Pettiness
Nearly a month ago, I let off some steam by posting an entry titled "Headlines." In the journalism world, it's a known fact that stories sometimes appear in the paper with headlines that have almost nothing to do with the story. Headlines are hard to write, because there's a limited amount of space on a newsprint page, and it's sometimes very hard to put words in place without leaving gaping holes. Hence, the reason bad headlines happen.When I posted that entry, I was not happy. I put effort into my work, and I pride myself on accuracy. In fact, I still agonize over a horrible headline that is now eight months old. Not only was it completely inaccurate, but it ruined an article that I would have definitely shown to future employers.
So, nearly a month after I posted that "Headlines" entry, someone just replied. I guess he wanted to let everyone know that he was responsible for the headline. He signed himself as "The evil news editor," which reveals his identity, but for some reason, he gave a bogus e-mail address. I think that's a good example of pettiness. (I've edited the e-mail link to instead point at the newspaper's staff directory; I don't think the paper's Webmaster needs to deal with e-mails sent to no-man's land.)
So, Mr. News Editor, I have this to say to you: Don't think I was trying to talk about you behind your back; I was just being nice enough to not name names. In fact, you didn't see the photocopied, annotated postcard I put on the bulletin board at work for everyone to see. Someone above you apparently thought you'd be hurt by it. I see that person was right.
Posted by Layla at 10:31 PM, September 17, 2003
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