceptance and respect from most, if not all, our staff.
Now, I was standing in the editor's office as he picked apart my work and I would occasionally glance out into the news room to see if anyone was snickering at my expense.
Apparently they had all been through the same experience at one time or another and if there was any reaction, it was one of sympathy.
When John was finished, I agreed the story was much stronger and over the next months I learned quite a bit from him.
When I became an editor, I remembered that experience and then realized when I read reporter's copy I couldn't figure out what they were trying to write, either.
Unfortunately, some of my reporters were as interested in learning from me as I had been interested in learning from John.
"Just change it," one reporter said with a wave of her hand.
She proved to be so sure she was the consummate writer that she couldn't learn anything from me. There was another reporter who told me years after we parted way that she had learned a lot while I was her editor.
Education often depends on the attitude of the teacher and student.
Over the years I have been frustrated repeatedly by stories that were half-baked or more likely the reporter knew what he/she wanted to write but somehow that didn't get through to the fingers on the keyboard.
I did learn how to be my own editor.
Here are some ideas that work. I can't take credit for these but I try to steal from the best!
--Do your first draft in your head, as much as possible. I have a standard rule--I don't listen to the radio or my iPod or do anything on the way back to the office after a meeting I have covered. I use that time to think through what happened, looking for what is most important to my readers and prioritizing the discussions and the decisions made in the meeting.
Not long ago I covered a meeting that was all discussion of many topics by representatives of at least four groups.
One topic wasn't brought up until near the end of the meeting.
The overall discussion was about the role the local convention bureau should play in future promotion of the city and county. How much of the Innkeepers Tax should be spent by the convention bureau and how much should go to other groups.
It wasn't until after the meeting that I realized how to best hook my readers on the story.
One man in attendance organizes softball games in our community and softball is huge around here.
He made the point that he has to contract for state softball tournaments a year in advance. If authority for the local diamonds shifts from one group to another and he can't satisfy his contracts for the games, a lot of money will be lost.
Bingo! That was why my readers should care about the meeting I suffered through (there was a lot of controversy.) Tourism means money. It means profit for business owners and it means tax revenue for many services government provides.
So, even though what the softball organizer had to say took just a few minutes during the long meeting, it became my lead.
--Take a break after your first draft.
Writers don't write, they revise. Get used to the idea you will not accept your first, second or even your third draft.
--Don't be quick to check grammar and AP style.
That may sound sacrilegious, but you must take time later for proofing on that level.
The Jews in the days of Bible history believed words were alive and had power. They were right! Ask the kid on the playground who runs home crying because of the taunts of his friends.
Early in the process, write for power and, yes, interest and entertainment (if appropriate.) The government story may not entertain but it has to be interesting. You have to be able to show relevance to the reader of the meeting you covered. If there was no relevance, start calling the participants and ask them why they attended the meeting. If you dig, you will find your answer and I sincerely doubt the final answer will be, "Yeah, we were pretty much irrelevant today."
This is the time to experiment with a turn of the phrase, if one word is more appropriate than another. In short, this is one of the best part times in the writing process. This is where you get to have fun!
--Now, you have the option of cleaning up your piece, checking for grammar and AP style before or after you share your story with a co-worker.
It doesn't have to be another reporter. In fact, you will do better to share that piece with someone who is not a professional reporter or writer. Share with someone who is just like your reader.
The highest compliment your co-worker can pay you is to say, "I read your story."
--Before you turn your work in to your editor, clean it up. Be your own editor.
Oh, yes, at any time during your reporting and writing, don't hesitate to get advice from your editor. He or she will appreciate it much more if you talk it out early instead of on deadline.
Finally, don't take it personally when your editor hands your story back to you all marked up or if they make you stand next to their desk while they go through your piece word by word.
You will grow, if you pay attention, and you will be ready when The Big Break comes.

The Story's the Thing!

