Dealing with the Press

If your child has had some injustice perpetrated upon him, and you do not feel that pursuing legal avenues is enough to affect change, then a smart strategy is to take your story to the press.

Taking a story public can have a number of positive and negative effects. The negative ones involve your increased notoriety. People you have never met may recognize your child, may learn where you live, what school your child attends, and even the cars you drive, depending upon what is aired or photographed for a news story.

The positive aspects include greater awareness of the problem your child encountered. You may be surprised when other parents who have suffered the same indignities come forward to help. f enough momentum or outrage is generated from the publicity, then pressure may be put on civic or school leaders to change policies regarding the behavior surrounding your child's victimization.

If you decide to take your story public, it is important to know how to deal with the press. Getting a story out is not as cut-and-dried as dropping your local reporter a letter or calling the local television station. You will have to do a little planning before contacting the press.

First, you will have to decide how you are going to pitch your story to the local media.

Next, you will want to get copies of all the local newspapers you would like to contact, and see which reporters are given the stories in your subject area (Crime? Schools? Youth?). Since many papers change staff often, simply call the newsroom to help you.

You may be asked to send an e-mail or fax, instead of pitching the story to the reporter in person. Your chances are better if you avoid trying to pitch your story around "deadline", when reporters' stories MUST be turned in, so that the paper can go to press. Depending upon the frequency with which your paper is published, this will vary. Call the front desk, or see the masthead of the paper to find out when deadlines are.

If your local paper publishes less than every day, chances are, you may have a good chance of speaking, at least over the phone, with a reporter on an off day, when he is looking for stories. If he is on a daily paper, you may have to use a fax, e-mail or even voice mail as your forum, so that he can return your call when he has a moment.

Once you have the attention of a reporter, remember that the print media is a less emotional forum, than a television news report. Your journalist will want to know the facts of the case. Your feelings about the situation will, in most cases, be saved for the last paragraphs of the story. The facts are the most important. Do you have a police report to provide? Where did the offense occur and at what time during the day? What were the tangible results of this event (Broken arm? Bruises? Stolen CD player?). As a parent, you are deeply hurt by what has been done to your child, but it is important to remember that the reporter has to do his job by getting the concrete who, what, why, where and when of each story. If you cannot provide him with these bits of information, he will be hard-pressed to see why the should write it, much less try to get it past his editor.

Do not play the "off the record" game. There's no such thing. Talk on the record.

In addition, if you can provide additional sources or witnesses to help improve the story, do so. Will the friend of your child who witnessed the assault be willing to talk? Did any teachers see the scuffle? Can your attorney enlighten him? What about random interviews with kids at the high school who know the perpetrator is a bully? Any leads you can give him will only help.

With TV reporting, the game is completely different. The producer decides what will air, and what will not, and generally what stories will be pursued. For this reason, you will have to contact the station's producer to see if your story is of interest.

TV news people will want to visualize a story. Can they film your child, the area where the offense occurred, bruises? Does the architecture of the school make it easy for such a crime to occur? Explain to the producer that you cannot see the back side of the handball courts from the school and it makes it easy for assaults to occur, for instance.

In either event, it is important for you to keep a cool head - for the sake of your child's story. If you are hysterical and are not relating facts in any sort of comprehensible order, the reporter may have to move on to another story in the interest of time.

If your story is picked up, keep your local media up-to-date on upcoming hearings, additional related events at the location where the crime took place (Another crime? A pattern?), press conferences, or rallies that you are holding in relation to this case. In other words, keep the issue in front of the public.

Many people, when experiencing the press for the first time as a possible source, are shocked at how frenetic the pace of a reporter is. They may feel brushed off, ignored or that their story wasn't given proper attention. By being concise and keeping your introduction to relevant current issues, you will have a better chance to let your child's story be heard and perhaps, the lives of kids in the future will be better for it.

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