Getting the Story Out... Or Getting the Story

I was talking over lunch today about sources who don't want to talk about certain aspects of their lives.

Someone mentioned a profile she'd read recently that ignored wide-spread rumors about the subject's troubled past.

"Ugh. Who wants to read that?" she asked.

Sounds like the writer was just trying to get the story out, I replied. If the source won't talk; skip it. Make the deadline. File the piece. Send the invoice.

Whether its a newsroom cutback forcing reporters to fill more of the newshole, or freelancers trying to earn a living by moving as many stories as they can, journalists can feel enormous pressure to give into a source's reticence and just move whatever they've got. Heck, I've felt. I've done it.

"That's what reporters have to decide sometime -- whether to get the story, or just get the story out," I said.

Robert Niles also can be found at http://www.themeparkinsider.com