I'm an adrenaline junky at heart. I hate to admit it, but when I hear sirens my ears perk up and my heart beats just a little bit faster. Being on the police beat for nearly two years has fed that beast in me, but like all things there is always some bad mixed in with the good.
If you were to ask me what the good things were I'd tell you running out the door at the drop of the hat when I heard something "big" go down on the scanner. This good be anything - bank robbery, car accident, stand off, fire, mountain lion in a tree.
And even if it turned out to be nothing , it still got me out of the office, which is always a plus, except maybe when it's cold.
Now what were the bad things you may ask? No matter how tough a reporter thinks they are, death and destruction eventually pulls a little too hard at myheart strings. It was always painful trying to get a hold of family members and friends involved in tragedy and then asking them to talk about it. The only way I knew how to deal with it was to just not think about it.
Then of course we had those who would give all this information, but then wouldn't go on record. But at the end of the day what I think I hated the most while working the beat was trying to work with liars.
Case in point: I got tipped off on a pretty good story. When I confronted three, count them three different coppers, each one lied. The story goes cold.
Now this is why the public thinks we reporters get our facts wrong, because people lie and don't go on record. These problems are not just in the police beat. These problems are everywhere. A reporter has to sift through tons of garbage before they find the truth.
What I have found is when the truth does come out, occasionally the officials cover it up with another lie. Honestly, if people just told the truth everyone would be better off.
So here's an idea for everyone. Just be straight-up honest, even if it makes you look bad. That way us reporters can tell a fair and accurate story.
I agree that being honest is a good thing to do in 99.9% of situations. However, I do understand why people lie to reporters, alot of times it seems reporters are just out for a big juicy story and will take whatever "spin" on the truth they want which slants the truth and makes it impossible to get an "accurate" version of the story, plus I think that Truth is relative in most situations--Truth to one person could be a lie to another, especially since peoples' perceptions on stories or events is different. So since I don't think there is anyway to get a completely accurate story I think its best if sources and reporters try to be as "accurate" as possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tiffany, no matter the excuse be it a reporter telling asking what you don't want to say or the police twisting an innocent situation to victimize someone less fortunate. If we didn't feel so on the edge or rather "talked into" what didn't really happen or make something out of nothing then it would be alot easier all around. I am more than willing to tell the truth if the system was not so broken that my truth was not as fancy as the next guy and his 5 lying friends! I'm a bitter criminal right now so I have room to bitch on this subject. And that ain't no lie.
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