CORRECTION: Appended below.
Give most reporters and their editors the choice between a telephone interview or one conducted face-to-face, and there's usually no contest.
"In person, you have the benefit of using all your senses and encountering people you otherwise might not," notes
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reporter Brady Dennis. "Also, people in traumatic situations tend to trust a live human being more than a faceless voice."
No argument there, but what about those cases where the telephone is the only way to report a story?
Case in point: When you're reporting on American military casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq, I offered
advice to reporters profiling war casualties on deadline. These stories are especially challenging when military assignments mean that those who best know the fallen are far from your community, and deadlines and newsroom budgets make travel for in-person interviews impossible.
American fatalitites in Iraq and Afghanistan
exceed 2,700. As the toll continues to rise, more and more reporters around the country face this kind of assignment for the first time.
Using the telephone to discover the person behind a statistic is daunting, say two military reporters who are veterans of the assignment: Jay Price of
The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer and Tataboline Brant of
The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News. But the obstacles can be surmounted, say Price and Brant, who e-mailed me lessons they've learned from making such calls of last resort. (See story examples in the adjoining boxes.)
Timing MattersNames of war dead are often
released late in the day, says the
N&O's Price. "More often than not, you're dealing with a phoner and only two or three sources at best."
"Mostly, we're a little late to the game on these [stories] than we would normally be... because
the Pentagon releases names at least 24 hours after families are told and often later, particularly in cases where several troops were killed in same incident," he says.
Brant said, "the military gives very limited information about troops who die. For example, they will not tell you where the parents or spouse live. One thing they will give you is the soldier's hometown. So start calling the schools, mayor's office, local paper. Chances are you will find someone who knows the person or their family."
What "Ultimate Sacrifice" Really Looks Like
Bear in mind, Price says, "often the family member you reach is too upset still to talk. At that point, don't be afraid to ask for another relative's name and number, someone who is knowledgeable about the deceased. This has helped me four or five times."
Another valuable source, especially for regional or national news organizations, are local news outlets who learn the names of casualties first, often from a relative, before the Pentagon has issued a release.
"Hit the Web and find the local paper," Price says.
"In perhaps 50 percent of the cases," he continues, "they'll have a story from which you can pull vital info, such as the name of the high school, the principal, the parents or whoever is talking... This is crucial in those cases where your casualty is a Smith, Jones or Garcia and you can't figure out which [telephone] number is the family's or where his family may not be listed, but the uncle that's quoted in the local paper is."
Brant agrees. "Start making those calls immediately. Try to get to the family as fast as you can. They are going through a very hard time and are probably only up to telling their story so many times. It is important to document these deaths in the most human way possible; to show readers what the 'ultimate sacrifice' really looks like. It is hard to do that without the family. So find them. And find them fast."
Price says, "Be kind, be respectful. If they say no, accept it and get what you need from a
phone tree that starts maybe with their school principal."
Brant also advises branching out to others. "If you start with the outer circle -- friends, old school teachers, etc. -- explain what you are trying to do and ask them how they think the family would feel about a reporter calling. You don't have to take their advice. But their answer may help you navigate the situation. Try to get names of other people close to the family."
The Internet can help too, Brant says. "Talk to the folks in the units you are covering and see if the families have an unofficial Web site or online forum where they keep in touch. There are often leads on these sites. (One is
http://www.strykernews.com/)"
|
REPORTER DOSSIER |
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www.highschool
journalism.org
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Name: Tataboline Brant
Paper: The Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News
Bio: Military reporter. Covers three Army posts, two Air Force bases and a small National Guard force. Was embedded with the Air Force in Indonesia during the Asian tsunami and is currently "embedded" at home with the Army's newest airborne brigade. Was a Knight Center Fellow in 2006; a Casey Center Fellow in 2003 and is a former two-term president of the Alaska Press Club.
Story link: "War tallies first death for 172nd," Oct. 20, 2005
| |
Working the phones is crucial, Price says, because official information is often sparse and in some cases inaccurate. For example, he says, "The home bases listed on the DoD
releases are seldom of much use except for double-checking basic facts such as unit, date of enlistment, etc. Occasionally the base will be wrong on these things, occasionally the family will be. These releases are kind of coded, too. 'HQ unit of special operations command' is likely
Delta Force, which doesn't officially exist. 'Killed in a non-combat firearm incident' is almost always suicide. The nature of the attack is wrong perhaps one time out of 25."
Families Want to TalkPrice has reported from Iraq, including three months as an embedded journalist with a battalion of the
82nd Airborne Division, and from Afghanistan. He estimates that he's written about 60 casualty profiles.
"Out of that 60 or so, I have only been turned down completely four times, and two of those were special operations soldiers whose families had clearly been told to tell me no.
"Families almost always want to talk, and you should view this as a positive thing, not [as] being a vulture. Their son or daughter was a hero and they don't want them to be just a number any more than we do."
Price suggests asking these questions:
- When was the last time you heard from your loved one? What did he or she have to say? "Many times the answer is pretty compelling."
- Did you stay in touch by e-mail? Would you mind sharing the last one you got?
- Did your loved one play sports? "An almost unbelievable number of these kids played sports... I've had probably half a dozen that were on state championship sports teams."
- How will you remember the person? What will you remember most? What do you think of first when someone mentions the person's name?
- Why did he or she join the military? Why did he or she pick a particular branch of the service? "The answers aren't always what you expect."
- What were his or her plans for the future?
Price has found that questions about loved ones' physical appearance, such as their build and other details, can compensate for the impersonality of a phone call. "Many say they'll remember the smile."
Whether the story is reported by phone or face-to-face, "know up front that this is a huge responsibility," Price says. "It won't be easy, because these are often young people who are just starting their lives and there's not an obvious, vast amount of material to work with. So you've got to try hard."
CORRECTION: This article originally reported, incorrectly, that there have been more than 2,700 casualties of American soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That number, in fact, reflects the number of
fatalities suffered by the American military. It does not include
the reported 19,106 servicemembers wounded in action [PDF] in both conflicts.
My thanks to Poynter class colleagues Price and Scanlan for...
