Oct. 27 Mtg: Morality in Writing

Oct. 27, 2006,  BW Mtg. Notes continued:  Morality in Writing.

After discussing ways to blog successfully (see Notes to BW Members, Oct. 27 meeting notes, blogging) at our BW Group meeting, we discussed morality issues in writing stories. We used material from two sources illustrated by a news article (see in Notes for BW members and visitors, A Journalism Question).

The sources were a sermon I heard at Exeter (N.H.) United Methodist Church and the book The Best Writing on Writing ed. By Jack Heffron.

While reviewing my New England trip notes I read a section in the book, so I felt I was meant to share the ideas in our writing group.

The N.H. pastor said one shouldn’t lie or add to a story. He noted a story isn’t the same at the end of the road because it cannot be told without adding to it. Lying is like a cancer, needing to be cut out.

Gossip is talking about someone’s life without their permission. Without permission to tell the story, keep quiet. Not everybody likes their dirty laundry flopping in the breeze.

From the book, a quote in the book from Charles McGrath while he was an editor at the New Yorker: “If you want to be a writer, somewhere along the line you’re going to have to hurt somebody. And when that time comes, you go ahead and do it.”

I have a sister who feels genealogy and media invade the privacy of the subject in the the story. If there is an accident, eg., the person may not even want it reported in the media, much less to be photographed for the media.

Finding a balance of writing and morality is important.

The question of whether the Amish facial grief over their school killings needed to be publicized when they specifically requested no facial pictures is a moral one, in my mind.

Members suggested reporters/photographers were doing their job, as did the paper when it published the faces of grieving Amish. People want to see the grief, one member said, and papers are sold by giving the people what they want.

Another comment indicated that powerful pictures need not show faces. A skillful photographer can communicate a grief while respecting the person and culture being photographed.

It might also depend on the type of article. Was it a news story or a feature? Does it make a difference?

The discussion provided no final answers, but raised important issues. Should we write about family members knowing they would be embarrassed by the truth as we see it?

From the book (p43): My friend Regi set to writing essays. “Have you noticed,” she inquired, “how if you let yourself write only the nice things about people it ends up sounding like the kind of speech people give at a graveside? A eulogy, I mean? And how your writing really springs to life when you write something that, if they read it, they would just die?”

Which raises another comment. What about eulogies? How many of you have sat at a funeral and thought, “That isn’t the person I knew,” and wished there would be some honesty about who the person really was?

Perhaps that’s the difference between writing a person’s story and writing their eulogy.

Carolyn