One of the things you learn early on in journalism school -- right after the "Wow, we all really do suck at math" epiphany -- is that you just never know what will set your readers off. Sure, there are the obvious hot button issues, but sometimes it's really the little things.
Case in point: Late last year, just before the election, I blogged (that's a verb now, right?) about the differences between the two presidential candidates health care proposals.
(Of course, now a better piece could talk about the differences between President Obama's health care proposal and candidate Obama's plan. Hmm, I should write that down.)
At any rate, revved up with a higher-than-recommended dose of Starbucks, that morning, I threw in a Sarah Palin joke, almost as an afterthought. I meant nothing by it, of course, and quickly forgot about it.
Well, you didn't. That gratuitous one-liner stirred up more complaints and general outrage than I'd ever endured. (And this was before the Katie Couric interview.) Keep in mind that I've written about a lot of things over the last 15 years -- religion, guns, abortion, Democrats and Republicans. And the worst part? All of that fallout, and the joke wasn't even that good. So, yeah, I feel David Letterman's pain. And as badly as I'd like to drop a quitter joke here, I'll practice a little abstinence instead.
Point is, you just never know. Which brings me to our last issue. After NAHU's annual convention in New York last week -- where the tension regarding our collective job security hung thicker than the humidity -- I returned home to an e-mail in box stuffed with reader feedback.
Among the usual questions about press release selection and cover story follow-ups, there were a couple of complaints regarding Eric Johnson's column, where he "outed" himself, 'fessing up to casting an Obama ballot for change. And, honestly, I knew I was in for a few calls as soon as a read it, but Eric's a good writer and an even better speaker, and besides the whole point of his column is to provide a different point of view every month. And it worked this time. Like, really worked.
(Quick aside here: Not that he needs any more credentials, but its worth mentioning that Eric left New York last week with NAHU's prestigious Speaker of the Year Award.)
And before you ask, no, there's not a moral to this story. If you're mama hasn't taught you to think before you speak by now, it's a little late for me to teach you. Besides, it probably goes without saying that it's not a strength of mine I can share with you anyway.
But it wouldn't hurt for me to tell you that, from my experience, if you're going to crack a racy joke, make damn sure it's funny.
Denis Storey
Editor
dstorey@benefitssellingmag.com
