Why I'm Committed To Still Writing Local
Some big personal news about my writing I'm excited to share, how I got here, and a few things I have out in circulation right now condensed into one easy SubStack post
Two years ago, I was eating out with my parents and one of my daughters after attending church with them when something happened that has changed my professional writing and personal enjoyment of writing a great deal. I was inspired and impressed with what I saw, so I went to write about it. It was one of those instances where I just started putting words to the story without worrying about an audience or outlet at all. The downside of that is, once I was done, I realized the audience for this piece wasn’t any outlet I was currently writing in, or at least wasn’t the best fit for it.
Fortunately, I was able to get in contact with the editor of the local paper, who probably thought I was crazy and was more than a little surprised when I explained who I was (we had never met but she knew various members of my family) and provided some examples of my writing. Being a good editor, when someone rings you up and offers you a ready-to-go full blown feature piece for free she said “Yes, thank you.” Even though by that point I had a few magazine covers, major outlets, and done tv and radio, getting full page A14 (backpage of main section) with six colored photos just hits different. Especially when you can hold the copy delivered to your folks’ house in your hands.
It is still once of my favorite pieces. An excerpt:
For the uninitiated, Gino’s Pizza and Spaghetti has been a staple in southern West Virginia for decades, often paired with the aforementioned Tudor’s that handles breakfast duties before switching over for the day. The Gauley Bridge version is classic pizza joint: you order at the counter; you sit in booths or tables where your order is brought to you; there’s even a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game as God intended every true pizzeria to have.
And only one employee is working.
Not only working but working well. Crisp, polite, efficient service. Bouncing from phone, to computer screen, to tables, to the back, lather, rinse, repeat. After ordering it was a pleasure to behold, the old instincts from having been a manager and leader thinking “This is exactly the kind of employee you want to have.” Phone ringing off the hook, but dealt with. A lady comes in to pick up an order of pizzas too high to get under the Covid-19 mandated plexiglass and requiring two trips. A few more guests come in and sit down, and are told they will be served directly as our drinks and appetizer are brought out. There is a beautiful ballet to efficient work, of someone zoned into the task at hand and doing it well, problem solving on the fly, handling customer service, of just getting on with it.
The food comes, and it is exactly what it should be. Gino’s is far from haute cuisine and the dedicated pizza snobs or pasta perfectionists would no doubt find fault, but in my lifetime I’ve had far more good meals there than not. One employee, pulled a dozen directions, putting their work in, got the food right. It could have been pictures for the menu, exactly what was expected, as ordered, and not after too long of a wait. Food made with the most important ingredient of any job, any employment, any work: a large portion of give a damn. Personal integrity, or desire to do well, or wanting to keep their job, or whatever the motivation was, the job was not just done but done well. Done when there were a thousand excuses not to, and probably the ability to go viral for making a fuss about it if one wished to. Eating and enjoying, fellowshipping with the family I was with, resting for a moment before continuing the rest of a very long day all made far more enjoyable by having witnessed this, having been well served, having been treated well.
Thus started my relationship with The Fayette Tribune, a local West Virginia newspaper, and Cheryl Keenan who is still the editor and now a good friend. The joy of writing for a local paper has perks writing online and nationally does not. For one thing, when I hit a nerve with the local folks, clipped out versions of my column complete with notes and highlights are brought to my mom at church. When I wrote that first piece, the paper sent someone over to get permission and photographs Jeremy White, the employee I was praising and profiling. As it happened, the photographer walked in right as Gino’s regional manager was there. “Hi, I’m from the paper and we are running a full page spread on your employee right there” to that employee’s big boss isn’t something you intend as a writer, but is an unexplainable joy when it happens. He has since moved on to bigger and better things.
I greatly enjoy and am proud of the work I’ve done writing locally, and will continue to do so for The Fayette Tribune as long as they will tolerate me and I have something worth reading to submit to them. My latest column for them is here. An excerpt:
The partisan part of politics is loud, omnipresent, and dominant because that is where the media business models intersect with the passions and interests of the public. Harnessing those passions is how those seeking to gain or hold onto office achieve their goals. Political advertising and the talking head ecosystem are the supporting industries fueling the manufacturing of our political system at large. So, it is more important than ever to stop for a moment and understand that advertising isn’t running a government office, or legislating, or representing a city or county. Those things require real people doing real work, not just characters on the socio-political stage playing the role that they think will bring them fame and fortune.
