Stories really matter

Until my time at The Tennessean, talking with sources after a story ran was foreign to me unless I made a factual error.

So you can imagine how I felt when a source I had interviewed regarding his encounter with a convicted serial killer called me the day after the story ran.

Ten years ago, Mitch Roberts, a former Shoney’s restaurant manager, was held at gunpoint by Paul Dennis Reid. Reid was wanted in the murder of fast-food employees and went after Roberts because he had fired Reid for reasons not related to the murders.

I wrote an article detailing Roberts’ experience, and it ran in The Tennessean and nearby Gannett newspapers. Roberts called me the day after the story ran and left this message on my voice mail:

“Desiree, this is Mitch Roberts. I was reading the article you put in the paper. Out of all these years this has been going on, yours is the closest to the truth. You printed the facts as I told you, and I appreciate that.”

After listening to Mitch’s voice mail, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Colleen Fitzpatrick, my career coach. Colleen reminded me that every story we write means something to someone. She told me that someone somewhere will be clipping each article and putting it into a scrapbook.

Not that I didn’t believe her, because I did, but Mitch’s phone call reminded me that stories really matter to people and readers are paying attention.

-- Desiree Belmarez, Colorado State University, The Tennessean, Nashville