Write Fielder

Baseball. Books. The Boy Wonder. Newspapers. Unabridged.

Posts tagged journalism

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275/366 It’s never a good sign when the newspaper you write for and just finished writing for beats you home from a night at the ballpark. It’s after 3 a.m., the Cardinals clinched about two hours ago, and we only just finished covering it all for the paper … Well, the paper’s web site. Because if the paper beats me home it’s a safe bet the stories I just filed aren’t there. (Taken with Instagram)

275/366 It’s never a good sign when the newspaper you write for and just finished writing for beats you home from a night at the ballpark. It’s after 3 a.m., the Cardinals clinched about two hours ago, and we only just finished covering it all for the paper … Well, the paper’s web site. Because if the paper beats me home it’s a safe bet the stories I just filed aren’t there. (Taken with Instagram)

Filed under newspapers journalism baseball project 365+

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148/366 The boy wonder shared this class project with me. He was supposed to draw himself dreaming of what he was going to be when he grew up. So he drew himself at a desk with a pencil and a typewriter. “It’s a writer like you, Daddy,” he said. I don’t know whether to cry or, you know, cry. (Taken with instagram)

148/366 The boy wonder shared this class project with me. He was supposed to draw himself dreaming of what he was going to be when he grew up. So he drew himself at a desk with a pencil and a typewriter. “It’s a writer like you, Daddy,” he said. I don’t know whether to cry or, you know, cry. (Taken with instagram)

Filed under journalism boy wonder project 365+

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Fact-checker: “This still seems to violate about ten different rules of journalistic integrity.”

Author: “I’m not sure that matters … This is an essay, so journalistic rules don’t belong here.”

— The Lifespan of a Fact, by John D’Agata (author) and Jim Fingal (fact-checker), from page 19.

I’m settling into this book after a day at the ballpark, and these exchanges are … astonishing. “Punched up” quotes? Changing facts for the sake of “rhythm”. As I told a friend it would be much better for the “rhythm” of our writing if Albert Pujols hit .300 last season. Alas, he hit .299. We can’t change the facts, not even for an essay. I had no idea that the “non” in “nonfiction” had different definitions. It’s always been rather self-explanatory to me.

I hope at the end the answer to the books title is that the lifespan of a fact must certainly outlive its author.

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Filed under journalism writing