As all-encompassing as the partisan part of politics is, the struggle between parties and ideologies is more intramural competition within the walls of our system than those blaring ads and talking heads want to really admit. The real struggle in politics is the power structures: Who has them, who can keep the powerful accountable, the funding and movements behind the quest for power, and the people our imperfect system relies on. Regardless of the party, once in office the elected have real power to make real decisions, and all too often that sort of power overrides everything else and gives way to human nature. The old saying doesn’t go “Absolute power creates absolute wonderful” for a reason. Power does corrupt, and given enough unfettered power, all the partisan posturing in the world won’t hold back human nature to use that power beyond confines.
Accountability is the hardest part of politics; it is far harder than going along with the current fad, big name charismatic candidate, reacting to that convincing ad, or being outraged because a talking head told you to be without checking the validity out for yourself. But accountability starts with something as simple as seeing those omnipresent political ads in a hotly contested election year, and deciding for yourself you don’t care to be talked to, talked at really, like that.
If anything, I want to write and focus my work even more on my beloved West Virginia. So with that in mind, I am very excited to announce I have the opportunity to write commentary on the regular basis for West Virginia Watch, the excellent State Newsroom outlet covering the Mountain State. While my regular rotation starts in August, I have a first piece out for them, on the ongoing Kyneddi Miller case and the state officials who really don’t want to talk about it, even at press conferences that are supposed to be for them to talk about it:
Gov. Justice’s Chief of Staff Brian Abraham manned the podium to officiate what was supposed to be an answer session to questions about the state’s involvement in the Miller case before and after her body was discovered.
What the assembled press got instead was a guided meditation on exculpatory minutia, a relentless circle of legalities, technical details, curious coincidences, and blameless happenstances. The trooper should have called, not driven the 25 minutes to the county CPS office. Previous CPS visits to the home were not directly related to Miller’s death. An informal referral is not a formal referral. Mistakes were made but no one did anything wrong. There were “nuances” that could have been followed up on, but it is no one’s fault they weren’t.
Could’ve. Should’ve. Would’ve.
However, Abraham explained, the homeschool paperwork was not properly done, so focus on that and get the legislature to do something there. Enforcing homeschool rules will now become the focus of the folks that want to do something following the death of Kyneddi Miller. But focusing down on just one aspect of the Miller case will functionally result in the totality of the system that failed her so badly going unchanged, unchallenged, and unaffected.
Which is the problem when mistakes were made but no one is to blame; accountability and meaningful change become impossible. Abraham gives the game away by briefing on an investigation but offering no official report, while at the same time bristling at accusations the state is not forthcoming. Nothing on paper to be picked apart and dissected for more conflicting information, more gaps in responsibilities, more failures, “nuanced” or otherwise. No official document to feed a story that would just go away if the pesky press would stop focusing on it.
Underneath the lawyer-speak, talking points, and carefully crafted narrative that was presented inside the grandeur of the West Virginia Capitol lies an unavoidable truth. There is no version of the events, from Kyneddi Miller’s death until this press conference, where the “why” and “how” of the teenager’s death wasn’t secondary to the control of information to the press and public by the same state officials who were charged with Miller’s welfare, education, and protection. The actions speak far louder than the words, especially as the words kept changing.
Local and state level reporting and commentary are important. While supporting and writing for a local paper, I also realize the realities that outlets like The Fayette Tribune still exist mostly because people like Steve and Cheryl Keenan just refuse to let them die. Like many smaller outlets, they sacrifice time and effort to keep it going and serve their communities while also working other jobs. Outlets like WV Watch are part of a non-profit network trying a new business model to sustain good reporting in local/state/regional markets.
News media is in a time of seismic change. While we can’t predict the future, I know for my part I want to support local journalism, outlets, and media sources as much as I can. I have resolved to stop complaining about “the media” - and indeed try really hard to not use that term at all - and instead do something about it to the best of my limited abilities. Reading, sharing, and boosting local stories, good journalism, and thoughtful commentary on your own social media only costs you a click and a few moments of your time, but doing so also might just be the thing that makes your local media outlets great ag…
No, that isn’t right. Local media needs to evolve and change and grow. That’s what you are doing by supporting, sharing, and letting others know about good work that might not fit the national narrative, but affects folks right where they live a great deal.
And I appreciate you greatly for doing so.