Jun 24 2009
reporting on a death
I was wondering if I would ever become so jaded.
Sat in on the editor’s news meeting this morning, and all the guys were joking back an forth. A husband threw his wife out the window in Worcester. They were in an argument as he watched the game, she wanted to go for a hike.
“I guess she got she wanted,” they laughed.
She’s dead, and I guess they noticed my not-so-smiley face. One of the editors noticed.
“Hey, I forgot how you interns don’t get this. If you don’t joke about it, this job will eat away at you.”
And I guess I totally understood that. I wasn’t too upset at the story, or at their insensitive jokes, it just fascinated me that yes, humor is needed in a city news room.
** Especially in a city where a father beats his 7-year old boy to death on Father’s Day.
Nathaniel Turner. I listened to the rest of the meeting, as all the guys, and the editor-in-chief Leah, my new hero, devised an attack plan for this story.
“The arraignment’s at 2:30, we need a photog, we need a bio, I want the details about this kids birth and in hospital he was born…”
It was entirely exciting, I sat there thinking, “Jesus, I want to be in on this.” I liked the serious manner of the room too.
And I suppose I sat there, listening and evaluating myself and my ethics. Is it too shitty to exploit a tragic murder like this? And actually, I think maybe in this case, we may just be doing right by this kid.
This way, he’ll live beautifully in this beautiful little portrait of a little seven year long life.
The jokes left the newsroom. As we were breaking from the meeting, the managing editor picked up our front-page and squinted: she asked “does it say RESPECT on this kid’s t-shirt?”
And everyone nodded, eyeballing the paper with this sweet school photo, and a sweet smile.
The city editor chimed “His father supposedly beat him for being disrespectful, leaving around his toys.”
The managing editor said, under her breath, “Jeesh, how ironic.”
And the meeting broke up in silence.
