Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN/
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By the time the story got passed around the circle, it never much resembled what the teacher had said to begin with.
The lesson was clear: Sometimes we don't hear things correctly, and should be careful what we spread as gospel based on second-, third- or 30th-hand information.
It's a lesson we need to remember as adults. Not only do some people never hear what we're saying - no matter how clearly we think we have said it - but what we say is often going to be passed on in different forms.
Example No. 1: Last winter, there was a horrible fire that killed two men. One man survived. I had to call him at the hospital to see if he wanted to talk. I asked him if he wanted to share any good memories about his friends, so I could tell readers more about them than their names and ages. Hours later, a friend of the man was angry at me as I picked up a photo to run in the paper. Was I that reporter, she wanted to know, who called her friend to ask him how it felt to watch his friends die in the fire?
Example No. 2: At last week's "listening session" to hear comments about the Aug. 9 shooting death of Maurice Taylor, a woman approached the microphone near the end of the meeting. She quite confidently told the gathering that she had watched a television news report that said that the state police investigation was complete and the officers who had shot Taylor had been cleared.
At least, that's what I heard her say. But I had watched the news, too, and I knew what I heard was that state police were still awaiting the report.
Did she really watch the news report? Or did someone tell her what they heard the news say?
One of the ego-driven parts of being a reporter is knowing that people will be talking about what they read in the paper that morning or what they heard on the evening news. One of the hard parts of the job is defending yourself against people's misconceptions of your message.
I stared across at the TV news crew, willing them to speak up and tell the audience that's not what their report said. But they said nothing, at least that I heard.
Monday's listening forum was a good idea. It let people vent their feelings, to tell officials what they wanted done and what they wanted to know. For the most part, all the speakers were able to be heard. Many of them said they were upset because they weren't getting answers. The answers will come later, when the investigation is complete. At that time, it would be in the authorities' best interest to release as much of the report as possible, so the public is assured it knows how the conclusion - whatever it is - was reached.
What some people didn't want to hear at the forum, though, were opposing viewpoints, or that the answers can't come right away. When those answers do come, will they be the answers people want to hear?
Kathy Loan reports on New River Valley police and courts for The Roanoke Times.
by CNB