“Because a retraction makes the story bigger in the wrong way. It tells people the fire service is being defensive, tells everyone there was something to defend, and gives half the county an excuse to go back to the original article and decide which side they’re on.”
I open my mouth, then close it again, because unfortunately that sounds exactly like something people would do. Especially people online. Give the internet a minor disagreement and it will build a gazebo, hang bunting and invite everyone’s worst uncle.
Marie Louise turns the printed article around and smooths one corner with her finger. “Josh Walker doesn’twant a public argument. Neither does Watch Manager Hart, from what I understand. What they want is for the work to be seen properly. Not as a correction. Not as damage control. As a fuller piece.”
I frown. “A fuller piece.”
“Yes.”
“On the fire?”
“On the station,” she says. “Their work. Their responsibilities. What incident command actually involves. How decisions get made when a building is already unsafe and everyone watching thinks they know better because they’re not the ones who might have to send people inside.”
There is a pointedness to this last part that I do not appreciate.
“I didn’t say they should’ve gone inside.”
“No,” she says. “But now you get to write something that explains why they didn’t.”
I stare at her for a moment, waiting for the bit where this becomes more reasonable.
It does not arrive.
“So you want me to do a human-interest feature.”
“I want you to do a proper feature.”
“I do breaking news.”
Marie Louise taps her pen once against the desk. “You do journalism.”
“Yes, but the kind with urgency.”
“You can survive without media drama for a few days.”
Her mouth twitches, and I’m not sure I can share her amusement.
“Look at Chloe,” Marie Louise says. “When she messed up with Tom’s restaurant, I made her write a feature, and that worked out well.”
I stare at her.
She stops.
“Although,” she says, “there was also the drama with her shag—I mean starting a relationship with the subject of the piece, so perhaps don’t use Chloe as a full template.”
I blink.
Marie Louise waves that away. “The point is, she made a mistake, she did the work properly afterwards, and the feature gave readers a fuller understanding of the person she’d misjudged.”
“And then she slept with him.”
“Not relevant.”
“You made it relevant.”
“I’m making it irrelevant again.”
I sit back in the chair and fold my arms. “For the record, I am forty-one years old. I think I can complete a work assignment without my hormones marching in, kicking over the furniture and declaring themselves project lead.”
