Writer · Editor
Thanks for agreeing to an interview!
Nothing surprising. I promise.
If I’m covering your art show, for example, and have told you I’m writing a short, splashy biography in an entertainment magazine, that’s the truth.
I’ve certainly done investigative work, but I will never, ever run a critical or investigative story while leading you to believe I’m working on something else entirely.
Look, if you stub your toe and cuss like a regular human being, I’m not making note of that, nor am I in the business of calling people out for no reason.
If you’re a school administrator meeting me after work for an interview about district funding cuts, for instance, and you order a drink because we’re at a restaurant, the last thing I’m going to write is, “She quickly finished a whiskey sour and began to stare almost longingly at the empty glass, tracing its outline with a ragged fingertip. The budget shortfall gutted her seventh-grade STEAM program, she explained, and the department had few fundraising prospects so late in the year.”
Had I included the first sentence, you’d never talk to another journalist again. I’d also be out of my mind.
No, sorry. Ethical news publications almost never allow that, because it blurs the line between journalism and PR. I sincerely appreciate your trust in me, however.
Yes, 100 percent, unless you stop and tell me you’d like to share something off the record.
We’ll then agree to go off the record, and I’ll put down my notebook, turn off my voice recorder, and listen to anything you want to tell me that isn’t about being an axe murderer or something. The next part is just as critical: We’ll confirm together that we’re going back on the record, at which point nothing new in the conversation is private. I’ll walk you through it!
Occasionally, if your safety or livelihood is in danger. I’ll still need your full name and contact information to share with my editor, but those details will stay confidential.
Usually, yes, especially if you’re the main story subject. We’ll take a respectable photo, though, and every now and then, a publication might ask or allow you to submit your own.
I’ve got a story for you. It’s huge. Salacious. Wild. This guy I know is running an exotic donkey transport ring, and not the good kind. Don’t quote me, though.
Whoa, what’s his name? Where’s the ring? Can you hear the hee-haws?
I’m not at liberty to reveal such things. All I can tell you is that it’s in the Northern Hemisphere of … Earth.
I love a good story tip, but printing hearsay could get me into a lot of trouble, and there’s just not much I can do without a name, timeline, link or location as a jumping-off point. Let’s talk again when you can share more details, though!