{"id":58,"date":"2004-08-04T12:37:56","date_gmt":"2004-08-04T18:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2004\/08\/04\/being-baited\/"},"modified":"2009-07-07T22:26:35","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T03:26:35","slug":"being-baited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/08\/being-baited\/","title":{"rendered":"Being baited"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock<\/span><\/h6>\n

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Newspapers are suffering because they’ve lost both anger and humor, Jimmy Breslin said in a Poynter interview<\/a> in late July. My slight spin would be that we’re trying too hard to be nice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette <\/em>colleague Jennifer Hansen wrote a few Wednesdays ago (no free hyperlink available) a fun column — she generally writes serious essays about families — about how she tricks herself into cleaning house: Invite company over then rush the task! Yet a couple of weeks ago in a column Jennifer apologized to a professional house cleaner who claimed she had been hurt by the piece. My friend shouldn’t have to explain, if she made a reasonable attempt at clarity in the first place, and of course Jennifer did. Columnists need only worry about conveying what they intend to say.<\/span><\/p>\n

ADG<\/span><\/em><\/span> religion editor Nancy Jeffery penned a guest column for the Voices (op-ed) page that ran Saturday 7\/31 discussing recent calls she’s gotten from readers wanting to know her religious affiliation and that of her fellow journalists. Nancy sees that both as a classification that serves no one but also she has at times told folks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I e-mailed Nancy that these people are just baiting her. It’s “code.” They’re making a point, no matter how or if you answer. You can’t win, no matter what detail you give them. If you belong to their denomination, then how much do you participate. And if you’re constant, how sincere are you. Those callers who are fundamentally cynics will doubt all responses. Nancy e-mailed me back that she often but not always can create a constructive dialogue and calm those who just want to vent. Bless her, she’s got patience.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have had similar phone calls and e-mails, too, in previous newsroom jobs, and have similar patience and listening skills to hear folks out. Now, though, I wonder if we’re accommodating too much. I’m neither mean nor petty so these are thoughts I likely won’t be acting on. But does it hurt journalism to play along?<\/span><\/p>\n

The people who complain about us or to us are not so young that they do not know how newspapers function, the only valid excuse I can think of. If we as reporters make reasonable attempts at fairness, completeness and clarity, then we need explain nothing, just publish corrections as needed. (People who grew up with newspapers know well that columns and editorials need only be clear, that by their labels, format and page position they are opinion and not fact.) In this age of the Internet and cable TV, contrasting journalism sources are too readily available for these jerks to feign naivety any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nancy’s response Monday calmed me to this reflection: Some July “bricks” commented on the agora,<\/em> marketplace of ideas, rather of information, and that meshes with this. We of the legitimate news media have to sell our wares a bit stronger, to win legitimacy and chase out gossip and hate. Schmoozing is more effective than, well, brickbats. -30-<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004. Newspapers are suffering because they’ve lost both anger and humor, Jimmy Breslin said in a Poynter interview in late July. My slight spin would be that we’re trying too hard to be nice. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette colleague Jennifer Hansen wrote a few Wednesdays ago (no free hyperlink […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin","tag-columnist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2657,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/02\/stances-with-wolves\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":0},"title":"Stances with Wolves","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is my president\u2019s column for the February 2011 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Columnists get labeled as opinionated. This was brought home again after the Tucson shooting. Americans saw on the air and online -- come on, paper? -- as many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/11\/editorial-bias-of-course\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":1},"title":"Editorial bias, of course","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004: Maybe I'm taking a terrible personal risk putting out my thoughts on the World Wide Web. Even with fewer than the 14 \"hits\" I assume I get, I worry about not just offending someone who may have some authority over me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5680,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/05\/created-bill-88-met-him-99\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":2},"title":"Created Bill in ’88, Met Him in ’99","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a funny thing about these B.Y.O.E. events, that is, Bring Your Own Eulogy: So much of the time those anecdotes are maybe a bit more about the speakers than the, er, guest of honor. If you're in a down mood today -- and a memorial generally is NOT a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Illustration by Vic Harville of \"End Time Finally Comes for Mister Hapgood,\" a Mirthology column by Ben Pollock, published Sept. 21, 1988, in Mid Week Magazine, a publication of the Arkansas Democrat.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Oscar-Hapgood-BenP-092188-1000x891-300x267.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/12\/knowing-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":3},"title":"Knowing well","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Knowing you too well is not enough Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Dec. 17, 2004: Here's a concept that just barely occurred to me, 11:30 p.m., a month after the local funeral for Mom, on Wednesday 17 November, following her Monday 15 November passing. No one quite understands you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/06\/bricks-are-mud\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":4},"title":"Bricks are mud","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Bricks are mud (tech diff) Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday 9 June 2004. These Bricks, are not coming out as I planned. I intended humor and brevity, not to mention frequency. What they are appears to be like most other blogs. Is the form dictating the message? I'll continue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/honor-the-honorable\/","url_meta":{"origin":58,"position":5},"title":"Honor the honorable","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Monday, July 12, 2004: A proposal. Earlier this month, Carl Totemeier died. Didn't know him though stopped at his stand at the Fayetteville Farmer's Market sometimes. He sold plants. In his retirement, he moved to Northwest Arkansas, but continued with his profession of horticulture and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}