I used to be a newspaperman and early on, back in the 1960’s, I decided there were three things I wanted to accomplish: I wanted to be put in jail for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential source; I wanted to be offered a bribe; and I wanted to win a Pulitzer Prize.
I finally won a Pulitzer but the other two goals seemed unattainable. My newspaper, The News & Observer, stopped using anonymous sources in investigative stories in the late 1970’s so, after that, I wasn’t going to be put in jail for failing to name one. And I had no control over the bribe situation.
When I was a young reporter, just starting out, I saw a story about a reporter at some big paper up North who had taken a bribe from a company to not come around asking questions. They didn’t bribe him to change a story, or kill a story. They bribed him not to look for a story in their neighborhood.
I thought to myself, that guy has no morals but he must be one hell of a reporter.
I didn’t want a bribe, I wanted to be offered a bribe, an acknowledgement of sorts that I was a pretty good reporter, too. I told myself that people I dealt with knew I wouldn’t take one and that’s why they didn’t offer. But I was still disappointed.
And then, one fine day, it happened.
This guy called me about a dispute he had with the Catholic Church and when I went to his office to interview him he offered me $10,000 to twist the story.
I said no, and walked away.
But I should have said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, you creep!”
CHECK!!
Coming Friday: Surprise!