View from the Other Side
(An anecdotal and irreverent look at what the news media REALLY says about us)

Jerry L. Robbins Extension Information Specialist -- Press Department of Agricultural Communications University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Lexington

Not long after I took my present position as a news writer with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, I attended a meeting somewhat like this one where a guest speaker from a newspaper spoke to us news relations types about how much he loved getting our news releases, and how useful they were, and how he’d love to have even more of them. He did say he wished we’d localize them a little more for his particular market, and he did say he wished we wouldn’t use so much educational jargon and just assume that the rest of the world knew what we were talking about. But by and large, he said we were doing a great job and just keep those news releases coming to him.

Having just arrived on the job at UK after spending 15 years with a real newspaper, The Memphis Press-Scimitar, in Memphis, TN, which had died an ignoble death going out of business a few months earlier -- it wasn’t my fault -- I kept my mouth shut. My colleagues probably wish I would keep my mouth shut now. But I did wonder then and asked myself the question, “Where in the world did this guy come from? His newspaper is absolutely nothing like the one I had just come from.” I used to receive 200 plus pieces of mail -- press releases -- every day of the week. And I didn’t have a secretary to even open the envelopes. The last thing I would have told anybody was to send me one more piece of mail. Of course, I realized he was just being politically correct. You don’t go to somebody else’s conference and tell them how BAD they are. You don’t go to a bunch of PR types and tell them what the newspaper news room really says about them.

Well, I don’t think I will either. But I assure you it’s different from those remarks that guy I was quoting earlier said. I’m a word person, not a visual person, so I don’t have any visual aids -- except for these three index cards that will give you an idea of what newspapermen really say about a lot of us print media PR types -- and since I’ve been on your side of the fence for almost 13 years now and I’m close enough to retirement age to avoid retribution (I hope), I’ll let you see what my ex-comrades had to say about my present comrades.

First Card: “Sumbitch.” That, I’m sure most of you good ole boys know -- but maybe a few Yankees out there don’t -- means son of a bitch in southern. I did tell you I was newpapering in Memphis, TN didn’t I? Second Card: “Idiot.” Third Card: “Incompetent.” Now, before you go getting mad at me because of what some of my cohorts used to say about you, let me tell you quickly what those guys had to say about Republicans: Same three cards. Democrats: Same three cards. Our bosses, the editors: Same three cards. I could say the same about police, bank presidents, real estate executives, athletes and just about everybody else the newspaper covers, but I won’t in the interest of time.

What I’m saying is that newspaper writers are usually an irreverent bunch who seem to have a rather limited vocabulary.

They despise those big words agricultural science writers love to write about. Especially the ones the science writers say everyone in the business will know the meaning of.

They don’t LIKE anybody they ever have to write about, but they TOLERATE us and most of the other people they have to write about more than most other organizations I know.

They will use us to get stories they want, and they know -- and don’t care -- that we will try to use them to get stories we want printed too.

They will think the stories they want are good -- and ours are not, but will tolerate us to get the stories they want. We will think our stories are good -- and theirs are not, but we will tolerate them to get our stories in print more often.

Newspaper people tend to drink a lot, and they will sit down with you and you both will drink a lot, and they will tell you war stories and laugh at your war stories. But you will not be buddies. You must know they will later write down any inadvertent remarks you make about anything that might be useful in a story later. You must realize that for a newspaper writer, no comment is OFF THE RECORD unless it is clearly agreed before the comment is made that it is off the record. Party time is not an exception to that. Personally speaking, I can’t tell you how many times people have told me “That comment was off the record” after having said something that they felt might come back to haunt them. Fortunately for those people, their comments simply were not newsworthy. Or perhaps, if I felt somewhere down the pike the source might provide a bigger story, I might feel charitable.

Speaking of drinking, when I was business editor I had many, many luncheons, dinners and even a few breakfasts with bank presidents, business leaders, home builders etc., which involved the famous three martini lunch. I didn’t have much of a food bill during that time. That was during the time when most newspapers allowed reporters to be wined and dined. Even after my newspaper made a new policy to not allow most reporters to accept wining and dining from people they were going to write about, they allowed the business editor to be the exception. Anybody know why? Because most bank presidents, business executives, etc. didn’t have time for interviews EXCEPT during meal time; and second -- this I believe is the real reason business leaders insisted on meeting at lunch -- if they took a reporter out for lunch, BOTH meals became a business expense. I quickly learned that at least for me a three martini lunch does NOT enhance the ability to ask penetrating questions. Fortunately scotch did not have the same effect. Three martinis also did not enhance the business person’s ability to ANSWER penetrating questions.

Now that I’ve told you what my newspaper comrades said and thought about PR types, let me tell you how I felt about them. I really did have positive feelings about most of them.

They helped me do my job mostly.

Sometimes they hindered me from doing my job.

Most of the time they told me the truth.

Occasionally, a few lied to me -- once. I’m reminded of a quote attributed to Disraeli. He said there were three kinds of lies: “Lies, damned lies, and statistics!” To which I reply, “Statistics don’t lie, but liars statist.”

My all-time favorite public relations specialist recently retired from my alma mater, Memphis State University, now University of Memphis. Once I had to ask him a very difficult question, one that my editor, had told me earlier to not let anyone go “off the record” on this subject. I truly don’t remember what the issue was now. But Charlie said to me, “Jerry I can only speak on this subject if it’s off the record.” I told him I couldn’t accept that answer this time. Everything had to be on the record. Charlie prided himself on never having to say “No Comment,” but he was under orders and so was I. He said something to the effect, “I am directed to not respond to questions on this subject for the record.” I asked a related question, got the same answer, called my bosses and told them. My boss was impressed that Charlie wouldn’t lie, even though he wouldn’t answer the question, and Charlie didn’t even didn’t try to convince us to not run the story. The boss decided to not embarrass him by even quoting his non-answer.

I relied on university news specialists when I was education editor and business editor to help me cover marginal stories. As a one-person education department and later a one-person business department, I spent most of my day covering what I considered the big story of the day. I spent an hour opening those 200 pieces of mail and dumping most of them in the basket. But the marginal stories needed covering too. I found the PR news writers who would return information by 10 a.m. instead of responding at 11:45 p.m., and I relied heavily on them to return the information back to me. I didn’t require formal prose on letterhead paper.

When I found a news release that was newsworthy, well-written, locally oriented and worthy of being printed in its entirety, I ALWAYS rewrote it. Why, you ask? Because I knew the same story was being sent to all newspapers in the area. My editor didn’t want the exact same words in our paper that were going to be used in the little weekly down the road. I agree with his philosophy on that. One criticism I still hear about our big daily papers is that they never use our stuff exactly as we write them. I still understand why.