VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
Entered as second class matter on Oct. 21, 1947, at the post office at
Palmer, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
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Viola Daniels . Editor
No printed material in the Valley Frontiersman may be
reproduced except by permission of the editor.
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States
DANIELS—In The Lion’s Den...
“Where did you get that story?”
That question, decorated with adjectives that denote the degree of
peeve on part of the questioner when he catches up with the editor, has
never failed to turn up in two years and seven weeks of publishing for
the Valley Frontiersman.
There’s rarely any question that makes a reporter more annoyed. It
proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the irate reader hasn’t taken the
trouble to read beyond the headlines of the story he asks exception to.
Every major news story, properly written, has the answer to that ques
tion within itself, and anyone who reads through it will know the source
of the story.
However, in case there are those who aren’t too familiar with the
way it’s done, we thought we’d unveil a few tricks of the trade this week.
Take a front page story that describes a bad highway smash-up.
Now the reporter doesn’t glance at a pool of blood on the concrete, and
then dash off to a typewriter to write a horror story about decapitated
bodies. He asks a couple of questions first—from the victim, unless he’s in
the morgue or apt to be on his way soon, from the doctor who does the re
pair job, from the law officer who’s in charge of the situation, and from
an eye witness, if the reporter is lucky.
That story will be liberally sprinkled with “Dr. Joe Blotz said”, or
“Policeman John Doe reported”—that’s where that story came from.
Lots of stories are even easier. They’ll bluntly state that “Jim
Green declares” or “Susie Smith says”, and that’s just what they mean.
The reporter has talked with Jim or Susie, either personally or by phone,
to get their story of what happened.
But occasionally a story goes cagey. It may say, “Joe Smith alleges”
—that means that Joe’s on record, either in a personal interview with the
reporter or on public record, as having said such and such. The use of
the word “alleges” usually means “that’s what Joe said, but you couldn’t
prove it by this reporter.”
Or maybe the story coyly whispers, “the rumor persists.” That
means that after three stops at the interview-ee’s office two phone calls
and possibly a footrace along the street, with the reporter the loser the
subject in question couldn’t be reached to answer the question. It also
means that, in the writer’s opinion, it’s a pretty good rumor and probably
true. A mere “it is rumored” means your guess is as good as mine, as to
whether it’s true. 0
Again, maybe the story says “a spokesman declared.” That state
ment means that the person interviewed said, "I’ll tell you how it was,
but keep my name out of it—my wife, you know” or words to that ef
fect. In that case, don t ask the editor where the story came from, be
cause that’s one time newspapers don’t have to tell, and they won't.
And when a newspaper paragraph starts out by saying, “Dr. John
Doe, local physician, startled local Rotarians by stating: “We have definite
proof the world is flat” you may be sure those little quotation marks
mean that your reporter whipped out a pencil and sharpened up his
shorthand. Those will be the exact words the good Dr. Doe dropped in
the lap of the Rotarians. Any reporter messing with what the doctor said
inside of those quotations, could be soon found to be burning midnight oil
while studying the libel laws that govern newspapers.
That’s about all the inside story on reporting for a country weekly.
Editorials are a different matter again, for they reflect the opinion of the
editor and the policy of his paper. If charges are hurled, they’ve got to bo
backed with facts that soon can be proved. Other than that the editor is
free as air in this, his own column.
Nobody tells him what to write there. He may, at the suggestion of
someone, delve into a matter that needs editorializing. It’ll still be strictly
his own ideas unless the column is turned over to a guest, in which case
there’ll be a note stating so.
So, the next time you scan the front page of the Frontiersman,
you 11 know that what you read there is what somebody told the editor;
if you read far enough, you’l know who did the telling, if that can be told
And when you turn to the “Den”, you know what you read tjtere is what
the editor wants to tell you.
VARIETY VOGUES SPRUCES UP
Interior remodelling, in prepara
tion for the coming busy holiday
season, got under way at Variety
Vogues the past weekend. One of
two display cabinets was eliminat
ed, making available a more mod
ern floor display spot there. In the
near future, new glass counters
will appear in the Vogue Snop, ac
cording to co-owner Betty Mears.
Three counters, placed horizontally
will replace the present wooden
one, making possible still addition
r
al display space as well as added
storgae. ,
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