Feeling stressed in the middle of that disaster? … Let’s talk
Let’s be honest about it: reporters and editors can be a pain in the butt. Especially when something bad just happened. That’s when we want to ask our questions to get the story.
We have deadlines to meet and, with news Web sites like wenatcheeworld.com to feed, that means the deadlines are increasingly now, now now.
It’s also the time when the people handling the bad news event — often government employees — really want to be taking care of the event rather than answering blunt questions.
So what you get are people under stress asking questions of other people under stress. It’s not always a beautiful thing.
But it happens all the time and I think we can get better at it. On Wednesday, I hope to make a little contribution. I’ll be at 2008 Local Emergency Planning Committee Tribal Conference in Chelan. I’ll be: Journalist, Exhibit A. My task: “provide the media’s perspective on the need to get timely and accurate information during the crisis.”
Pray for me. I hate answering questions from strangers. Asking them can be so much easier.