To do good writing, read good writing. Here’s the good writing I’ve been reading this week.
I try, I really do, but I cannot stay awake long enough to catch NBC’s entire nightly Olympics highlights broadcast. And what’s the point, really, when I can read results on Twitter or watch highlights on NBC’s Olympics home page all day long?
That leaves plenty of time to read stories about Olympic athletes — and there have been tons. Here are some of the best stories coming out of the Olympics this week:
For U.S. judo fighter, a journey from pain to gold (Associated Press) – Kayla Harrison’s judo gold medal wasn’t just a victory over a worthy opponent. It was a victory over horrific sexual abuse at the hands of her former coach. Instead of walking away from the sport, she used it to heal, and then conquered the world, as described in a well-crafted feature by AP reporter Tim Reynolds that’s run in newspapers and on websites around the world.
Takeaway for writers: Look for the stories beyond the obvious. Get to know your subject. Doing a little research can dig up story angles that you might not uncover otherwise.
Ryan Lochte’s mom says swimmer ‘goes out on one-night stands’ (CBS News) — Ike Lochte, mother of the 28-year-old gold medal swimmer and Vanity Fair cover boy, was a little more graphic than he would have wanted her to be in describing his extracurricular activities during his off hours at the London Games. In subsequent reports, mother and son clarified that she actually meant “dates” and not “hook ups.” But by then the damage was done.
Takeaway for writers: Sometimes a quote is so good it IS the story. Go with it. And if a source wants to follow up later to tell you what they really meant to say? That’s a story too.
Here’s what else I’ve been reading this week:
It’s been a busy seven days for media news, starting with the discovery that Jonah Lehrer fabricated quotes in his latest book, which led to him resigning from The New Yorker and writers pouring onto blogs and message boards to pile on or speak out in his defense.
At the same time, reporters and public relations practitioners were blindsided by Ryan Holiday’s admission that he purposely manipulated Help a Reporter Out, the popular website that helps match reporters with possible story sources. Read on for more:
- Jonah Lehrer’s deceptions: The celebrated journalist fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works (The Tablet)
- Jonah Lehrer resigns from The New Yorker after making up Dylan quotes for his book (New York Times)
- Jayson Blair: Jonah Lehrer’s story reminds me of my own (Salon)
- L’Affaire Lehrer: In Defense of Jonah (New York Observer)
- Honoring a reporter’s obligation: Dissecting Peter Shankman’s hypocrisy (HuffPost) – Holiday, a public relations and marketing guy who’s written a book about media manipulation, comes clean about using HARO to feed lies to reporters at numerous publications, including biggies like the New York Times, ostensibly to expose what’s broken in today’s news business.
- HARO/Forbes: Can one idiot ruin it for everyone? No (Shankman.com) – Never one to be out maneuvered, HARO founder and PR maven Peter Shankman defends himself and the service, calling Holiday a liar as well as an idiot.
- Media manipulation: It’s a fact, so what do we do about it? (Holtz Communication + Technology) – Holiday and Shankman mend fences long enough to participate in a video debate on the topic moderated by tech PR guy Shel Holtz.
- Help a business journalist out (BusinessJournalism.org) – In light of the above, ASU’s Reynolds Center journalism education program begins compiling a crowd-sourced list of sources for business stories.
- Colson Whitehead’s rules for writing (New York Times)
- What the Forbes model of contributed content means for journalism (Poynter)
- Microsoft relaunches Outlook.com, a fresh clean take on webmail that puts it back in the game (NextWeb)