Posted by PhoenixGirl on July 28, 2006, at 18:21:36
I'm interning at a mid-sized paper in south Georgia. I spent a lot of time and effort on a story about an HIV positive man who used to smoke crack and prostitute himself. I wrote it as a cautionary tale and to show readers that this kind of thing does happen in the Bible Belt.
My editor said the story didn't have enough sources and statistics. Yes, the story was imperfect, but we print imperfect stories in the paper every day.
However.....The editor said I "picked the wrong person" to profile. He said something like, "We did a story a while ago about a woman who got HIV from her husband. But this guy was smoking crack and everything. Why did you pick him?" I said because people not being careful about sex and then getting HIV is more common than 100% victims who did nothing risky, like the married woman we wrote about.
He also said stuff like "This is a difficult market for a story like this." More than once he referred to "this market". He said some readers will wonder why we would print this story and not one about anti-homosexual activists.
And just for background: This editor did not want to send one of our reporters to Iraq because the reporter was a woman. He also did not want to put a picture in the paper of women dancing in "hooker boots", even though the women's bodies weren't exposed.
I really think the editor doesn't like gay people and thinks people like the man I wrote about deserve what they get.
My story is probably not going to be published. The irony is that part of the story is about the stigma the gay man has had to face.
poster:PhoenixGirl
thread:671528
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060728/msgs/671528.html