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I am surprised to find that I didn't take very many pictures! Usually I grab everybody. I did get a tad bored in the dealer's room and annoyed my cohorts.

Sizemore's hard at work.
Shane Moore does something unnatural to a water bottle.
Sizemore chats with Sara Harvey.
Silliness from the boys across the way.

ekd

Aaaah! There's me, smiling while Shane is telling them about the hell of being a cop! I was kicking myself the rest of the day for leaving out the most important journalism rule that is most frequently demolished in fiction: reporters don't sleep with their sources. EVER. Firing offense, not to mention ew. But just about every hottie reporter on TV is banging a source for stories... *facepalm*

Oh lord. That must have been when I completely lost track of what I was talking about and covered with bad jokes? Yeah, I wasn't in fine form this weekend.

In case you were desperately curious *crickets chirp* - off the record statements can only be used if I get another source. That's when a cop says, "We could get the guy for the double homicide, but that Steven Shrewsbury is a smart guy and knows how to cover his tracks. We're close, though." It points me in the right direction, but unless I get another source who says, "Steven Shrewsbury is the killer, and you can quote me on that," it's not going into print.

"Not for attribution" is a whole other ballgame. That's when a source tells me something I'm allowed to use, but I can't put his name with it. "Sources close to the negotiations say that the stadium vote is a lock." Washington runs on these, and unfortunately it's how we get burned. "A top White House aide says Dick Cheney actually signs the president's name on most legislation." They sort of float these ideas out there, see how the public reacts, but then nobody has to take responsibility for them. My paper does not run NFA quotes. Ever. If they won't stand behind it with a name, it doesn't run.

This means sometimes I get stuff that should be in the paper, but can't run it. I interviewed a recovering drug addict in a no-holds-barred discussion of what drugs did to his life for Red Ribbon Week, but he would not let me use his name because AA considers it breaking the confidentiality of the meeting, and so it never ran. I disagreed in that case, but was overruled.

Funny thing is, by a strict interpretation of ethics, something is only off the record or not for attribution if they tell me before they say it and I agree. Most of the time it's after they say it. "Jason Sizemore is totally our guy for this arson. That's off the record. We don't have charges yet." I always honor that. People need to be comfortable with what they've said for publication. That said, once we hang up the phone, that's it. I'm writing my story.

Then we get into protection of anonymous sources on the very, very rare occasions we're allowed to use them, and being willing to go to jail for sources you really don't like but it's your integrity on the line, and shield laws and the open meetings act and the Freedom of Information Act and jeez, look at the time...