When it comes to reporting, "the story's the thing!"
That may not sound as catchy as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "the game's afoot" but it is more important.
What separates us from everyone else?
Time and packaging.
When you get right down to it, all the information we report is available to anyone else who bothers to go looking for it.
I am reminded of a few people I have known over the years who did research and then wrote letters to the editor using their research to back up their point of view.
Granted, they were not always as fair minded (they had an ax to grind) as I would have liked but they did their homework, what we call "reporting" the story.
Packaging is where we really excel. Telling the story.
Why do most people not care about small town politics and government? It's because we are lousy at telling stories about them.
It's easy to throw a bunch of statistics and numbers at the reader. Information that we are spoon fed by the politicians and government employees.
When was the last time you were excited by a numbers story concerning government that you did?
If you were glad to get it over with, what makes you think your readers/viewers will bother at all?
You are competing with "CSI" on TV and the plethora of novels and websites your audience finds more compelling than what you offer.
Sorry, but you know it's true.
What is the answer?
Look to Humphrey Bogart. In"Deadline USA" he plays a newspaper editor.At one point in the movie he tells a reporter, "Break it down. I want to know how much this tax will cost the average family!"
That's not an exact quote but it's the general idea.
Good reporters are story tellers.
If you want to be a good writer/reporter, go to the story tellers that capture the imaginations of millions of people.
To use another analogy, this one from a TV commercial: The gal sees the guy and the announcer says, "He may be the greatest father and husband but first you have to get him to say hello!"
What you write is probably very important but first you have to get people to read you/listen to you.
So do yourself a favor - go to one of the most popular modern story tellers -- Stephen King. Read his book, "On Writing." In fact, I think I will pick it up and read it again!

The most important software in your tool kit

Quick! What is the most important piece of software on your computer, tablet and phone?
Is it your word processor? If you are a broadcast journalist, you might consider it to be your voice recording software.
I would maintain the most important software on your devices is ... Evernote!
If I had to give up Evernote or the software mentioned above, I would keep Evernote. It is just that important.
I am not an expert at using Evernote. I am barely above novice in that ranking. But I have more than 8,000 notes on Evernote and I am adding notes every day.
Here are some of the ways I use it:
1. As a word processor. I am a reporter and I don't need to format text. We use Adobe InDesign in our office for pagination and that has all the formatting I could ask for. Evernote does offer some basic formatting options, such as bold, underline and italic.
2. As a database. All of my stories, all of my reporting, all of my contact information goes into Evernote. Evernote indexes information three ways. Every word, every phrase is made searchable. You can (and should) divide your notes into notebooks. For example, I have separate notebooks for City Council, County Council, each of the three school board we cover and various and sundry other groupings. You can use tags for each note. I have not used tags extensively, but then again, I have not needed to do so. Even with 8,000 notes I can find what I need in just a few minutes or less. Evernote also has a very robust and complex search syntax, if you want to learn it. Again, I haven't needed to do so.
3. To always have my note file at hand. I access Evernote over the Internet on my office machine, I keep the local software version on my laptop and my netbook and on my smart phone.
That brings up the issue of security. Since all my notes are stored on servers at the Evernote office, what is to keep someone from hacking their system and stealing my information?
First, since time began, there has not been such a thing as "security." Crooks pick locks on buildings and bad guys have learned how to steal information stored in the cloud. But, if you have information so sensitive you want maximum security, Evernote gives you the option of making a notebook local only, meaning it is not synced to the cloud. The notebook is only available on that particular machine.
4. For document storage. I make it a practice to keep meeting agendas on Evernote. I often take photos of receipts and store them in Evernote. By the way, the words that appear in photographs are indexed and searchable, too. I even make audio recordings in Evernote. Audio used to be really bad when it was recorded using Evernote but in the last few updates, recording fidelity is much, much better.
So, how much does this cost, you ask? The answer is: I don't know how the company stays in business. The program you download to your local computer or phone is free. The program you can access on the Internet is free.
You can become a premium user for about $50 per year, and that gives you some additional features and uploads per month but you don't have to become a premium user. Many people will find the free version is more than enough for their needs.
As I said, I am strictly an Evernote novice. If you find this mildly interesting, go to http://www.evernote.com and read through the introductory material. You might be amazed!

Pick up the #@&* phone!

You know what it's like. You are sitting at your computer in the office, concentrating on the words you have written. Your story is just not coming together. You can't find the right words. It's just not flowing in the poetic form you envision and that telephone won't stop ringing!
Somebody, pick up the phone!
This tip comes from Bob Schieffer of CBS News.
He tells the story of working in a Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper on the afternoon President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.
He answered one of those ringing phones to hear a polite lady on the other end ask for a ride.
This isn't a taxi service, ma'am. The President of the United States has been shot. We're a newspaper!
"I know. I think my son shot him."
The sweet little old lady on the other end of the phone line was the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald and because Schieffer picked up the phone, he was able to pick her up and get an exclusive interview while he drove her across town.
As I wrote in an earlier column, we need to get out of the office, go see people and not rely on our telephones. But the result of going to see people is that quite often they call us!
I am not a fan of letting voice mail answer the office phone.
My managing editor can press a button and see who is calling, thanks to caller ID, but I'm old school. When the phone rings, I want to answer it. It might be someone like Mrs. Oswald and I may not get a second chance at the story.

