February 8th, 2012
I just got a minute-long (actually, 1:07) voicemail from a reader. She was unhappy with this piece I wrote about Planned Parenthood because I “failed Journalism 101” and didn’t name my sources. By the end she was pretty much just yelling, “Shame on you Jonathan V. Last–shame on you!!!!”
Awesome part: I haven’t written anything about Planned Parenthood in months (years?). She was obviously misattributing something to me. So she cared enough to find a phone number, make a call, and scream into a phone for a minute, which must have been an investment of five minutes of her life. But not enough to figure out who actually wrote the piece that made her so upset. Which might have taken a second and a half.
If only she had left a call-back number.
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There is a lot of hate out there looking for socially-approved targets.
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I think we all understand that proper sourcing is a hot-buton issue
Galley Wife February 8, 2012 at 7:59 pm
That’s so awesome. I bet people who think there is actually a “Journalism 101” often pound their fists down righteously and say things like, “The time for [fill in the blank] is over!”
I like that she included your middle initial in her shaming, though. Much more damning.