tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37431669.post-56837309193251074782007-12-04T18:06:00.000-05:002007-12-04T18:48:20.309-05:00Being in the news business means having to deal with the underbelly of the human race.<br />And I'm not talking about murderers and rapists.<br />I'm talking about people who weren't paying attention when their parents were teaching them manners.<br />I'm talking about people who call the newsroom to scream (and that is no exaggeration) profanities about something we did or didn't write.<br />Here's what happened today:<br />We had a story in the paper about an Elyria truck driver who was killed in an accident.<br />It's tough getting details about a fatal car accident. <br />It's even tougher getting details about the person who was killed. <br />On deadline. When no or few family phone numbers are listed.<br />Well, our reporter, Steve Szucs, got the details of the crash.<br />But he was determined to get more, to tell the whole story -- of not just the accident itself but of the man who lost his life in it.<br />Steve got lucky. He went through the phone book, dialing numbers until he found the victim's aunt.<br />She seemed close to the victim. She was broken up about his death. She had a photograph of him that she gave us to put in the paper.<br />And she told us he didn't have any kids.<br />Well, guess what? It turns out the victim had a son, a 10-year-old son.<br />How did we find that out?<br />By someone who called this morning after reading the story to tell us how incompetent we were.<br />By someone else who called to tell us to get out stories straight.<br />And by a dozen other people with similar sentiments -- none of them, to my knowledge, family of the victim.<br />And finally, in the capper this evening, by a woman who called us every name in the book with f'ing as an adjective for each of those names.<br />Who ARE these people?<br />They walk among us. <br />Let's just hope they aren't walking behind us down a dark alley.<br /><br />By the way, we made plans to recify our error after the very first phone call.<br />While we feel bad about the error, frankly, I don't know how we could have done anything differently. Or if we will do anything differently next time.Patti Ewaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11118539617989280234noreply@blogger.com