Diary - 2

The most important, interesting and edifying work of the second half of April was my interview with Hungarian-born historian John Lukacs. I agreed with the editor of the Pennsylvanian region (as the professor lives in Phoenixville, PA) Ned Warwick that I will write the interview for him, and that I will focus on Lukacs’ views on the state of American democracy. This was the topic of one of his most recent books, and it is particularly interesting now at the time of the presidential race.

I received a company car and drove to Phoenixville on April 21. I spent almost three hours with the professor, talking about not only about the U.S., but about Hungary as well. I spent the following day on writing the interview.

Several things came up while I was working on this story. The lessons started even before I visited the professor. My mentor Maria asked me about how I agreed with him to interview him. I told her that Lukacs had asked me why I wanted to make this interview.

And here, as it turned out, I made a mistake: I should not have told the professor that one of my reasons was my personal respect toward him. Maria said we should never let the subject know about our personal feelings as we might be regarded biased by the person we are interviewing.

I made another mistake when I yielded consent to the professor’s request to fax him my draft before the story is published. This is not at all unusual in Hungary, and as we talked about politics, I understood Lukacs’ concerns.

But I had to learn that here it is not acceptable: we can call the subject to clarify his/her quotes when we are not sure about them, but we never let him/her edit our stories. This is a principle I will hold to when I am back in Hungary, as it reflects both independence and responsibility of journalists. And we want to be independent and responsible, don’t we?

We are still in the process of editing my interview, but it is already clear that this is a much more time-consuming and thorough process than what I am used to. First, Ned gave me suggestions on how to rewrite the top of the story to get the reader “engaged”, but then he said he was very busy and passed it on to another editor, Dorothy Brown.

Surprisingly, she did not just read my story but started with researching online on Lukacs so that she can have an idea of who this person is, helping me to get out more of the story. Then she came up with the even more surprising idea that I should talk to other historians about Lukacs’ views.

Well, I still don’t know what the outcome of this process will be; at the beginning I did not really understand why all this fuss was necessary, why my story wasn’t just good as it was. I felt that I was required to write a totally different story to the one I planned. In Hungary, editors are not engaged in shaping the stories to such an extent. Now I see this is also an example of how to dig deeper, writing not only what a single person tells us, but trying to put it into a context.

Another bigger story I was working on in the last couple of days was an obituary; something I had never done before. Although it was much simpler than the interview, I still had some difficulties with getting all the details on the deceased person’s biography the editor wanted.

Two smaller stories I wrote during this period: on Monday, 4/14 I wrote an article about the acquisition of a local company by ADT, which is a subsidiary of Tyco. On Wednesday, 4/16 I went to the airport again, and interviewed travelers about the announcment of U.S. Airways that it would introduce fees for those who check in online and select one of the "best" seats.

This week, starting from 4/28, I was supposed to work for the City Desk. Maria figured that it would be useful for me to learn there some basics of how things are done here, with simpler stories to those of the Business Desk. But I was pretty much ignored, I must say.

During four days, I was sent to two press conferences with other reporters (one was held at the police headquarters and one at the Phillies stadium), and was not assigned to write anything. As Maria had told me that at the City Desk I would have actually more opportunity to write than at the Business Desk, I was of course disappointed. But at least I was not bored, as I had the stories mentioned above to work on.

Outside the newsroom, on Monday 4/14, I went to see Obama and Clinton on a campaign event. The next evening was also about American politics: I went again to the Pen & Pencil Club, where Jonathan Alter of Newsweek and MSNBC and Jonathan Martin of Politico.com held a discussion about the presidential race. On Thursday, 4/17 I got a bike from Chen Sterling, who works as a page designer. He was so kind that he lent me his bike for the whole period that I will spend in Philadelphia.

On Friday at noon, 4/18, I went to a free concert of Kate Nash with Library Supervisor Michael Panzer. On Sunday 4/20, I was invited by a college, Mike Zebe to his house in Ambler. There was a pleasant barbeque party with a couple of neighbors.

Next Wednesday, 4/23, I went to New York after work to see Megadeth on their Gigantour in Hammerstein Ballroom. I spent the night at Umar’s place and returned to Philadelphia next morning. That evening I was invited for dinner by a colleague at the business desk, Jane Von Bergen. On Saturday, I went to North Wales to meet a Hungarian journalist, Joe Szabo, who has lived in the Unites States for 30 years and knows some people from the Inquirer.

The next day, which was Greek Easter, I was invited by my Maria to her sister Helen’s house for lunch. Helen has a lovely family, his husband is Mike, and their kids are Maria, John, Paul and Grace. They live in Pennsburg. Maria’s other sister, Diane took me there with her car, together with an Argentine colleague of her, Ana.

Yesterday, 4/30, I was invited to a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra by a colleague, Mike Vitez. They played Mahler’s 8th Symphony. And now I am just about to go to with Maria a dinner at another colleague’s house, Chris Mondics.


Megadeth Gigantour 2008, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, April 23

Sleepwalker
Wake Up Dead
Take No Prisoners
Skin O’ My Teeth
Washington Is Next
Kick The Chair
In My Darkest Hour
Hangar 18
Gears Of War
A Tout Le Monde
Tornado Of Souls
Ashes In Your Mouth
Burnt Ice
Symphony Of Destruction
Trust
Peace Sells

Holy Wars