The Etownian >> Opinion
Journalistic boundaries
Thursday April 15 2010
In features writing, you’re told to be more “creative” and descriptive — to focus on the soul of the people you’re interviewing, as opposed to the bare bones plot and facts of a subject. And so we met Robert the artist. (We published his real name in our last issue, but he has since said that he prefers people to not use his real name in writing.) Assistant Opinion Editor Sam Phillips and I interviewed him on a beautiful spring day in March. He made us laugh, we made him laugh — we delighted in each other’s presence. We made friends with Robert, and we wanted to share his quirky genius with the world.
Since then, we’ve learned there is prodigious danger in developing an emotional connection with a subject for features writing — for some pretty heavy mistakes were made.
In our articles, Sam and I focused on the moments of our interview with Robert where we laughed with him — rather than the parts that provided more expository information on him.
My article is actually an excerpt from an essay I submitted for a creative non-fiction class about the process of interviewing Robert. An actual article was written about Robert, but our executive board got a hold of the more “creative” essay and opted to publish that instead. This decision was made fairly close to printing time, and in our editing process, we neglected to splice in vital details about Robert’s backstory. For this, we are very sorry.
To address Ms. Hodges’ concerns, Robert is not as much a homeless man as he is a wandering artist. The majority of his nights are spent in a hotel. While he was in Etown, he claimed to have slept in the Red Rose Motel every night, stating that he spent $4,000 while in the area. He makes enough money from donations and selling his paintings to buy food, medication and shelter. He also is proud to say he is able to maintain two cell phones.
We don’t know much about Robert’s story because he didn’t tell us much. What is in the article about his journey to Pennsylvania is honestly all he would tell about it. To treat his diabetes, Robert takes glucose pills. That is all he said on the subject. Robert doesn’t let his disease define him. He lives for his art and his quest to find a girlfriend. This is why we focused on his search for love. It’s what he cared most about — and what we cared about, too. He is a man searching for love and finds only women who take advantage of his kindness. Seeing that honestly broke my heart.
Ms. Burket was right in not assuming Robert is suffering from any mental illness. Robert is a man who is very aggressively his own person. He simply does not care for social niceties, and he speaks his heart powerfully. The way he was portrayed in my article is exactly as he is. He simply has a very distinct — if not profane — voice. We would never try to exploit Robert — especially since he is already exploited so much by the women to whom he gives kindness without return. He told us to publish an article to help him “find a girlfriend,” for that is his foremost desire. Forgive us for focusing a little too much on his soul and not his story. We will try to be more expositional in the future.
The Etownian >> Opinion