Private conversations in public
After my mother-in-law died a few years ago, my wife, children and I stood in the receiving line at the visitation, greeting her friends. A man spoke to my 10-year-old and then moved to me. He shook my hand, told me that my mother-in-law was a fine woman, and asked, "You're the editor of the paper, right?" I said I was.
"You have just ruined the comics page," he said.
We had recently dropped a few of the old standbys -- Apartment 3G, Snuffy Smith and Andy Capp, I think -- and replaced them with newer strips.
"You really need to bring those back or I'm going to have to cancel my subscription."
What made it interesting is that two other people used that occasion to tell me the same thing. From that I learned three things:
1. That some people dearly love their comic strips.
2. That some people are graceless.
3. That some weren't overtaken by grief by my mother-in-law's passing.
I thought of that as I read this police officer's essay in Newsweek. (I also have the issue of people holding the News & Record accountable for everything that occurs in "the media," but I'm more focused here on her conversation with the neighbor who talks to her only to air his opinions on law enforcement.)
Why, then, is the law-enforcement profession so easily criticized, and why do so many citizens believe they know how to do our job better than we do? Few people think it is their place to tell a doctor, or a carpenter, or a financial adviser how to do his job if they know nothing of what they speak.
Actually, my guess is that a lot of people carry the baggage of representing their profession or trade. My title makes me fair game in this way, but it rarely bothers me. (My wife doesn't feel quite the same way.) People invite the newspaper into their homes. We ask for your trust, and we want you to feel free to let us know what you think. Despite being an introvert, I welcome being approached about the paper because it signals to me that people are engaged with us. I listen actively but respond passively. (I don't commit to anything.) If it's a request for coverage, I ask for a business card or an e-mail or letter. If it's a complaint, they usually just want their opinion heard, which it is.
Most of the time. Other times, the conversations are inappropriate, such as at a funeral visitation. In that case, I responded by saying that I understood how they felt and moved them down the line. My wife later told me what I should have said: "You should have told them that you were honoring my mother's dying wish to drop those tired old comics. I'd have liked to see their faces then."
Comments (2)
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Shortly after we dropped "Mark Trail" I was at my girlfriend's family reuinion and someone asked me how it was going at the paper, where I was then interning. I began telling the story of how many people called in to scream at us about it and how ridiculous I thought that was, given how lousy and outdated the comic was.
Little did I realize that my girlfriend's grandfather, and many of her other relatives, were upset about it.
D'oh!
You can't win with comics.
Posted on November 1, 2006 11:21 PM
The comics were missing from our copy of the paper on Sunday. It didn't matter to me, but SOME people in our house were very put off.
You only learned three things? I think you may have covered it in lesson number two, but I would have said it differently.
Some people are stupid.
Posted on November 2, 2006 9:08 PM