Finishing something…
by Phil Long… you see, the thing is, the last story I ‘completed’ was around two or three years ago. And it was wank.
We can ignore the 500-word stories I got by-lines for in a Manchester newspaper (and were also published in Liverpool newspapers, without by-lines) because I don’t consider that kind of journalism creativity.
In fact, that’s part of why I quit.
My primary motivation being the woman who had been raped and turned to drugs. I destroyed my notes on her case, the rape was so violent she could no longer bare children, she definately didn’t need that kind of attention and it was understandable, though tragic, that she turned to drugs, though I’m sure papers in Manchester and Liverpool would have gone for it. Unfortunately I was not considered to be at the level that I could write a story that understood what had happened to her, so the story could not be told. Equally annoying was an asbergers syndrome case that I was not allowed to cover because the investigation would have taken too much time (autism being something close to my heart, for obvious reasons)…
Finally, there was the coroner’s inquest I covered on the death of a six-month-old child. My story stated it was most likely cot-death, with a vague mention that it could have been a result of the parents lying on their child. The editor of the paper made my vague mention the headline, with my ‘by line’. No parent wants to see their name in bold letters on an odd-numbered page of their local newspaper, saying they could have killed their baby. 
That just isn’t me. I may not be the most empathic of people, but I am still human and I do have morals.
That cutting was not put in my portfolio.
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