Telling Stories

I was think­ing today about how we in “the news busi­ness” often refer to our pieces as sto­ries. It’s an odd name, when you think about it. But I still like it bet­ter than the other com­mon name we give our work: arti­cle. While story is, per­haps, a bit of a mis­nomer (it’s not fic­tion, after all; at least, in the news­pa­per biz, it bet­ter not be), it avoids the cold imper­son­al­ity of the word article.

Articles are sim­ply objects that may or may not mat­ter. They’re means to other ends and have no intrin­sic value. Articles can be any­thing or anyone’s; there is no own­er­ship of an arti­cle – things only get names when we make them our own.

No one every says “let me tell you my arti­cle” – no, it’s always a story when it belongs to someone.

And that’s why it’s such a heady thing to be in this jour­nal­ism game. We are respon­si­ble for telling everyone’s story. That’s an awe­some respon­si­bil­ity; and a won­der­ful priv­i­lege. I’m grate­ful to have had the oppor­tu­nity to help many peo­ple tell their sto­ries over the years. Every now and then, I go back and read those sto­ries; I often find I’m moved all over again – both by the story itself and the great honor to be asked to tell it.

I love writ­ing. I love hear­ing sto­ries; and I have a blast telling them.