Not being a newspaper reporter, I rarely ever got "reporting assignments." SO I don't have one to share. But it's worth checking out "cringe-inducing assignment" letters to Romenesko at the Poynter Institute's online forum. Here's one in which a reporter is sent to interview some nice old senior citizens about sex and seniors:
Having difficulty summoning the courage to ask these nice people, flat-out, if they still performed the horizontal mambo, I tried every contortion I could think of that might elicit an answer to THE question.
Me: "So, do you think young marrieds today put too much emphasis on sex?''
Them: "Yes.''
Me: "Well, do you think sex is the answer to a long-term marriage?''
Them: "No.''
Me: "What do you think is the answer?''
Them: "What was the question?''
I never did summon the nerve to ask the sex question, robbing my editor, whose fetishistic interest in the subject had grown worrisome, of the information he craved.
Posted at December 15, 2003 07:27 PM