Dean Poling

Making people mad might as well be a job requirement for working in newspapers.

It’s not something young reporters put on their resume. Nor is it a question during the interview process. Really, making people mad is not something most newspaper people seek.

Edith Smith, who worked at The Valdosta Daily Times for 45 years, always asked reporters, “Are you firing up the readers today?”

Firing up the readers kind of has readers mad at someone else which is a different kind of mad than when a reader calls angry with a reporter or editor about a story.

At one time or another, I’ve written something that’s likely had each person in this area mad at me.

A newspaper man in Virginia once told me he had been in the business for 40 years without ever making anyone mad. I told him he must have been an awful newspaper man.

He’s mad at me, too.

As a young reporter, I was idealistic. Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, if someone called, angry about one of my stories, and the phone call didn’t resolve the issue – and the callers identified themselves, I would figure out where the person worked or lived and go see them.

If someone was that mad, I wanted to know what they looked like. So, if I saw them coming, I’d know whether to run, hide, stand or arm myself.

I went to meet them to hopefully resolve the issue face to face. Most times it worked but not always.

In Virginia, a fire chief once called me angry about a story. I don’t recall the problem with the story exactly but he felt part of the story was unfair. He called me a few names, yelled a bit then hung up.

That’s really what most angry calls to newspapers are about – a chance to yell and cuss someone without repercussions. After that, in most cases, the person is fine and goes on with his day. Sometimes, the caller is really angry at someone else, like the cops or some official quoted in the story, but the person isn’t comfortable cussing out the cops. So, they call the newspaper.

If officials make an angry call to the newspaper, they’re really mad at the newspaper.

So, I went to see the fire chief. I spoke with him and a bunch of angry firefighters and we hashed out our differences. By the end of it, they invited me to eat with them in the firehouse. After that, the chief regularly called me with news tips.

In Valdosta, I once wrote a story from the police beat about a vehicle being stolen from a car lot. A person took a car on a test drive and never returned. The story ran as a brief on the front page.

Murray W. Duke Sr., the father of the car lot owner, called me angry about the article. He felt the article was unfair. He hung up. The matter didn’t seem to be resolved and I was uncertain why he was angry.

With the car lot just a short distance from the Times office, I drove there. Mr. Duke was there and was surprised to see me. We spoke calmly. He said the story was fine but he didn’t like the “title on the story.” The headline was a takeoff of the Beatles song, “Baby You Can Drive My Car.” I told him I didn’t write the headline. An editor wrote the headline.

He laughed and said, “Well, then, you’re not the one I’m mad at.”

We ate lunch that day. He told me about his life and adventures. He had a relief of Don Quixote on his wall. He loved books. Through time, we swapped books and talked about authors and writing. He was a seeker and a life-long learner.

He had a piece of advice for me.

If you’re going to write and have anything to write about, he said, you must always remember to fill the well.

Fill the well.

He meant fill one’s life and soul with adventures and experiences, travel, good food and meeting people. If you’re going to write about life, you must live life. Live life to its fullest. Then write. Then fill the well again.

Murray W. Duke Sr. was a wise man.

I gained a little wisdom, too.

Soon, covering cops and courts for The Times, I stopped trying to personally visit everyone angered by an article. It would have been too time consuming and likely wouldn’t have had the same positive results as my visits with Murray and the firefighters.

But I’ve never forgotten the words of Murray W. Duke Sr.

And I’ve never forgotten these decades later to keep filling the well.

Dean Poling is a former editor of The Valdosta Daily Times and The Tifton Gazette.