Learning a Hard Lesson Close to Home

Imagine my surprise when, during my morning Facebook check, one of my elementary school teachers posted this on my wall:

"Becca did you hear about Tesseract?"

I hadn't, so I started checking all the walls of my former teachers and classmates from Tesseract: the small, private elementary school I attended from kindergarten through sixth grade.

From what I could piece together, things didn't just look bleak. Things were over.

Apparently, school officials had told teachers, parents and students this past Tuesday that the school would be closing for good -- on Friday. Three days and a get thee out.

I thought this was an incredibly newsworthy story. At least, it would be a tale of how perhaps the economy is impacting education at small private grade schools. At the most, it could be an investigation into why the school shut so questionably and abruptly. What it ended up being was financial, yes, and a question of what will happen to the kids.

A search of Google News shows, as of 1 a.m. Friday, three media outlets have picked it up:

The Star Tribune newspaper
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/90964839.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

KSTP 5 Eyewitness News (ABC TV station)
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1515476.shtml?cat=1

KMSP Fox 9 News
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/eagan-school-closes-earlier-than-expected

As a reporter at KOMU 8 TV in Columbia, MO, watching the downfall of my elementary school play out on two of my four hometown news stations served as a surreal lesson. I was torn between mourning the loss of something that I and several thousand others have woven into the fabric of our pasts and comparing/contrasting/critiquing the two stations' stories.

Watch the Fox 9 story and the 5 Eyewitness News story.

Both chose to send live reporters to my elementary school. Both live reporters pitched to packages within their shot.

I thought Fox 9 treated the story better. I'll tell you why...

Award-winning CBS photographer Les Rose was talking with us Mizzou students just a few hours ago about storytelling. One thing he said was: in a story about kids, show kids. Get their perspective.

Fox 9 talked with kids - although I think the videographer should have made more of an effort to be right at their eye level the entire interview.

The Fox story had an element of compassion the ABC story lacked.

I was confused when the 5 Eyewitness reporter interviewed three moms standing next to each other and the videographer didn't frame the other two out. The one speaking looked like some mafia boss flanked by her bodyguards - all in sunglasses. And why were they all wearing sunglasses? If it was because they had puffy red eyes from crying all morning, then I - as a viewer - want to know. Are they that sad about it? Such a fact could really help fill out the story and add emotional depth.

In both stories, I would've liked to see tighter interview framing on the emotional interviews.

At the end of the day, however, it was sad to see two local news stations going live outside my elementary school for such a reason.

Although I am too close to this story's subject to tell it in a fair, balanced and ethical manner, it has made me consider the tempered compassion with which I can approach similar stories in my own reporting. While I wouldn't interject my opinion into the news, I do want to show people I am human and acknowledge that something like this is a sad story.

Please post any comments, responses, critiques or comparisons YOU may have in the comment field below. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.