Bob McCarthy, my long-time colleague at The Buffalo News, often said we had the greatest jobs in the world.
Where else, he asked, could you start the morning by picking up a free paper, putting your feet on your desk and reading the day’s news over a cup of coffee?
Bob is absolutely right, but he fails to mention the expectations and challenges that faced reporters once the coffee turned cold and the work day began in earnest – constant, heart-pounding deadline pressure, demanding editors and government officials determined to look good while hiding their little and not-so-little secrets.
I’m writing in the past tense since I retired 10 years ago after nearly 40 years at The News. So if you’re viewing this as the romanticized recollections of an old-time newsman, I proudly plead guilty as charged.
Starting at The News right out of college in 1971 was no easy task. Only veteran reporters had their own desks and phones, and it was months or more before the newer hires had any substantial responsibility beyond obituaries, light features and two-paragraph items. Stories were written in triplicate on manual typewriters, and changing the order of paragraphs was done with glue and scissors – the forerunner of cut and paste. A sign above the city desk offered this simple yet hard-to-achieve journalistic advice: “Don’t fight it. Write it.”
My first “beat” was Cheektowaga and surrounding towns, school districts and police departments. The press room there – a tiny interrogation room across the hall from a jail cell – made the downtown newsroom seem palatial. I covered the one-way window with newspapers and – despite the surroundings – Cheektowaga prepared me well for later assignments to the state courts and the education beat.
The business was more personal and informal then.
Every December, court deputies would show up in the press room to escort me and my reporting partner to the chambers of County Judge Ernest L. Colucci.
Along with his sentiments that “you boys have been good to me,” Colucci gave both of us bottles of whiskey and tins of Danish butter cookies.
Interviews were back-and-forth discussions, not canned and overly protective e-mailed responses. Many reporters polished up quotes, making sources more comfortable answering questions.
Knowing people’s habits and quirks were valuable reporting skills.
Ed Cuddihy, a longtime city editor who is now retired, is widely respected as an outstanding journalist and a good soul.
But when newly-hired Dan Herbeck approached the city desk with a question, Ed gave him a look that could have killed a lesser man.
I told Dan, who I now consider the best reporter in Buffalo, to keep in mind two things: ”Never bother Ed when he’s busy. And remember that Ed is always busy.”
Coincidentally, I covered the courts when Dan Weber, the Cheektowaga supervisor, went to trial on charges of corruption. The first day of trial was devoted to the prosecution’s case, so my story reflected Weber – who I dealt with often while covering Cheektowaga – at his alleged worst. Weber caught my eye in court the next morning and gave me a look of betrayal and disappointment.
Then it was time for defense arguments, so the second story painted him as an innocent victim. On his way to the defense table that morning, Weber found me in the spectator section, gave me a big smile and dropped something in my lap. It was a pen that said “Compliments of Supervisor Dan Weber.”
I kept that pen as a reminder that we had the best jobs in the world.
Pete Simon knows a good job when he sees it.
March 08, 2021 at 04:00AM
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