Apparently we got some people riled up with the last column. Highly paid professional reporters from The Buffalo News and the Niagara Gazette confronted City Councilman Vince Anello after last week's council meeting, asking how come he told me he would run for mayor next year but didn't tell them.
The answer, though Vince was too polite to say it, is that I asked him if he was running and they did not.
Many of our finest journalists today -- from the local level on up to the national -- think that their job is similar to that of a stenographer.
Attend a city council meeting and write down what is said.
Clock in at a White House press conference and dutifully report what Ari Fleischer mouths verbatim.
If people were really interested in what goes on at council meetings, or what goes on at Mayor Elia's ubiquitous and well-publicized town hall meetings, more than six or 12 people would show up at them, which they don't.
Why then do the daily papers treat us to next-day coverage of these non-events with multiple articles amounting to thousands of words?
There's times when it's just plain embarrassing to say you're a journalist.
There was a pathetic column in one of the dailies last week begging for "real" people to call in so that the paper would know what's going on.
Staba, Bruce and I get to talk to "real" people every day and, believe me, sometimes it's none too pleasant.
We don't have to ask them to call us, though. They usually just come up and talk to us. Or take a swing.
On Niagara Street, Cudaback Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard, "real" people abound.
You wouldn't know it if you spent all your time cooped up in a newsroom or at City Hall, the country club or some bachelorette apartment on Grand Island. You wouldn't know it if you thought you were smarter than everybody else.
But the writer of the column was correct in the sense that regular people often know more about a given situation than do the official mouthpieces bought and paid for by one or another special interest group.
If you want to know about crime, you don't just talk to cops. Cops know a lot about it, of course, but that only goes so far.
You need to talk to victims.
And, ultimately, you need to talk to criminals.
A lot of people don't like talking to criminals. Or they're afraid to. But if you want to know, truly, about crime, that's what you've got to do.
Likewise, a far better picture of the region's economic plight can be gleaned by having a cup of coffee with one of the thousands of laid-off industrial workers here than by listening to the blather of some Chamber of Commerce type.
The same goes for politics.
And politicians.
What they say at a public meeting isn't half as interesting as what they will tell you over a cocktail.
If you're a 9-to-5 type who just wants to get home after the shift, you're chasing your own tail and will never get the straight dope.
And that's OK.
Because it leaves the door wide open for the rest of us.
The truth will out, the old proverb goes, a sentiment as correct today as it ever was. Butch Quarcini, any number of former Kaleida Health Care executives, David Cordish, Richard Muto, Teresa Holland, Mayor Elia, Chris Glynn and Joel Cicero know exactly what I'm talking about.
Journalism is a funny business, and I've enjoyed it for the past 25 years. It's fun and it doesn't even seem like work.
The day when I have to write a column begging "real" people to come and talk to me, well, just get a fork because I'll be done.
Until then, Vince Anello's running for mayor and, when he holds his press conference sometime after the first of the year, you'll be able to read all about it in The Buffalo News and the Niagara Gazette.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | December 17 2002 |