I was delighted by the coverge in the Duluth News Trib today. I had to look through the paper three times to find it. The article started at the bottem of an inside page and looked as though it was a continuation of the Trib’s story on City Council candidates.
The day before the Trib’s latest Education reporter called me up for a quick interview. I hadn’t had time for a press release.
I made a point of telling her that in my earlier years as a School Board member I always took pains to talk to reporters to explain what I thought and why I thought the way I did. That way, I told her, I could be sure if some oddball statement came out of my mouth I at least could be certain the reporters would know how to put it in context.
Then I gave her an example of a story she had written a couple weeks earlier. Her story said that Tim Grover had been “eager” to get started working on the Red Plan. Since Tim was the only board member to vote against the plan he was particularly irritated with this. He sent an email disavowing this to the list of folks who are trying to figure out how to scotch the Red Plan.
The reporter quickly interjected that she hadn’t written that. She said the word eager had been added by one of the papers’s editors. I just laughed good naturedly. Perhaps my anecdote caused her to be extra careful with my opinions because even when I wasn’t being quoted they were letter perfect.
