Check it Out!: Great Reporters on What It Takes to Tell the Story

4. Tell Me a Story

“An honest tale speeds best being plainly told. ” william shakespeare, richard iii Tell Me a Story hwhat every reporter needs to do, and how to do ith T he role of journalism in society today is still being hotly debated. Do you tell the public what it needs to know, or only what it wants to know? Fact is, it doesn’t matter which side you agree with. A journalist tells a story. Nothing more; nothing less. 60 Minutes is the most popular news magazine show ever on television . Don Hewitt, its creator and long-time executive producer, says the popularity of the show is not an accident. The secret of 60 Minutes is, you know, four words that every kid in the world knows: “Tell me a story.” And I frequently go into a screening room and I say, “What’s the story? Tell me the story.” I love stories. Mike [Wallace] will write an opening and I don’t know what he’s talking about sometimes, and I say, “Mike, Mike, when you went home last night and Mary said to you, ‘What’s your story about this week?’ and you said, ‘Well, you know, there’s this guy who lives in a house on a hill and he had trouble with his brother and one day they came to fisticuffs, and so on.’ Tell the audience what you told Mary last night. Don’t give me a lot of horseshit copy.” Occasionally we get these blue sheets, which are an assignment for a story, and this is the story you want to tell: It’s about a guy who did 4 tell me a story g 35 this, and this, and this . . . And I say, “Yeah, it’s a pretty good story. Let’s tell it.” But when I get to the screening room, I say, “Listen, I saw the blue sheet, but I don’t recognize the story. Tell them what you told me when you sold me the idea.” It’s that simple. Do You Qualify How do you know whether or not you are a good storyteller? I recall an eighth-grade class in which we were all supposed to read a nonfiction book and then give an oral report to the entire class. Procrastinator that I was, the day for the oral reports came before I’d even considered what book I would read. Since my last name begins with the letter A, naturally I was called upon first. Adrenaline raced through my body as I slowly rose to my feet and stepped to the front of the classroom. I then proceeded to make up an entire story—something about an African safari—though I actually knew very little about African safaris. The class and, more important, the teacher found the story enthralling. I got an A. You might think I would have felt lucky and somewhat surprised by my good fortune, but as I look back on it now, I realize that when I stepped up to the front of that classroom, I never had a doubt that I would do well. I knew how to tell a story. Some are obviously more skilled at storytelling than others. Linda Ellerbee, who has served as a reporter and anchor for both CBS and NBC, now produces and reports documentaries for her own company, Lucky Duck Productions. It was her ability to tell a story that brought her into journalism. Many people in journalism feel that they were called to it. I’ve never felt that it’s a calling. It is a craft, and it deserves our respect, but it’s not a calling. I suppose in one sense I knew as a kid that I would be a storyteller in some fashion. I grew up among storytellers in Texas, but also—and I think this is important—I was a little girl. I was not given a lot of pictures of what girls could grow up and be. I did not want to be a nurse; I did not want to be a teacher; I did not want to be a mommy. What was left? Well, one of the things left was a newspaperwoman. I had seen all those movies. I grew up in Texas, where a lot of people wanted to be 36 g check it out! Lyndon Johnson and I, of course, wanted to be Hildy Johnson [a...