Comments on: Handling Controversial Writing Assignments

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 12:40:23 +0000

Cathy, I'm currently being baited on a LI forum, too. It's someone I've been acquainted with for some time, so I know his entire goal is to stir things up. I had the audacity to thank him for his comments and he lit into me. My response was calm and straightforward, and pretty much agreeing with his concerns. His response back was to accuse me of something so off-the-wall wrong that I decided to quit. He's not interested in an adult, cordial debate. I'm not interested in rolling in the mud. End of my participation!

Paula, I remember that guy! He was really insulting of the opposition, from what I remember. I had a source for that medical marijuana story go off in similar fashion. His quotes were mostly not useful, but he did say a few things on topic that were included. I don't care about your politics or personal views, buddy. You're an expert source, which should mean you can separate personal from professional.

Thanks, Jenn. There are days, though, that handling it beautifully is really, really hard....

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 09:43:52 +0000

I agree with Cathy. You handled that one beautifully Lori!

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:56:36 +0000

Amen, Paula. We never know what's going to push someone's buttons.

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:34:01 +0000

When I covered a similar topic a couple years ago, my biggest problem was dealing with one a key source whose professional views as a physician were often obscured by his utter disdain for anyone who disagreed with him. He literally called them idiots (and worse). Luckily my other sources were more thoughtful and balanced and explained their POVs rationally and without name calling. (I did have to treat some of the first guy's comments the way Cathy said she handles less-than-tactful comments.)

Oddly enough, when I wrote the article about how Harpo Studios has gone from producing The Oprah Winfrey Show and a couple other talk shows to producing the bulk of programming on OWN, I had no clue anyone (emphasis on the ONE) would find it controversial. After all, the network grew exponentially in the last year, making it a newsworthy topic for the cable industry. The day the issue came out, my editor had a call from an outraged reader who apparently went on at great length about how terrible it was to give any exposure to someone who runs a non-union studio. As if Oprah needs exposure. Besides, that the vast majority of cable programs are produced by other non-union studios. My editor handled it well. She let the reader speak his or her piece and then invited the caller to write a response for the next issue. You guessed it. The caller didn't follow through.

I guess people just need to vent. Some topics you know will ignite passions, but it seems almost anything can be a hot button issue these days.

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:07:37 +0000

I admired how you handled this whole hot potato, Lori.

As most of my industry writing is ghostwritten, I have never encountered the same "exposure" you did with your article, Lori. And the closest I came to a controversial topic was one client's criticism of health insurers.

To take a bit of a different spin on your topic, what I found I had to do as the ghostwriter was take some of my client's less than tactful remarks and put a professional spin on his words - without losing the passion that makes him so effective at what he does. And frankly makes for a much better read. ;-)