The most venerable b to the p to the h to the d sends me the following account of middle schoolers who catch their teachers en déshabille. I'm reminded of a time when something similar happened to me. You may remember it. Lord knows I do. But the reportage in that article offends me on a number of levels. My first thought was "Teachers these days. Where's a person to send the kids he doesn't have to middle school anymore?" But then I changed course.
You see, I teach literary journalism—emphasis on "literary"—but none of my kids would punt an article like these AP Press punks did:
Both teachers have unlisted phone numbers and could not be reached for comment Thursday.
An unlisted phone number stopped them? "By God!" I thought. "Someone should get those poor reporters some reporters!" I've got freshmen more enterprising than these fools. Sometime next week I'll be posting a number of the articles written by "my kids." I've a class this quarter whose work is on par with most of what's produced for $1 per word.
Point of fact: I've spent all day working with them, which is why I've tried to convince you a recapitulated email exchange counts as a post. By the way, did I mention I like money?
I completely agree. There attempt to write this piece was pathetic. This story has the ability to be a good piece, but they did a half ass job on it. "Could not be reached for comments". The most pathetic excuse for being too lazy to finish or in this case to really even start.
Posted by: courtney | Sunday, 11 June 2006 at 07:27 PM
To be fair, the top left of the story has a "breaking news" tag.
Posted by: Brendan | Monday, 12 June 2006 at 06:20 AM