Criticism

I received my first dose of real criticism last night.

I was listening to the Jets vs. Dolphins game when I heard that unmistakable sound coming from my police scanner. The fire units were being paged.

Crap. There’s never a fire when I’m slightly bored and in need of something to do. It’s always when my one true love is playing football. (I actually missed the second half of the Patriots game due to a different fire.)

Luckily, it was close to halftime and the fire wasn’t too far away, so I figured I wouldn’t have to miss much of the game.

When I got to the scene, I found a very small fire that had already been contained. It likely resulted from a burn pile that got away from the owner. I was snapping photos of the firefighters when I saw two women come out to observe the scene. Figuring they might be able to add color to the story, I approached them to find out what they knew or had seen.

“Hi, I’m from the Mineral Independent. I tend to follow these guys (referring to the firefighters) around. I was just wondering, would you be willing to talk about what you’ve seen?” I asked one of the women.

“Are you Andrew?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not talking to you. You screw up every story you write!”

I was a bit taken aback. First of all, that claim is entirely false. Maybe I've screwed 90 percent or even 99 percent of my stories, but every single one of them? Even the open letter to the county? Even the story about me shooting the gun?

I’ve actually received many calls, in-person compliments and have been told by my publisher that people have come up to him saying they are very pleased with the accurate and engaging coverage I have brought to the county.

I’m not saying I’ve been flawless. I made a pretty big gaff a while back when I said that Superior’s state legislator had retired. He is retiring but has not yet retired. To my knowledge, that’s the biggest mistake I have made. I’ve seen the legislator since, apologized, and we continue to be on good terms. He’s even fed me story ideas since the error.

“Who are you?” I asked the woman.

The only other person I have had accost me in any sort of way was a bar owner in the West End of the county. I have never met her, but she was pretty pissed that I published a story about bars failing compliance checks that tested their ability to stop minors from buying alcohol. When I called her for comment about Montana’s bars going smoke free, she let me know how she felt about the previous story.

I can’t be sure, but the woman’s voice and tone last night was strangely reminiscent of the bar owner on the phone. If it wasn’t her, I think it was a family member or friend. Then again, I screw up every story I write, so what do I know?

When I asked her who she was, she said: “I’m not telling you. You’d probably screw that up, too.”

Fair enough. I thanked her for her “honesty” and continued to stand next to her while I snapped more photos.

The funny thing about the incident was that the fire didn’t even merit a full story – just a photo and an extended caption, and that’s only because I took the time to go out there.

Oh well. And to put a damper on the night of frustration, the Jets lost in a heartbreaker.

(These photos are from my reporting.)

Comments welcome,
Andrew