On the night of 12/18, I went and covered my first high school basketball game. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. Something I had noticed about the atmosphere of the game included how the Battle gym played the song “Mo Bamba” thrice.
So, I included that in the story. I mentioned how the kids in the student section filled in the blanks of the clean version of the song with the vulgar lyrics. I then mentioned that the likes of bars and clubs do the exact same thing.
A staff member at the school said that what I wrote was incorrect. But it was correct. He said that it was wrong of me to compare “14-18 year old kids” to the likes of bars and clubs. I didn’t; all I did was say that the song is played in bars and clubs. I stand by my reporting. I didn’t make it up and I didn’t do anything wrong.
This person felt that I had victimized the Battle high school community but that wasn’t my intent at all. I apologized for the confusion it caused him. I didn’t apologize for the article or my reporting. All I did was report the truth and I’m sticking to it.
It was an interesting experience but my first dealing with negative feedback from a reader.
On 12/19, I wrote another football feature that ended up being the centerpiece for the sports page again. I’m really happy with the way this turned out.
My phone broke in the middle of interviews so I had to go to the old pen and paper to finish my interviews at the practice.
I also wrote this story on the run because I was originally supposed to interview players after practice about a completely different topic, but players weren’t available after practice at all. I had to come up with a brand new story on the spot and I’m glad I was able to pull this story together with the guidance of Michael.
The Danny Diaries 