OK, so it’s amazingly ironic that in my last blog post about mistakes, I had the unfortunate luck to have written “countries” instead of “country’s.” And thank you to the commenter who mentioned it. I actually do appreciate it when our mistakes are pointed out because, unfortunately, sometimes that is the only way we learn. So thank you again (and thank you for even reading the website while inebriated, I can only imagine that that makes for fun reading).
What I don’t like is people who were formerly affiliated with the paper commenting on Facebook about my ineptitude as editor-in-chief because of this one error. They’ll remain unnamed, but winter quarter last year was filled with animosity after a reporter attempted to tell me how to assign stories via my former job as news editor. In the end, the reporter no longer had any obligation at the paper, and I got the job as EIC. I will not say that I cheered and sang “Ding, dong the witch is dead,” for a week straight after the quarter ended, but suffice it to say I was not unhappy to be parting ways.
What this egregious tangent brings me to though, is this: Sometimes, we have to deal with people we don’t get along with, especially here at the paper.
There are always going to be sources who don’t call back, or who tell you to just use a press release. There will always be difficult people who don’t understand deadlines, or who don’t understand that you are not criticizing them when you suggest a different headline. But work with them we must.
Sometimes these first impressions are wrong. I’ve called people before who snapped, snarled and snarked their way through the interview, only to be the sweetest, most helpful person another time. I’ve also called people who were super helpful on the phone, but the minute you show up with a recorder in hand, they want nothing to do with you. It just depends. Working through these difficulties though is what leads to a great (a.k.a. finished) article later.
It’s not like this isn’t what you will be dealing with when you graduate. As everyone is so fond of saying, in the real world, nobody is going to hold your hand and protect you from the mean bullies out there. YOU have to go out there and get sources; YOU have to grow a tough skin when your article gets 107 comments, half of which say that you don’t know what you are talking about; YOU are going to have to put up with bosses who don’t care that it’s Thanksgiving because there’s breaking news and you’re needed to cover it.
So despite the fact one reporter and I obviously did not get along, I stuck it out through the rest of that quarter (and forgive me for trying to make myself seem like a martyr — from their perspective it was probably no more fun dealing with my obsessive-compulsive self).
And you know what? I can actually say that I thank them, because they were my first taste of dealing with someone who actively did not like me. They made me realize that I was living under the delusion that I was still in high school, where popularity trumps everything else. But this isn’t high school (thank God), and I couldn’t be happier.
So comment away inebriated — and non-inebriated — readers. I can truly say I’d love to hear what you have to say next. 🙂