Who? What? Why?
Asking life’s least important questions
What’s the most angry (and most funny) call I ever got about a story?
August 21st, 2009 at Fri, 21st, 2009 at 12:07 pm by justinefrederiksen“Tell the reporter if she had a brain in her head, she would have said what kind of worms they were!”
That was the message from a man who read a story I wrote years ago about a Sunnyslope Elementary School teacher bringing a worm bin into her classroom to teach her students about the cycle of life.
I loved the subject, I loved talking to the kids, and it is still one of my favorite stories. Funny enough, I actually asked the teacher what kind of earthworms they were, but did not include that fact in the story.
At the time, I was shocked that anything about the story had inspired such wrath. Now, with a thicker skin, I can look back on the call and laugh. And realize it taught me some valuable lessons about reporting: no detail is too small, and it is usually what you think is the most innocuous detail that will cause the most trouble.
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