Journalists in OS

Ralph Copleman ralph at earthdreams.net
Sun Jan 20 08:06:27 PST 2002


I once had a New York Times reporter cover an open space meeting I did.  I
think it was about two years ago.

The reporter never came forward to identify herself, so I never met her.
She did not sit in on the opening and did not stay for the closing.  She
attended a couple of the break-out sessions on topics of interest to the
story she was working on, and that was it.

Next day her story appeared.  It reported the feelings of the OS
participants about the issue in question (accurately as far as I could tell)
and commented on how courteous people were to each other despite the
potential that existed for heated disagreement.

I would have liked it, of course, if she had raved on about what a cool
technique the group had used, how much difference it had made, and how
brilliantly they'd been facilitated by a certain good-looking stud from New
Jersey, but No-ooo, this strangely did not happen.

Later I recognized that she didn't come to cover the technique but "real"
events going on in it, which, of course, was proper from her point of view.
Her readers, after all, were interested not in whether or not spirit was
moving within the circle, but if progress was made in resolving the conflict
in question.

Maybe next time they'll get that part about my good looks.  Maybe they'll
even bring a camera...

Ralph Copleman

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