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It's an old saw in the newspaper business that those who can't write teach journalism in college. More and more though, we're finding those who can't write rising to upper management positions at newspapers.
This is a disturbing trend. Locked up on some college campus, bad writers can't do too much damage but, given some editorial title and sicced on the general public, a bad writer can wreak all sorts of havoc.
On Sunday, May 20, Niagara Gazette Managing Editor Terry Shaw will be giving a talk titled "Dealing With Print Media." It's a good thing he didn't call it "Dealing With Reporters," because that's something he doesn't know too much about. But Terry has been in the newspaper business since the late 1980s at least so he's hopefully picked up enough of the jargon to fill up a 20-minute address to a bunch of civilians.
I, of course, would never claim to be in the same league, journalistically speaking, as Terry, but once in awhile I get lucky and, late last week, a copy of his "talking points" for the lecture was made available to me. As a public service for those not fortunate enough to be invited to the seminar, I thought I'd share a bit of Terry's wit and wisdom with my readers here at the Reporter.
Terry's No. 1 rule for "Dealing With Print Media" is "Know the publication you're approaching."
"Understand the difference between consumer reports, the Niagara Gazette, the New York Times and a small, weekly newspaper," he writes. "Taylor your approach to the publication."
The fact that he didn't capitalize Consumer Reports and wrote "Taylor" when he really meant "Tailor" is likely simply a reflection of his No. 2 rule, which is that "Journalists are busy."
"Be sensitive to their time constraints," he writes. "A reporter may seem rude when in fact, he or she is on deadline."
Personally, I've never thought that being on deadline is a good excuse for being rude. But, in the case of reporters working for the Gazette, Terry might just as well have written, "A reporter may seem rude when in fact, he or she is simply overworked."
Terry's No. 3 rule speaks volumes about the morale problems at the Gazette, which led directly to a copy of his memo winding up on my desk. "Journalists are lazy," he will tell his audience on Sunday.
Not being one himself, Terry makes the all-too-common mistake of thinking that journalists are lazy when, in reality, one of the most important principals of good journalism is that one should never appear to be actually working. So basic is this tenet that seasoned journalists will go to great lengths -- everything from spending the afternoon drinking beer in a bar to simply staring out the window -- in order to avoid the appearance of work. It's difficult, of course, but it goes with the territory.
Rule No. 4 is something of a puzzlement. "Journalists aren't evil," Terry writes. "We're human."
I don't know. I've met a lot of journalists over the past 25 years and, while some have been perfectly decent sorts, others, I'm convinced, pulled the wings off house flies as children. Reporters routinely joke about all manner of mayhem, and muster particular vitriol for the societal class known as "politicians."
One thing Terry forgot to include in his talking points is that journalists need good sources. If you want to have your way with a reporter you've got to come up with the real behind-the-scenes deep background stuff. Strictly off the record, if you know what I mean.
A reporter without good sources is like a runner with bad knees. You need your Deep Throats at City Hall, in the business community, on the police department and in the underworld. They can provide you with all kinds of information you couldn't get anywhere else.
Like a talking points memo, for example.