reporting the news

There are several ways I've seen reporters gather news, some of which I think are more credible and more responsible than others, at least used as a primary news source.

The first is to gather news that comes to you. When you work at a newspaper -- and, I imagine, at any other news outlet as well -- you are bombarded by news releases, announcements, reports and sniping, all clamoring for your attention and all claiming to be the most important thing in the history of Western civilization. Lazy reporters rely on these for their news stories, which gets really bad at the upper levels, since releases are so doctored ahead of time and so manufactured that the truthfulness of the claims is questionable at best.

Second is to cover news conferences and government meetings in general. News conferences usually are manufactured events with used for cheesy photo ops and -- in my opinion -- short on actual news content. The only news conferences I ever gave a flying patootie about were the ones held by the prosecutor's office or the police. Of course I'm referring to the local level, which is where I've worked.

The problem I see with chasing meetings and news conferences for stories is that before long you end up thinking like a politician and not like the people you're supposed to represent; i.e., the public, your readers. While I'm sure many politcians in New Jersey -- and many of the commentators as well -- thought Bob Franks had a nifty-neato idea in the gubernatorial primary in bringing back the state auditor, it wasn't an issue that mattered much to Joe and Jane New Jersey, nor did it really support his claims to be a political outsider.

The thing I found gave me some of my best news stories, and what I always urged my reporters to do, was to get out of the stinking office, away from the phones, and meet the people. I talked with residents at least as much at a municipal or school board meeting as I did with their elected officials.

After all, what it really boils down to is "Who gives a flying patootie?" Let the planning board members get worked up over zoning issues, lot size and minimum lot frontage. That doesn't fly the patootie of my readers, and it doesn't fly mine. What does fly them is "If you make this change, I can't sell my land for as much money" and "The car dealership is too close to the road."

I also got a lot of my story ideas by getting to know the residents. That's how I found out about the lady who was trying to save an old cemetery, another lady who was working for preserving the township's history, some of the conflicts within the police department, a good bit of information on a teachers strike, and so on.

Of course, a lot of news judgment comes in the form of "Does it interest me?" and "Can I convince my editor it's a good story?" I once read a fascinating story about personalized license plates. Most writers couldn't have found the story there.