There's been a double murder, just down the street. And before you think, good grief, what a macabre way to write a first blog post, let me first explain.
I graduated from J-school about two years ago. I missed out on the opportunity to intern at a local paper and so missed a golden opportunity to be doing this for a living. Just a bad break.
While I was in school, however, I would always avoid covering bad news; hard news we call it in the business. Two times I was in the right place at the right time and purposefully refused to rush to the scene of the breaking event to get timely coverage, interviews and photos - and that in light of the fact that the two major media giants here on Island, the Guardian and CBC radio and TV, did not get a scoop on either story. My fortuitous opportunities would have made me relatively marketable here as a reporter. But I ditched it. For stupid reasons I am gonna share further down below.
So here I am, not working in traditional journalism, ghost writing and editing, instead. Which is OK, but it is not cutting edge, potentially award winning journalism. No surprises there.
And I admit, I am BORED!! Out of my skull. I mean, I am only here on Island to raise my two children with my husband, whose job is more or less secure and keeps the wolf at the door. And there just isn't any kind of work, short of remote editing or freelance off Island. With a restructuring in Transcontinental's Maritime papers, there is simply no work to be had.
If we lived anywhere else, I might be tempted to try to get some freelance; cover some stories that skeleton reporter crews just never get to. Off Island there is a market for it. There really is.
But here, it is pointless to even try. And here's why.
Humour me while I circle back.
So, a double murder takes place just five minutes from my back door two days ago. But I refused to even try to get remotely close to the story to get some photos or a preliminary story I can pitch to one of Transcontinental's two Island papers; even in the face of knowing the reporter at either paper would not be on the scene for at least 45 minutes because that is how long it takes to drive from Charlottetown. Even Summerside is farther away than our house so I was a shoe in for a scoop.
Before you roll your eyes, assuming I have to be the laziest member of the press you've ever heard of, hear me out.
Members of the press here in P.E.I. cooperate with each other. Once a story is officially breaking there is no such thing as a scoop. And I suspect this phenomena only happens here.
So here is how it works - as described by a seasoned reporter who took us on our first year tour of the Island's main newspaper. A story leaks, somehow. Reporters and photographers are dispatched from various media sources. The person representing the information that needs to be gleaned is standing behind an impromptu podium and everyone is surrounding that person. So far, it looks like an average, picture perfect press conference.
And here is where things get weird, almost dreamlike.
Someone asks a question after an initial statement is read. Reporters politely take notes. Nobody gets walked on. Nobody talks at the same time. It's like old Home Week. A reporter from the Guardian comes in a bit later and turns to the CBC reporter and says, "What did I miss?" The reporter from CBC turns back to him and actually answers the question, complete with correct spellings, just in case the reporter from the Guardian missed it.
So, even if I had wanted to drive like a maniac, trying to get the story about the tragedy that took place in New Annan this Sunday past, it wouldn't have meant anything to editors here. Cause they knew that I would have been obligated to share what I got with whoever showed up late. And they were already on staff.
I guess you can't expect anything different from a province with a population of about 140,000.
Turns out, my babysitter, who showed up a couple of hours after the story broke, knew a heck of a lot more about what actually happened than any of the officially published stories could ever reveal.
Only in P.E.I.
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