Agree to disagree

Brian Wilson

The other day I was talking with someone who disagreed with something I wrote about in the paper.

In an average week, I write anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 words, so the odds are that it is much more likely people will have something to disagree with than not.

My usual response to people who have a gripe with either coverage in a news story or opinion in The Star News is to write a Vox Pop.

Vox Pop is an abbreviation of the Latin “Vox Populi” which literally means the voice of the people and is a forum for people to share their viewpoints.

Newspapers are just about the only business where we not only invite criticism, but we will give people the space to tell us why they think we were wrong, or rather why they feel they are right.

If it is a case of a factual error on our part, either through a reporter getting something wrong or being given the incorrect information from a source, we will happily run a correction to set the record straight.

More often, the disagreement is with the tone of the article or opinion piece - kind of like deciding if the paint on a new car is reddish-brown or brownish-red. This is a little trickier, since this can vary greatly depending on if you feel the coverage presented you in a positive or a negative light or how close you are to a given topic or situation. Heck, we have gotten called and chewed out by people who didn’t think we were positive enough on coverage of people or events or who took what is generally viewed as praise as being an insult. I will say that getting a call on this last one kind of feels like a sucker punch to the gut and contributes to why editors tend to get grumpier and more gruff as they get older.

In this case, the individual didn’t want to write a Vox Pop, but wanted to let me know why they thought I was wrong. This led to what I thought was a productive conversation where they shared their viewpoint and I shared how I saw it from where I was sitting. Through the conversation, I got to understand where they were coming from and I hope they understood how I viewed it the way I did.

Weirdly enough, I am perfectly OK with people disagreeing with me. In fact when people are too nice to me, it makes me nervous.

I have never claimed to be infallible. In fact, I keep a file in my desk drawer of criticism I have received from people and have some choice ones hanging on the bulletin board by my desk. When things appear to be going too smoothly, I will take them out and remind myself just how clay-covered my feet are. Kind of like the reverse of those warm and fuzzy positive affirmation posters you see in many workplaces. Yes, I realize that this is not necessarily a way to foster good mental health, but I see it as more of being a reminder to not screw up sort of like watching those “Blood on the Highway” videos back in high school drivers education classes about what will go wrong if you get too complacent.

In this case of the concerns this reader had, my answer is to just give me a call and let me know. We may end up agreeing to disagree, and that is fine.

I have neither the time, nor the energy to hold a grudge and would rather someone let me know they think I am an idiot whose family tree is a twig and is a generation removed from crawling out of the swamp.

At the very least, I will go with the advice my grandfather once told me —“Keep them talking, it makes it harder for them to aim.”

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.