I was just re-reading Roy Peter Clark's "The American Conversation and the Language of Journalism." Always a good thing to do. I think I might needle-point "Get the name of the dog" and put it above my desk. It's a concept that's repeated all over the place nowadays but can't be said enough, particularly when we're pedal to the metal getting the paper out.

This bit that Clark quotes from Brit scholar John Carey gets at the heart of it: "the good reporter must do everything in his power to... isolate the singularities that will make his account real for his readers—not just something written, but something seen."

And Clark illustrates it with this gem:

I remember a police story that came out of my end of town. It was hot, oppressively humid Florida day, and things started to go badly inside a house on 63rd Avenue S. First the air-conditioner broke down, making it unbearably sticky for husband, wife, and mother-inlaw.Mother-in-law’s irritation increased when the television set also went on the blink. (The reporter didn’t tell me, but I wanted to know what she was watching at the time. Was it Jeopardyor Wheel of Fortune or The Dating Gameor One Life to Live?)

The old woman complained to her son-in-law that the television was not working. So the son-in-law did what any Florida man would do under such circumstances: He shot out the screen of the television set with a handgun. What followed was a stand-off with police and his eventual surrender.

The reporter, Doreen Carvajal, does tell us, bless her, that the man’s foul mood and subsequent violence were influenced by his imbibing 24 cans of beer that day. Black Label beer. Not Heineken or Budweiser or Coors. But Black Label.

No wonder he shot out the television.

The full text can be found here.

World AIDS Day
Film
Reporter Zero
6 pm
Friday, December 1, 2006
Remis Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts

Reporter Zero by Carrie Lozano (2006, 25 min.). The first documentary film to examine journalist Randy Shilts' (And the Band Played On) groundbreaking reporting on the AIDS epidemic, Carrie Lozano's Reporter Zero tells the dramatic story of Shilts' fight to contain a devastating epidemic and his determination to rattle a nation in denial. His story exemplifies the power of journalism, represents a critical moment in the history of gay rights, documents massive institutional failure, and reminds us that in spite of flaws and psychic struggles, one person can make a difference.