Writers panel hosts four Baltimore writers
Lia Gormsen
Issue date: 3/20/07 Section: News
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The Writing Department hosted four writers Friday afternoon in McGuire Hall as part of this year's Humanities Symposium. Dutifully following Loyola's Year of the City initiative the topic of the panel's discussion focused on "the challenges, responsibilities, pleasures, dangers, and far-reaching impact of writing about a large, and complex American city like Baltimore."
First up was longtime Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane, who spoke briefly on some of the challenges facing him as a hard-news, investigative journalist. His Sun column tackles issues of crime, education, government, sports, and popular culture, with a "distinctly Baltimore perspective," according to Loyola's director of Composition Peggy O'Neill, who introduced the panelists.
"Journalists are supposed to tell the truth," said Kane, "but it doesn't always work that way." As an example Kane cited the case of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who Kane said "punk'd the press" after being found guilty of plagiarizing and fabricating numerous stories during his three years at the Times.
Kane then segued into some of his own reporting travails, interviewing public officials, who tend not to be the most accessible people. And when Kane has a question for one of Baltimore's government leaders, answers were not always forthcoming. Kane often resorted to pestering, hounding and threatening to elicit the answers he desired. "If you are within driving distance of the Baltimore Sun, I will come. I will find you and I will pound on your door," half joked Kane.
Officials will sometimes use the term 'investigating" as a guise when they don't want to tell the truth or give straight answers on a certain incident. This is evident in the case of David McGuinn, a correctional officer who was allegedly stabbed to death by two inmates at a maximum security prison last summer, said Kane. Details on McGuinn's death and questions of how to punish his killers have not been addressed by officials who have been "investigating" the incident for seven months. Kane has threatened to write about McGuinn's story every month in his weekly column until the officials take accountability.
First up was longtime Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane, who spoke briefly on some of the challenges facing him as a hard-news, investigative journalist. His Sun column tackles issues of crime, education, government, sports, and popular culture, with a "distinctly Baltimore perspective," according to Loyola's director of Composition Peggy O'Neill, who introduced the panelists.
"Journalists are supposed to tell the truth," said Kane, "but it doesn't always work that way." As an example Kane cited the case of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who Kane said "punk'd the press" after being found guilty of plagiarizing and fabricating numerous stories during his three years at the Times.
Kane then segued into some of his own reporting travails, interviewing public officials, who tend not to be the most accessible people. And when Kane has a question for one of Baltimore's government leaders, answers were not always forthcoming. Kane often resorted to pestering, hounding and threatening to elicit the answers he desired. "If you are within driving distance of the Baltimore Sun, I will come. I will find you and I will pound on your door," half joked Kane.
Officials will sometimes use the term 'investigating" as a guise when they don't want to tell the truth or give straight answers on a certain incident. This is evident in the case of David McGuinn, a correctional officer who was allegedly stabbed to death by two inmates at a maximum security prison last summer, said Kane. Details on McGuinn's death and questions of how to punish his killers have not been addressed by officials who have been "investigating" the incident for seven months. Kane has threatened to write about McGuinn's story every month in his weekly column until the officials take accountability.
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