The life of an editor …
… sucks.
OK, so I took a chance on a new writer (who worked for free!) who wrote about a pseudo-controversial topic that I thought was interesting enough to be front-page news. I received two requests for reprints, 18 requests for Word document copies of the article and received numerous letters to the editor in favor of the article. I received two negative letters (not uncommon), but then the executive director got the call from hell that got me pulled into his office.
He was cool about it, but it turns out that one of the sources quoted in the article allegedly promotes pedophilia on his website. (eeek!) How fucking disastrous! It’s only part of the problem, but that’s not to say the chick who called isn’t a quack either (she left no phone # but gave us a dozen sources to call to rebut his article). That would be fine, but I’m running a follow-up installment to his article in this issue, too, so the shitstorm isn’t half over. I know the article was kind of self-serving for the guy who wrote it, but I ensured that he quoted one of our division leaders, who endorsed the topic, so I figured it was palatable for my audience.
Ergh. If today weren’t deadline day, I’d write the rebuttal piece myself. Maybe I’ll 86 one of the stories I haven’t started typing in yet and see what I can do. Fuck around! But hey, at least people are reading this shit, right? 🙂