{"id":10181,"date":"2018-04-24T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10181"},"modified":"2018-04-23T21:10:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T01:10:05","slug":"we-get-phone-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=10181","title":{"rendered":"We Get Phone Calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes your author gets phone calls like this.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 Hey Pagnucco!\u00a0 How\u2019s the kid?\u00a0 How\u2019s business?<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Well, I \u2013<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 Great to hear it.\u00a0 I got something you need to write about RIGHT NOW.<\/p>\n

Politician X then tells a story about Politician Y.\u00a0 On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 equal to felonious behavior and\/or rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and 1 equal to peeing in the shower, this is a 2.5.\u00a0 Nothing illegal here, but there might be some questionable judgment IF it\u2019s true.\u00a0 As background, Y is not running against X, but Y has endorsed one of X\u2019s opponents.\u00a0 X also heard a rumor years ago that Y told someone X is a conniving politician.<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 Do you have any proof that Y did that?<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 But you know it\u2019s gotta be true!\u00a0 Remember when Y did that other thing?<\/p>\n

X retells another story about Y from a while back that was never verified.\u00a0 That one might have been a 3.5 IF it ever happened.<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Are there any documents?\u00a0 Any links?\u00a0 (The allegation does not involve anything easily verified like a vote on legislation, a campaign contribution or a screenshot.)<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Maybe you can find something.\u00a0 Ask Politician Y.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019ll be stupid enough to admit it!<\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Um, OK\u2026 Lemme think about whether this is provable, and if so, how.\u00a0 In the meantime, if you believe it\u2019s true and you can back it up, say it on Facebook.\u00a0 Then maybe it will be covered.\u00a0 At least it will be discussed, and if there\u2019s anything there, it might come out.<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 I can\u2019t do that!\u00a0 I\u2019m running for office.\u00a0 If I say that, Y\u2019s supporters will come after me.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we have blogs.\u00a0 You guys will say anything!<\/p>\n

Me: \u2026 \u2026 \u2026<\/p>\n

Politician X:\u00a0 I\u2019ll check back later to see how that story is coming along.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Look folks.\u00a0 We like investigating allegations, but there has to be something to them.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to tell us something, be ready to 1. supply evidence or 2. go on the record.\u00a0 We\u2019re not gonna print unfounded speculation on your behalf just so you can get someone else to say something YOU want to say but won\u2019t.\u00a0 We\u2019re not the New York Times, but there are such things as libel laws.\u00a0 If you want to libel someone, do it yourself!<\/p>\n

If you are thinking of making a call like the one made by Politician X above, don\u2019t bother.\u00a0 And Politician X, if you are reading this \u2013 and we know you will! \u2013 the next time you make a call like this we are gonna print your name.\u00a0 Believe that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Sometimes your author gets phone calls like this. ***** Politician X:\u00a0 Hey Pagnucco!\u00a0 How\u2019s the kid?\u00a0 How\u2019s business? Me:\u00a0 Well, I \u2013 Politician X:\u00a0 Great to hear it.\u00a0 I got something you need to write about RIGHT NOW. Politician X then tells a story about Politician Y.\u00a0 On a scale of 1 … Continue reading We Get Phone Calls<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,290],"tags":[1545],"class_list":["post-10181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-political-campaigns","tag-adam-pagnucco"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2Ed","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10181"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10188,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions\/10188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}