Evolution of a story
On Saturday, we published a story about a case of MRSA at Southeast High School. In that story, the parents of two wrestlers, one who has MRSA and another who has a staph infection, spoke on the record that they thought their sons contracted the staph through wrestling. The parents said the wrestling coach knew about it but encouraged the boys to wrestle anyway. School officials were unavailable for comment, although they knew we were working on the story.
On Tuesday, we published a story in which the wrestling coach said the two parents were disgruntled, but he declined to elaborate. He said school officials told him not to comment. The school principal and the school system's athletic director were unavailable for comment.
On Wednesday, we published a story in which the school principal said the complaints of the parents were investigated beginning in December and found no wrongdoing on the part of the school or coach.
We have heard from people who said we should not have published the original story with the claims of the parents. That we should have waited, gathered more information -- information that would have shown the parents as having a vendetta against the coach -- and, presumably, killed the story. I appreciate that position, I really do. But stories that have different "sides" rarely come out fully baked. People don't always tell everything they know. Government institutions rarely do, in my experience. Information comes out in dribs and drabs.
Here's what we knew Friday: A case of MRSA is reported at Southeast. It involved a wrestler, who said he thought he contracted a staph infection at a wrestling match. His parents said he was encouraged to keep wrestling anyway. We're not going to report that? It is a public health issue. Did we try to get response from the appropriate school officials. Oh yeah. They knew we were working on the story.
Finally, Tuesday, the principal responds with the school's version. This couldn't be told on Friday?
I've said it before, I'll say it again. When a reporter calls with questions, tell what you know even if you don't want to. If you stonewall, you put yourself at the mercy of those who WILL talk to the reporter. This could have been a one-day story, but it spun into, at least, a five-day story.
The school system is pretty bad at volunteering information on sensitive issues in a timely way. The city is becoming that way. Unfortunate, for many reasons.
Comments (5)
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That next to LAST Paragraph should be printed on every reporters' Business Card - When a reporter calls with questions, tell what you know even if you don't want to. If you stonewall, you put yourself at the mercy of those who WILL talk to the reporter.
That is PRICELESS!
Posted on February 7, 2008 2:12 PM
Amen.
Posted on February 7, 2008 2:42 PM
JR wrote: "I've said it before, I'll say it again. When a reporter calls with questions, tell what you know even if you don't want to. If you stonewall, you put yourself at the mercy of those who WILL talk to the reporter."
Now, read the post below:
http://blog.news-record.com/staff/jrblog/2007/01/reference_jerry.shtml#comments
JR?
Posted on February 7, 2008 9:18 PM
When the coaches say no comment it makes them look like they are hiding something, remember where there is smoke, there is fire. Seems to me these coaches are trying to sweep this under the rug, I truely believe they will be found guilty as charged.
Posted on February 7, 2008 9:41 PM
Yes, Anonymous #1, you will notice I agreed to the interview...until I realized I was better off putting myself at the mercy of those who spoke about us, rather than the writer.
Posted on February 8, 2008 5:31 AM