Different Strokes?

There’s more than one way to skin a cat… Different strokes for different folks… There are as many ways to say everyone has got their own way of doing things as there are ways to do them.

Take the Virginia Tech tragedy. The New York Times and Washington Post—both well-known newspapers with good reputations—covered the same even in different ways with different results.

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So bag all the advice you got from your editor or journalism prof. Those are the folks who've established the wisdom that good reporting involves burning calories. Get out of the office. Hit the streets. Just think of the acronym that has long inspired reporters at the Los Angeles Times: GOYA/KOD—"Get Off Your Ass/Knock On Doors."


In light of the Post's reportorial romp of last week, a new acronym is in order: SD/HSC—"Sit Down, Have Some Coffee." Vargas, after all, wasn't exactly working up a sweat when he nailed his exclusive with massacre eyewitness Trey Perkins.

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What’s your policy on getting those key interviews? Go hit the scene of the crime? Phone calls? Emails? Have any methods been especially successful or exceptional blunders for you?