Tag: The News & Observer

The Bribe

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!

The Bean Counter

After an ATV accident at Snowbird fractured two bones in my back my kinsmen hauled me to a hospital in Andrews, N.C., in the back of a pickup truck.

I couldn’t sit up in the hospital bed. I couldn’t even turn over. And, of course, I couldn’t get out of bed to go to the bathroom. But after two or three days my newspaper’s health insurance carrier said it was time for me to get up, get dressed, and go home. An insurance bean counter in Greensboro, N.C., told the hospital it was done paying for my care.

I was incredulous.

I called Anders Gyllenhaal, executive editor of The News & Observer in Raleigh, where I worked.

Anders
Anders Gyllenhaal

Anders knew about the accident, that I had been injured and hospitalized. I told him about my new problem, the bean counter, and asked him to help me. He asked for her name and telephone number and told me to sit tight. A few minutes later he called back and said to forget about her, just get well.

After a call from the editor of the newspaper with the largest circulation in North Carolina the bean counter had changed her mind. I could stay in the hospital until I was well enough to go home, which turned out to be seven days.

Do you suppose she knew that old adage: Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

Every once in a while I think about the favor Anders did me. I’m still grateful. But I also wonder: What do you suppose happens to sick or injured people who get jerked around by insurance companies and don’t have a newspaper editor, or someone with just as much pull, in their corner?

NOTE: I stayed in the hospital in Andrews for four days and then was moved by ambulance to Rex Hospital in Raleigh where I stayed three more days.

Coming Friday: Paroled!