Sunshine laws

What are the sunshine laws in your state?
I don't know about your state but here in Indiana there is a whole body of laws passed by the Legislature with one purpose: To protect Hoosiers' right to know what their local and state governments are doing.
I spent a couple hours last Friday sitting in the offices of the Hoosier State Press Association, learning the latest about Indiana's sunshine laws from Steve Key, the director of the Hoosier State Press Association.
Steve is an attorney as well as a former journalist.
He gave all the reporters in our little group from The Paper of Montgomery County and The Times of Noblesville the latest booklet of information about our state's sunshine laws.
Reading state statutes may not be exciting but the information is extremely valuable when you are chasing down that sexy story you just have to be the first to break.
There is probably someone like Steve Key in your state to whom you can go when you have questions.
Three examples come to mind.
Several years ago, we learned our county commissioners were meeting without notice to interview candidates for a job. We called Steve and got an opinion we could publish along with a banner story about the apparently secret meetings (even though they were being held in the commissioners' room in the county courthouse.)
A couple years ago, the story broke that a married county official was using her county e-mail to romance an official in another county. We asked and quickly learned what we could do to get a copy of those e-mails. That story, I'm sorry to say, was not our exclusive but we stayed on top of it from day one.
I learned a lot about Indiana's Open Door Law through that experience and those elected officials learned to use Gmail or Yahoo for their dalliances. Last I heard, she was divorced and they were getting married.
More recently, a police officer tried to confiscate my smart phone after I took photos of a factory parking lot where a police officer had shot a man who allegedly tried to attack the officer.
I did not surrender my phone and told the officer he would have to arrest me to get it.
After the fact, I called Steve Key to learn what my rights really were under the law. I had run a bluff with the officer and it worked. Despite my bravado, I really didn't know what my rights were in that situation but I knew my publisher and editor would stand by me if I was arrested.
And, that's the real lesson of this column. Don't be afraid to ask questions from someone like Steve Key when you don't know the law.
No one expects reporters or editors to be attorneys any more than we are expected to be medical experts or experts in nearly any field we cover. But we should be wise enough to learn who to go to for the answers.
By the way, my wife was not at all thrilled with the idea I might have gone to jail. Oh, well.

Pretend the Internet was never invented!

Reporters need to understand this: There is no substitute for face to face contact.
A few of us were sitting in the newsroom one afternoon. I was working on a story and it looked like the other two reporters had nothing to do.
Before long one of them sighed and said, "I wish he would call me back."
The problem was this: He had called a source, left a message and was waiting for the source to call him back.
It wasn't going to happen.
"You know, his office is two blocks away," I offered. "You can drive anywhere in town in 10 minutes."
Now I love technology as much as anyone.
I love my smart phone (ask my wife; she thinks I can't put it down.)Right now, I am writing this blog entry, sitting in the living room. My wife and I are watching "Frasier" on the Hallmark Channel and my laptop is setting on my lap top. I am wearing -- well, you get the idea.
But given the choice I will always go see my sources.
I stumbled on to this totally by accident.
When I became a full time radio reporter I found it necessary to go to the meetings, city council, board of zoning appeals, plan commission, county council, county commissioners, etc. I had the lofty title of News Director but in reality I was a one-man news department.
My boss told me when I started, "I better not read it in the Journal Review before I hear it on our stations!"
As a result, for four years I slept four to six hours each night and tried to grab a quick nap in the afternoons.
But I noticed I was covering the same meetings distributed among three newspaper reporters from the newspaper in town.
Apparently, the elected officials I was covering noticed it, too.
I found that when I called them, they either came to the phone or called me back in short order.
I thought that was standard procedure until I heard other reporters complain they weren't being called back.
It also helped that I paid attention and soon learned about the relationships of those people. I soon learned the city council woman was married to the judge and they both grew up in the small town where my family lived at the time.
I learned the woman on the board of zoning appeals was married to the county council's attorney. And, so on and so forth.
A few years later, I accepted a job as reporter with a newspaper in another city.
A week before I was supposed to leave I was driving through the downtown. It was lunch time and I began watching people while stopped at a traffic light.
Amazingly, I realized I knew nearly every person I saw and had interviewed most of them.
I asked my editor to tear up my resignation and I begged off the new job in a different city.
There is a line from "The Music Man" the describes what happened to me and sometimes happens to other reporters.
"I got my foot caught in the door, Winthrop," says the Music Man, Prof. Harold Hill. He may be from Gary, Indiana, but he found himself in love with the people in a small town in Iowa.
Take time to see the people. Talk to them face to face. Try to leave your phone in your pocket and cut back on writing e-mails. See the people! You will really be glad professionally ... and personally.