After The Call

Larry Green, our resident crime and courts reporter is trying to get his story straight. I'm sitting at my desk at the front of the newsroom reading over some pages when suddenly i hear a voice from the other end of the wide-open room.

"What's that? You're suing my ass?!" Larry yells into the phone that's pressed to his ear.

I stand up and gaze over the maze of cubicles to Larry's desk in the Metro section. Other reporters and editors are doing the same. Most look as amused as I am. This is the first time I've seen a reporter get riled up in this newsroom since I started here last January. Well it's about time, and I have to say it's a highly amusing sight.

I'm not surprised it's Larry that it's happening to. He's an ex-hippy Carl Bernstein-type with long grey hair tied back in a ponytail and untrimmed finger nails. He's always using words like "man" and "dude" and walking by my cubicle blurting goofy sayings like "I before E except after C!" He says he has fun telling the copy-editors what to do. But I like what I'm hearing. It reminds me of good "old-fashioned" rough-and-tumble journalism.

"Call me back when someone's not swearing in the background," He says, his voice raising. "Arrest me? I'm the one trying to straighten your life out!"

Apparently, the woman he's talking to has a sister who was arrested. When she was arrested, she gave the police the sister's name, not her own. As the crime beat reporter, Larry's probably used to dealing with these kind of people. The angry, nervous, pissed-off types that think reporters are just a bunch of prying assholes sticking their noses where they don't belong.

"So I got the story right then, they arrested her with your name? OK, so listen, this clearly isn't my fault. I'm just reporting what your sister told police. She's the one getting you in a boatload of trouble, not me. I'm not the one you should be mad at." Clearly, there a common misconception going on here. Larry is simply trying to get the facts straight because it's his job to check up, and report on these types of things. Because he has to be upfront and confrontational in order to get it right, he is the enemy.

I really like my job. I've been copy editing for about three months now. But I have to say, I miss being the enemy. I want to be the enemy. While proofreading, fact-checking and headline writing can sometimes be interesting, honestly, I miss being yelled at by uncooperative interviewees. I miss sweet-talking my way into people's trust.

I remember multiple times writing articles for college classes when some high-up university official would begin the interview by letting me know exactly what questions they would not answer. So I'd start with the easy questions, the shoot-the-shit questions, trying to find some common ground. Maybe he's are Red Sox fan, maybe he's got a cat he likes to talk about - anything to seem friendly. It isn't long before he's answering my questions "off the record."Eventually, after he's grown comfortable with me, he'll say something like, "Well, I shouldn't be saying this, but..." or "OK, you can go ahead and print that." I love it!

Unfortunately, everyone keeps telling me there are no jobs in reporting and that all the newspaper openings now are in copy editing. That's what's in demand. Well, duh. Those are the jobs that are less interesting or creative, involve more computer-staring, cubicle-sitting, and much less human interaction. Not to mention a lot less credit. It's hard work, but do copy editors get their name on a byline ever? Nope.

Everyone in the newsroom is a little more lively and animated after the call. We all live for this stuff. It's probably what attracted most of us to the newspaper business in the first place. It excites us.

After Larry hangs up the phone, George, the copy editor at the next desk over says to me, "Larry's always getting calls like that! When they re-organize the newsroom, I hope my desk is still close to his so I can hear it all!"

I smile at his comment and his desire to interview vicariously through Larry. But not me. For me, I need to do what Larry does. I know I can't just sit and listen.

This is how I come to believe I'm meant to be a writer, a reporter, and not a copy editor.