If you can't say something nice...

The good news is that my long-term to-do list is getting shorter. Slowly.

The bad news is that what I have left is the projects that are the most difficult and the most involved.

Take my trash story, for instance. I had a hard time blogging on our beat's blog about it because some of my sources have been such jerks to me. It also has been an ongoing battle to represent both sides equally in the story. The people with complaints against the system are, of course, being wonderful, because they want their voices to be heard. The administrative people that I've interviewed so far have gotten angry at me on the phone for a) presuming to write a story about the subject and b) reading them things that people have said and asking for comments. One source in particular accused me of deceiving him to get an interview, and telling him that the story was "for a class" (and not for publication), which is completely untrue. When sources pick up the phone and say, "hello?" I say "Hi, this is Rebekah Heil at the Columbia Missourian." I don't think I could have been more clear. I don't think any of us even wanted to say it was "for a class" when we were in J2100.

I don't know how to make it plain to people that I'm not on a side here. I hope they get their issues resolved, but I'm just doing my job.

I also don't know how to give both sides the same amount of face time (or if I should) when half of my quotes from people in leadership positions are them being angry at me.