America America by Ethan Canin

Author:Ethan Canin [Canin, Ethan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781588367174
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-12-15T23:00:00+00:00

THE SPEAKER-SENTINEL, like all local dailies, gets a good share of its leads from tips. Some come by letter, some by e-mail—although these days even senior citizens are savvy about their Internet anonymity—and most, just like in the old days, come by phone. It’s a quaint aspect of a small-town newspaper office, that the phone still rings all hours of the day and night. In the morning, I’m the one who logs the messages. Partly because I’m the first one in, and partly because I still hate the thought of missing anything big. Esther Harnett is using Burdick’s dumpster for her trash. That’s the kind of tidbit I’m usually writing down in the tip book with a cup of cooling coffee in my hand. Are you aware how many parking tickets Gene Short hasn’t paid? Now and then we get a few more interesting ones, but they usually don’t pan out. Officer Stanley takes money from business owners—you’ll see if you follow him. (We did: he wasn’t, at least not that we saw.) Blue Crest Hills doesn’t have grip bars in their bathrooms. (That one was true. Our reporter found any number of violations.) Brent Nasser from Roosevelt is going to be an NFL placekicker.

This last one, with a front-page picture of the kid in his silver and green Loggers uniform, produced our bestselling paper of the year.

That’s the fight we face.

We also subscribe to the wire services, just like any other paper; but if the story’s within a certain radius—which for the moment still includes Albany—we cover it ourselves. You won’t find many local dailies that still do that. Most of our board thinks this gives the chains an economic leg up on us—and it very well might; but the alternative is worse. The circulation we hold against Gannett and McClatchy and Murdoch wouldn’t be half of what it is now if our own reporters didn’t get the bylines. People in Saline want to see the names they know.

And our sources would dry up, too. That’s the other part of it.

Because Henry Bonwiller is from the area, we still get two or three calls a year about him, as well. I’ve got to think that most of these callers are pranksters. But nonetheless I’ve also got to think that they’re a fair barometer of the residual anger that to this day the man continues to stir. I suspect the ones who take the time to phone are part of the steady trickle of tourists who still come through Carrol County to see the landmarks of a senator’s downfall. In fact, there are a couple of B&Bs now that do well enough just housing and feeding these pilgrims. Maybe they’re only history buffs.

Of course, I would have thought most of these tourists would be his critics, but to my surprise I’ve found that they aren’t. Far from it, in fact. The first one I ever spoke to was sitting in a pickup on Route 35 about a mile north of where the Metarey driveway used to run.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.