Seeing the humanity in the man-When lights went out during Tookie interview,reporter was illuminated

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 12/16/5 | Leslie Fulbright

[SmithL]

One of the most frightening places I've been in the middle of a power outage is a tiny room inside the walls of San Quentin State Prison.

I was padlocked inside the small room with a man I had never met before, a man who was to be executed within days for the brutal murders of four people.

I was there to interview Stanley Tookie Williams. He shook my hand, introduced himself and we began to talk. An hour later, a heavy storm felled a power line and the lights in the visiting area suddenly went off.

My first reaction was to look at the door with its small rectangular hole, through which Williams an hour earlier had shoved his muscular arms to be cuffed while I walked into the room. After I entered and the door was securely locked, Williams shoved his arms back through the rectangular hole so the cuffs could be removed.

I glanced at that door. I looked for a prison guard who could bust open the door and pull me out should anything go wrong. Williams sensed my apprehension.

"Don't panic," he told me. "I'm here, I can protect you. I've got your back."

He calmed me down.

[Congressman Billybob]

This article is supposed to be about Tookie. He gets mentioned in two sentences. This is a standard aren't-I-great-to-get-this-celebrity-interview article. This self-centered broad is trying to work her way up, or down if you prefer, to the position of Geraldo Rivera.

And, she has a long, long way to go. Did I miss anything.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "My Friend, Gene McCarthy, 1916-2005"

[FreeAtlanta]

Got your back.... Didn't he shoot a couple of people in the back?

[miele man]

This is an amazingly revealing article. This "reporter" is horribly conceited and narcissistic. She uses the word "I" 50 times in this article. She also uses the words "my" and "me" ten times each. She writes in the article that she wants to "write a story about William's life using his voice" yet quotes Williams only twice. Williams, just like the reporter, uses the word "I" five times in those two sentences she quotes. Perhaps, in a way, she did tell his story. Through her repetitive use of the words I, me and my, she capsulizes his life; one of selfishness and narcissism.
But she also capsulizes her life, also one of narcissism, selfishness and arrogance. She castigates other reporters for not having the courage to interview Williams as she would have readers infer, but after saying Williams' "voice was essential", she only quotes him twice. What else did the two of them discuss for more than an hour, yet all we reader's get is a "look at how great I am" piece.

[mugs99]

all we reader's get is a "look at how great I am" piece
I think Tookie got a piece.
.

[upchuck]

Go read the article. Leslie spends more words trying to express her "feelings" than she does writing about Tookie.

SmithL, ya got it right when you wrote, "cup-o-fluff reporterette."

[Fatuncle]

"Anyone know the recidivism rate amongst children's books authors?"

Fairly high, really. I mean, J. K. Rowling has has committed prose at least six times. And my God, look at Lemmony Snickit! Talk about repeat offenders!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I was padlocked inside the small room with a man I had never met before, a man who was to be executed within days for the brutal murders of four people. ***

Which is reason alone for PUBLIC HANGINGS!

[WasDougsLamb]

I've got your back."


---And if he had a shotgun, that is exactly where he would have shot her ............

[rmh47]

"I decided I wanted to be a reporter in 1992,"

But I became a idiot instead!!!!

There's a difference?