I’ve wanted to be a writer all of my life, but the journalism bug bit later. I’m a born reporter and storyteller, but you could also say it was a bad experience with another young reporter that got me into this business.
Here’s what happened.
I was studying n Germany on a Fulbright in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks. It wasn’t my first sojourn in Munich, so I was well-connected to some of the other American study abroad programs in the city.
One day, a young undergraduate journalism student came knocking on my door, hoping to get my comments on what it was like to live abroad during a time of political upheaval at home. Thing was, my life hadn’t really changed that much. He asked me if my habits had changed. I told him I read the paper even more voraciously.
When the story finally appeared on some random Minnesota regional paper’s website, I was mortified.
He actually had me saying that I started reading the newspaper after the attacks. Minor misquote, you may say, but for a literate person it was like a kick in the gut.
Ever since, I have lived in fear that someone would read this misquote from me and imagine me to be some unconnected, unengaged idiot who didn’t even pick up a paper until she was 24 years old.
Years have past, and my web presence has pushed that little story way back into the farther reaches of the Google archives. Good riddance. You probably couldn’t find it if you were even looking for it. Seriously, I dare you to try.
Now I am a journalist and writer, one who pays especially close attention to how my sources are represented in print and online. No one wants to live down the embarrassment of a botched or misrepresented quote, least of all people whose names might appear once or twice in a news story in their lifetimes.
I’ve gotten a little cagey about other reporters. It’s a control thing, and it’s a quote-gone-bad baggage thing, but it wasn’t much of an issue until the Statesman Journal called me a few weeks back to get my comments on a story about feral rabbits a reporter was writing for the community pages.
You might remember I spoke of the “free-range bunnies” in my neighborhood on this blog a few weeks before that.
Well, the story, by Tarah Campi, has finally run in today’s print issue. It’s pretty good. As usual, the real stories are going on in the comments section. She neither misquoted or misrepresented me.
The other story that you can’t see is that some of the major players quoted in the story are bloggers. Have you ever read ThePollenation, a Salem blog by Brandy Kinch, whose anecdote about adopting a feral rabbit leads the story?
That got me thinking. Now I’m wondering how long it will be before every person quoted in a traditional print media outlet has a blog. At the very least, being a blogger gives you the chance to the coverage in a personal way — or refute it.
Could have used that in 2001.
Seeing the picture of Bunnicula again makes me wonder about the rest of his story? Was he one of the feral rabbits (good name for a band!) or was he someone’s escaped/unloosed pet? Hope he found a home.
I thought it was a little odd that they ran the story twice…once in the South East pull-out section on the 2nd and again yesterday. I don’t really read the Statesman, so I don’t know how often this happens. Just seemed strange.